Further Word On Lane Filtering In Colorado
Monday, August 26th, 2024
No, you really are not required to filter past a car in front of you only on the left.
I’ve written about how, in my opinion, the information being put out by the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) about the newly legal (in Colorado) practice of lane-filtering is misleading and downright incorrect. So I went straight to the source.
I spoke with Sgt. Patrick Rice, who is the public information officer for CSP. Real nice guy and we had a good talk.
Right off the bat, Patrick acknowledged that the CSP statement that riders must pass the vehicles ahead of them on the left was off the mark. The legislation does not say that and if there is room for the rider to pass on the right it is perfectly legal. He explained that when CSP was considering how to get the information on this new practice out to the general public it was decided that it would be most easily understood if they put it in those terms. You or I may disagree with that decision but that’s what it’s all about.
OK, we got that cleared up.
Next I asked him about the CSP statement that the rider must pass the vehicle ahead while staying entirely within the lane they both share. I said that that is not how filtering takes place in the real world and I asked him to point out to me in the legislation where they said that came from. Patrick pointed me to Section 2 where it reads “NOTWITHSTANDING SUBSECTIONS (2) AND (3)(a) OF THIS SECTION, THE DRIVER OF A TWO-WHEELED MOTORCYCLE MAY OVERTAKE OR PASS ANOTHER MOTOR VEHICLE IN THE SAME LANE AS THE MOTORCYCLE IF:”
This is exactly the section I discussed previously saying that I believed they were misreading this bit of text. To quote myself, “Maybe whoever wrote this piece read it to mean you can pass another vehicle only if you stay in the same lane that it is in, when in fact it should be read that you can pass another vehicle THAT IS in the lane you are in but you don’t have to stay completely in that one lane in doing so. A significant difference of meaning. So the law could have been written a bit more clearly.”
I suggested this reading to Patrick and he agreed that it makes more sense but he said they spoke to the legislators who passed the bill and they agreed with the CSP interpretation. So that leaves them with implementing the law as it is written, not as it might have been better written or as common sense dictates.
That, of course, meant one thing to me: Time to contact the sponsors of the bill and ask them if that was truly their intent and interpretation or whether perhaps the folks at CSP misunderstood. I have reached out to but as yet have not heard back from Javier Mabrey, one of the sponsors.
In the meantime, Patrick tells me that of course patrol officers can and do exercise discretion in their enforcement practices, and he expects that if a rider is otherwise following protocol carefully but crosses over the lane divider while passing someone he does not expect that rider to be confronted. And he said this sort of issue is one of several that have already been raised and he expects that when the bill is being considered for sunsetting in three years–or sooner–it will be amended and these issues will be cleared up.
On a different note, Patrick did educate me on another aspect of the bill. There is a passage where it reads “SHALL NOT OVERTAKE OR PASS: (B) To THE RIGHT OF A VEHICLE IN THE FARTHEST RIGHT-HAND LANE IF THE HIGHWAY IS NOT LIMITED ACCESS.” What I had not understood about this is that it is saying that on city streets it is not permitted to filter on the right, even if you can stay entirely within the lane, because that could lead to a crash if the person you are passing is about to make a right turn on red. OK, that makes sense. Good to know.
Biker Quote for Today
“He loved talking to the mountains. He loved talking to the breeze. He loved to drift. And he loved to ride his motorcycle.” ? Avijeet Das
