Lane splitting is currently legal only in California. Should it be allowed in more states? What about putting limits on it, such as permitting it only when the flow of traffic is less than 30 MPH? The California Highway Patrol has just published guidelines for lane splitting. Among their recommendations:
- Travel at a speed limit that is no more than 10 MPH faster than other traffic.
- It is not advisable to lane split when traffic flow is at 30 MPH or faster.
- Typically, it is safer to split between the #1 lane (left-most lane) and #2 lane (to the right of #1) than between other lanes.
What else should be considered?
×0
The Motorcycle Industry Council has published a position paper on lane-splitting. It can be found here: http://bit.ly/V5t2g7
Whenever I ride in the UK it so pleasant and efficient to be able to lane split with the help and courtesy of all other vehicles. The two big problems in the USA and Canada are control attitudes of government officials and police and, most importantly, changing the attitudes of other drivers. Motorcycles really come into a zone of maximum usefulness when they can lane split. Unfortunately there are many negative attitudes towards motorcycles in our communities which makes such a change tough. Unfortunately the attitude and behavior of some segments of our motorcycling community feeds that negative attitude. So lots of change is needed to make it happen, but I still hope it will one day.
Peter S
I’ve been doing a lot of lane-splitting lately on freeways from 2 to 4 lanes wide and it really seems safer to me to limit the practice to between the #1 and #2 lanes. Motorists can then know better where to expect to see us, which should make it a safer practice.
Lane splitting is not legal in California, its just not specifically illegal like it is in the 49 other states. It is “tolerated”. Like other privileges it is often abused and this has resulted in an effort to make the practice illegal. This is why I believe the CHiP published their guidelines. They have been an advocate of the practice and know it has benefit.