Texas Lane Splitting Is Now Officially Illegal

[advrider]

Some states, like Oregon, are making good progress toward legalizing some form of lane splitting or filtering. However, as of September 1, 2023, Texas lane splitting has been officially outlawed.

House Bill 4122 makes some amendments to the Transportation Code that directly address motorcycles. You can read the entire bill if you want, but we’re talking about the new Section 545.0605 (a)(3), which says the operator of a motorcycle may not:

(B) operate the motorcycle between lanes of traffic moving in the same direction; or
(C) pass a motor vehicle while in the same lane as the vehicle being passed. 

That pretty much covers it. No riding between lanes, and no passing within the same lane, which is basically the definition of lane splitting and filtering. Subsection (b) makes an exception for police officers on duty, but that’s it.

Previously, Texas had no laws addressing lane splitting at all. It was neither legal nor explicitly illegal as it is now. However, like in most of the US, it was generally frowned upon. Cops could probably find a law already on the books to cite you for if they wanted to give you a hard time about it. Unlike California, where lane splitting was also a gray area but made officially legal, Texas went the opposite direction and banned it. While this won’t affect the wide open spaces comprising most of Texas, riders in the cities will have to sit in traffic like everyone else.

Having grown up in the northeast US where it’s illegal, then experienced legal lane splitting in California, I can say that I’m sold on the idea. Even lane filtering, which limits the free-for-all that is California to low-speed maneuvering through traffic under certain conditions, is a good idea that works well and prevents us from getting rear-ended by an inattentive driver in otherwise stopped traffic. Slowly, individual states like Montana and Arizona are legalizing it, or are seriously considering it like Oregon (again). However, in the absence of federal law, states get to make their own rules, and Texas has ruled against our ability to make our own way through traffic.

In fairness, we should note that HB 4122 is not all gloom and doom for motorcyclists. Subsection (1) explicitly gives a motorcycle use of the full lane, and prohibits others from depriving us of that. We’re not allowed to pass others in the same lane, but they’re not allowed to do that to us, either. Subsection (2) codifies that it is legal to ride two abreast in the same lane, the sole exception to the previous sections’s ban on passing within the same lane.

Vezi sursa