Lane Splitting Bills Spreading in 2017

For decades, California’s been on its own program with respect to riding in the U.S., as the only place in the nation where lane splitting is allowed. But riders in the Golden State don’t just get places faster because of splitting lanes, they are actually safer too – and now, lawmakers are finally getting the message. Lane splitting bills are on the books in several states – but could they finally make it into law this year?

Back in early 2015, I wrote this article on how the idea of legalizing lane splitting was finally spreading out of California and into other states, and about how number of bills were being introduced in other states’ legislatures to finally put it into law. Washington, Oregon, Texas and Tennessee all had bills being considered, and it seemed like the idea of allowing riders to use the empty space in between cars to move through traffic faster and relieve congestion – the norm in California, and almost everywhere else in the world – was going to become a reality for riders in those states.

Unfortunately for motorcycle riders, every 2015 bill failed to gain enough support to pass.

But things have changed since then, and lane-splitting legislation for other states is getting a second wind in 2017. Since 2015, California lawmakers voted unanimously to pass AB 51, which, though rather vague, actually legalized lane splitting – a practice that had, for decades, only evolved as a custom in the motorcycle-heavy Golden State as opposed to being allowed by written law.

Little changed for California riders – on the streets, they would continue to split lanes when they chose to, as they have for decades. (If anything, it actually helped riders here, as they now have the protection of law against rogue drivers that occasionally try to block lane splitters for “cutting in line.”)

But the big chance was the influence it had on other states – now, lane-splitting advocates across the country can point to a model for success with the strength of law in the nations most populous state, and opponents of the practice could no longer characterize California riders of “operating in a gray area of the law.”

This screenshot from a helmet-cam shows an LAPD mounted officer splitting lanes on a freeway in Los Angeles. Unlike the rest of the country, law enforcement officers are some of the biggest proponents of lane-spltting in CA (they freqently use it to scan motorists) – so much so that the CHP commissioned the most significant study on the practice ever done, completed by UC Berkeley researchers in 2014.

In addition, more hard data has come out about lane-splitting, showing not only that it relieves congestion, but that it does not do so at the expense of safety. In fact, a major 2014 study commissioned by the California Highway Patrol and carried out by UC Berkeley researchers showed that California riders who split lanes were shown to be more safe than those who did not – lane-splitters were almost half as likely to be rear-ended by a car, and much less likely to suffer serious injury or be killed in a collision. That study was instrumental in getting California lawmakers to approve AB 51, and has been widely cited by lane-splitting advocates across the country since.

As a result, lane-spliting legislation has gotten a second wind in other states – and incidentally, they are all western states near California. At this time, Washington, Oregon, and Montana all having bills actively being considered by state legislatures that would legalize lane-splitting in some form. See a rundown of them below:

Currently, the bill that is furthest along, and may have the highest chance of success, is Washington’s SB 5378. Lane-splitting bills have been pushed through the state legislature there before, and have failed, but the idea has more widespread popular support and support from legislators there than in other states. It was passed on February 28 by the state Senate, and moved over to the House on March 2.

But here’s the bad news about SB 5378 – it’s actually an unusually weak bill. It applies only to divided state highways, not to surface streets, so filtering forward at crowded intersections would still not be permitted. It also has an expiration date – the bill would expire on July 31, 2019, rendering the legalization of lane-splitting in Washington tantamount to a pilot project. Nevertheless, the idea is certainly gaining momentum, and many riders in Washington are anxiously awaiting a hearing on the House floor (currently, the bill is in the Transportation Committee of the House, awaiting a spot on the Floor Calendar) and are putting pressure on their state legislators to approve the bill.

Interestingly, the implication of SB 5378 is that it makes Washington currently ground zero in the battle to get lane-splitting to spread across the nation, and not California. California, despite its massive population and official legalization of lane-splitting last year, has been allowing the practice for so long that it becomes easy to be written off as “an exception,” by lawmakers from other states – not to mention, it is so accepted here that there no shift in standard practices and norms occurred on the ground when it was legalized. It was simply business as usual for millions of drivers – most never even realized the law was ever passed.

If Washington approves it, however, millions of drivers will have to be informed about the law, and ultimately change their driving habits in order to make it work for everyone. Implementation over the long term, ultimately, is what will determine if it becomes permanent in Washington, and if it moves toward other states. We are talking not just about a legal change on Washington’s roads, but a cultural one – and as tough as the bill will be to pass, in the battle to get lane-spliting to become “a thing,” it is only the beginning.

Would you support lane-splitting legislation in your state? If so, how do you think it would work best there?