Update: Lane filtering made legal in Utah

This is big news, as Utah’s bill marks the first major advance for motorcycles in the United States outside of California.

Motorcycles are legally allowed to lane filter in Utah “if a motorcycle is overtaking a vehicle that is stopped in the same lane of travel and there are two or more adjacent traffic lanes in the same direction of travel." In addition, motorcyclists who choose to lane filter can only do so on roads with posted speed limits of 45 mph or less, and surrounding traffic must be stopped when filtering. Previous versions of the bill capped the speed limits at 50 mph, but 45 mph is what it took to get HB149 passed. Basically, you can filter through traffic if there are multiple lanes, it's gridlocked, and the speed limit is 45 mph.

Lots of “ifs,” huh? While HB149’s expansions are limited, it did get passed, which is more than other proposals have managed. The bill should mostly benefit riders in cities, where slow speed limits, more than one lane, and bumper-to-bumper traffic frequently coexist.

The biggest benefit from the Utah law may be the precedent it sets for other states to follow. Opening the roads to lane splitting California-style hasn’t caught on in other states, despite many attempts to adopt it elsewhere. Lane filtering offers some of the same benefits in a format that legislators might have an easier time getting behind. Back when I wrote our 2019 lane splitting update, I noted that 1,288 rear-end impacts to motorcycles were recorded in Utah from 2011 to 2017. If those numbers start dropping in Utah, other states could consider adopting similar legislation.

So what’s going on with the other states from that article? 

Maryland’s HB917 received a nearly unanimous “unfavorable” rating from the Environment and Transportation Committee. That’s probably as far as the bill will get. Connecticut’s Bill 629 hasn’t made much progress, either. Oregon’s HB2314 is under review by the Joint Committee on Transportation, and if you’d like to support the bill, head over to Lane Share Oregon. If anything happens with these bills, you’ll hear about it on Common Tread.

Utah’s law should go into effect by mid-May. Ride safe this season, Utah, whether you choose to filter or not.