Passes & Canyons Blog

Bikes coming down Pikes Peak.

I’ve gotten a couple legislative updates recently from Stump, ABATE of Colorado’s legislative liaison. He says it is possible that there may be movement this year on lane-splitting and also on the long-delayed distracted driving bill.

Forbidding the use of cell phones, except in hands-off mode, is an idea that has gained in support over the years, and it looked like the time was at hand just before Covid hit and the work of the Colorado Legislature got pared back to the bare essentials. Two years ago the Senate Transportation and Energy committee moved the bill ahead unanimously but then things went haywire.

According to Stump, General Motors has now decided to put its weight behind such measures:

Lastly, I received the following from Susan Dane, the person spearheading the distracted driving bill the past few years:

It appears General Motors is interested in supporting distracted driving legislation in Colorado. I’ve learned that they have provided support in other states related to this type of legislation. I’m working to set up an initial conversation with their people to see what this may look like. Don’t know where this may go, but it’s hopeful to hear that a major player like GM could get involved. I’ll let you know how things go.

She couldn’t get a sponsor for a bill last year but it looks like something might happen this year.

So we’ll see what comes of this.

As for lane-splitting, here is Stump’s bullet-point list of the status:

Hooked up with professional lobbyist – Sundari Kraft with Ascent Strategies LLC. Signed contract (required by law) for help PRO BONO!
Advantages: good connections with Legislators; more knowledgeable about bill process; great advocate but still considers ABATE to be subject matter expert.
Might “piggyback” on highway safety bills being submitted by Reps. Garnett or Larson.
Met with her to give basic “parameters” about a possible bill and ABATE’s concerns. Gave my personal guidelines (Similar to Oregon’s proposal, which I think has a chance of passing):
Permitted on multi-laned highways with speed limit of 55 or higher
Traffic stopped or moving in the same direction at 10 mph or less
Travel up to 10 mph faster than traffic
NOTE: I don’t think lane filtering would have a chance of passing and these parameters might work, which would allow motorcyclists to lane-split on the interstates when it’s 100 degrees out and traffic is backed up. But remember, it’s not mandatory.

As for creating a separate definition and category for autocycles, Stump noted that the bill is scheduled for committee hearing on February 1.

The big news is that bills are being scheduled in committees and HB22-1043 (Motorcycle and Autocycle Definitions) is scheduled for Tuesday, 2/1 at 1:30 pm, in LSB-A. That’s the building across 14th street from the Capitol (SE corner of 14th & Sherman). If you haven’t emailed the 12 members of the H-T&LG Committee yet, please do so in the next week. Here’s the list of members for your convenience:

Tony Exum Sr. (Chair) — tony.exum.house@state.co.us
Matt Gray (Vice-chair) — matt@matthewgray.us
Andrew Boesenecker — andrew.boesenecker.house@state.co.us
Marc Catlin — marc.catlin.house@state.co.us
Meg Froelich — meg.froelich.house@state.co.us
Edie Hooton — edie.hooton.house@state.co.us
Andres Pico — andres.pico.house@state.co.us
Janice Rich — janice.rich.house@state.co.us
Tom Sullivan — tom.sullivan.house@state.co.us
Donald Valdez — donald.valdez.house@state.co.us
Tonya Van Berber — Tonya.Van.Beber.house@state.co.us
Kevin Van Winkle — kevin.vanwinkle.house@state.co.us

It’s really important that you contact them, so they know this is important to Colorado motorcyclists and we’re really concerned that autocycles have their own category for the purpose of maintaining accurate accident and fatality data. Thanking you in advance.

That’s it for now. Updates to come.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you drink cappuccino instead of beer.

Heading up to Brian Head, in Utah.

I hadn’t even heard it was being considered and now I get a note that Oregon has in fact approved lanesplitting, although the governor has not yet signed the bill. Yahoo. Little by little acceptance of this entirely sensible practice continues to spread across the country.

UPDATE–Much to the surprise of many, the governor vetoed this bill. Here’s the story: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/05/26/gov-kate-brown-vetoes-bill-allowing-lane-splitting-by-oregon-motorcyclists/

Of course, each state handles it differently so that will make for some real confusion at some point. California is the most permissive. Here’s a breakdown of what Oregon will be enacting, courtesy of a post on Adventure Rider.

