Re: [emrat:6950] Legal lanesplitting in CA?

Dan,

That is true.  Colorado law allows two motorcycles to share a lane, but expressly forbids a motorcycle and a car from sharing a lane and also expressly forbids lane splitting.  California has always had the statutory basis for it, while we in CO have definitely not.  But maybe this becoming officially law, will open up discussions elsewhere?

  

On May 29, 2015, at 9:21 AM, Dan Pilcher <dpilcher@cochamber.com> wrote:

Back in 2007, when a group of us rode to CA for MotoGP races at Laguna Seca, I had the chance to ask a CA State Patrolman at the race track about lane-splitting.  He said CA law allows more than one vehicle in a traffic lane.  So, there is an explicit statutory basis for lane-splitting.  This also would allow for two motorcyclists to ride side-by-side in one lane.

 

The trooper said that it is up to a law enforcement officer, however, to determine what constitutes dangerous or reckless riding/driving by the two vehicles in the same lane.

 

In the short amount of lane-splitting that we did (usually following some CA riders to see how they did it), I observed that most CA drivers kept to the far left of their lane or the far right of their lane when we came up between the two lines of vehicles.  But the ones who did not were usually out-of-state vehicles, so we had to watch out for them.

 

That said, having a clear statute about lane-splitting would certainly be helpful for riders and motorists because confusion has always surrounded this issue.

 

The LA Times is blocking me from reading this article.  Brian, can you copy the text and paste it into an email and re-send it?

 

Thanks,

Dan