California set to legalize motorcycle lane-splitting

LOS ANGELES – Motorcycle lane-splitting – the rush-hour time saver for bikers that enrages many drivers – may be poised for legalization.

California would be the first state to sanction the traffic-evading tactic, already widespread on traffic-choked freeways of Los Angeles. The state Assembly approved the legislation Thursday, and supporters believe it will clear the Senate as well.

The measure would allow motorcycles to travel between cars at speeds up to 15 mph faster than the flow of traffic, up to a speed of 50 mph.

The bill’s legislative backers cite studies showing the practice is safer than trapping bikers behind cars, which leaves them vulnerable to more serious rear-end collisions. But their proposal has riled both detractors and supporters.

“Lane-splitting is inherently dangerous,” said Thomas Freeman, who said his opposition movement, hosted online at stoplanesplitting.com, has more than 1,000 members.

While some motorcyclists applauded the action, the American Motorcyclist Association called for even less restrictive rules.

“We don’t like this bill,” said Nicolas Haris, the association’s western states representative. “It goes a long way in the right direction, but it falls short.”

Lane-splitting – a common practice in European nations but illegal in all U.S. states – has been a fuzzy topic in California. The state has never expressly forbidden or allowed it.

Technically neither legal nor illegal, the practice has had the tacit approval of the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Legislative bodies in Washington, Oregon, Texas, Nevada and Tennessee have already considered, proposed or voted on lane-splitting laws. To date, none of the proposed legislation has passed.

The speed limits were determined with the help of the CHP and a safety study by University of California, Berkeley, professor Tom Rice.

That study, scheduled for public release soon, investigated 6,000 California motorcycle accidents – 1,000 of them involving lane-splitting – and concluded that legalizing the practice was safer than outlawing it, one of the measure’s co-authors said.