It’s 2011 and motorcyclists in Arizona are not legally permitted to lane-split. That’s only news because the legislature was in favor of allowing a test. The governor, however, had other ideas, and vetoed the legislation.

In Oregon it looks like it might be tried. The Governor’s Advisory Board on Motorcycle Safety held a public meeting on Nov. 19, 2010, and the hall was packed with motorcyclists speaking in favor. It’s up to the legislature now.

Lane-splitting, for anyone who doesn’t know, is when motorcycles ride up the middle between cars in two lanes. This usually only occurs in extremely slow-moving or completely stopped traffic. Except in France, of course. When my wife and I were in Paris some years ago we were amazed to see motorcyclists zipping not just up the middle but down the shoulder, along the dividers separating oncoming traffic, and all of this with traffic moving at full speed.

It was in the heart of Paris, though, where you could really see the sense of the idea. Every time a light turned red and traffic stopped, small motorcycles and scooters filtered through to the front and as soon as the light went green they were off! With quicker acceleration than cars, the two-wheelers were gone by the time the cars started to move and the cars just moseyed on their way. Riders in California, the only U.S. state where splitting is allowed, will tell you they cut half their commute time in that way. Each one of them also represents a car that is not on the highway creating even more congestion and smog.

I did have the opportunity to split when I was in California in October on the EagleRider media tour. On our last day we had come around the San Francisco Bay on the east in order to enter the city across the Golden Gate Bridge. We were making our way through Sausalito on city streets and cars were inevitably mixing in between our bikes. At a stoplight, I was the first of several riders behind a car, with more of our group in front of the car. The driver had left space ahead of her.

I turned to the guy to my left and motioned for him that we go around the car. He nodded and we did. Presto! A few more of our group were able to come around as well, the light turned green, and our partially reunited group took off.

Who knows when lane-splitting will come to any other states. California has been alone in this for a long time now. But maybe, if they give it a try in Oregon and it works out well, the dam may start to crumble.

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Biker Quote for Today

It’s not a real sport unless you can die from massive internal injuries.

Of course you assume that people do some things differently in other countries but it can surprise you when you see just what it is they do differently, and how it’s different. We experienced that a number of times in our recent two-week trip to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The one theme that seemed to run along with each of these realizations was the thought that “Gosh that makes a lot of sense. Too bad they would never allow that in the U.S.”

Take lane-splitting, for instance. Lane-splitting is where scooters and motorcycles slip past slow-moving or stopped cars, running down the dividers between the lanes of traffic. While it has been officially endorsed and declared legal in California, most other states forbid it or are silent on the subject.

But have you ever seen it in action? Our best chance to observe it was in Paris, where two-wheelers, primarily scooters, abound by the thousands. First the light would turn red and vehicles would begin to stop. Then a scooter would come up and pull right down the middle to the front. The longer the red the more scooters would line up between lanes, and at the turn of the green they would sprint forward leaving the cars behind and racing in a pack on down the street.

Of course there are several reasons why lane-splitting might not work as well in this country as it does in Europe. For one thing, it puts more of a burden on the drivers of all vehicles to pay attention and look out for other vehicles. It would also require a recognition by the drivers of the big behemoths that smaller vehicles have their right to a place on the road as well. Pretty unthinkable, both of those.

But it’s working in California and if it can work in that car-crazed state you would think it could work anywhere. All it would take is some open-mindedness in our legislatures. I mean, think of the benefits: Commuters on two wheels burn less gas, cause less pollution, cause less congestion, and get to work faster. The more these benefits grow, the more people will want to enjoy them, so the more will ride rather than drive. It becomes a virtuous circle, the opposite of a vicious circle.

With gas at $4 now and likely to keep going higher the time to try to change some laws is now. Write your legislator. Let’s get a movement started across the country!

Biker Quote for Today

There are two types of people in this world, people who ride motorcycles and people who wish they could ride motorcycles.