Matt, sorry to tell ya, but you're just gonna have to learn to live with that mentality back East, 'cause they will NEVER "get it" back there....EVER!!! Just read Ian's opinion about this, and you'll see what I'm talkin' about here.
It's the same here in Arizona, dude. Yep, it took this ex-Californian here time to adjust to the "backward" and uninformed(due to their lack of experience in this regard) Arizona mindset that "lane-splitting is dangerous".
Though in Ian's defense, I think most of his rationale is primarily based on the idea that all the "Good Ol' Boys" and all the "Gombas" back there somehow think "y'all is cheatin' by bein' able to split 'tween our cars with y'alls motorsickles! And so if'n I catches ya doin' it, I'ma gonna open up my car door on y'all's ass! Or, at the very LEAST, I'ma gonna try 'n run y'all's ass off this here road!"
Yep, it's kind a "manly/insult thing" to them back there, I guess!
SOOOOOOO, as I was sayin' here, just get used to it Bro, 'cause they'll NEVER "get it"...EVER!!! Yep, my advice is to just do what that old sayin' says one should do..."When in Rome, do as the Romans do!"
(...of course in Rome, they lane-split ALL the time THERE...but then again, them "eye-talians" over there actually KNOW HOW TO DRIVE..as compared to the average 'Merican!!!!)