SB574 would legalize lane sharing under limited conditions:
Highways only:
lane-sharing allowed only on roads with a posted speed limit of 50MPH or higher
Traffic on the road:
must be stopped, or moving at 10 miles per hour or less
The rider:
may travel no more than 10 miles per hour faster than traffic
must not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic
must safely merge with traffic, if traffic speed exceeds 10 miles per hour
must pass traffic traveling in the same direction
Riders cannot lane share:
between a traffic lane and the curb and bicycle lane (on either side)
between a traffic lane and a row of parked vehicles (on either side)
on the right side of the rightmost lane of traffic, or the left side of the leftmost lane of traffic
in a school zone
Riders should also use common sense when lane sharing, and err on the side of caution: “If you can’t fit, don’t split”.

That looks fairly reasonable to me. Three cheers for Oregon.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if you spend more time shining your bike than riding it.

Waiting for traffic to flow again coming down Vail Pass.

I find it interesting that we motorcyclists are sorely divided on one particular topic: lane-splitting. Most riders in California, the only state where it is legal, swear by it. Many in other states wish they had it but many also consider it insanity. My inclination is with those who are most familiar with it, the Californians, plus the fact that I have seen it in wide-scale operation in Europe. If it seems crazy to you, you don’t have to do it. For those who wish to do it, I believe we should have that option.

But how does all this shake out in regard to lane-filtering? Just to clarify, lane-splitting usually means passing down the middle while traffic is moving, even moving quickly. Lane-filtering generally means slowly slipping past cars that are either stopped or moving very slowly. Utah Okayed filtering a while ago and now Montana has done so as well.

Do riders who oppose lane-splitting feel differently about lane-filtering? I don’t know, and if anyone wants to offer their thoughts or knowledge, please do. But let’s look at it. As a comparison, think about right turn on red. Time was when that was unheard of. Now is there any state that does not allow it? But some people thought it was a crazy idea.

I was riding with a group out in California a number of years ago and while we never did any splitting, we did come to a point one day where it was obviously a filtering opportunity. We were in a city, in traffic, and we came up on a red light. The only car in front of us had stopped a little way back from the intersection, seemingly expecting motorcycles to pull past and in front of them. The three of us in the lead looked at each other, used some hand signals, and nodded in agreement. Then we pulled around in front. Easy as pie, and totally safe. We sped off quickly when the light changed, causing the driver no inconvenience or delay.

Why would that not be OK? Another time, I was headed out on I-70 and coming down Vail Pass traffic was stopped. I was not with anyone but there were a couple other riders right there, too. It was going to be a lengthy stop so we got off and were talking. Someone suggested we ought to pull out onto the shoulder and go past all these cars and see if there was some way we could escape this snarl. We noted that it was not legal but three of us decided to do it.

We pulled out, going past another rider who yelled to us that we were risking a $300 ticket. We went anyway.

Along the way we passed a number of other bikes and some of them joined us. When we finally got to where we clearly could not go any further (the highway was closed due to a vehicle on fire) we stopped. By this time there were about a dozen of us. So we waited until traffic finally was able to move again, slipped in ahead of about two miles of traffic from where we had been, and blasted off. Again, the inconvenience, if any, to the folks in cars was totally minimal. Why should we not have done that?

So I haven’t been to Utah since they legalized filtering, and I certainly haven’t been to Montana since they did, but it will be interesting the next time I am. Realistically speaking, I don’t expect there will be much need or opportunity for filtering but it will be nice to have that as an option if we end up in that sort of situation.

Hooray for common sense.

Biker Quote for Today

Accept no one’s definition of LIFE. Define and design it yourself!

Lane splitting, in the U.S., is generally not legal and many riders outside of California–where it is legal–consider it insanity. In other countries, however, it is common and accepted and practiced in ways that will never be tolerated even in California.

So just for your amusement–or horror–here is a video Jerry Pokorny sent along that was shot from a helmet cam that will have you on the edge of your seat. This thing is intense. (No gore, just OMG!)

Biker Quote for Today

At the end of the day, it’s still a show about guys who ride extremely fast motorcycles for a living. — Doug Liman

Helmet protection is seriously reduced when you don’t connect the strap–but you knew that.

I never go for a ride without encountering something that sticks in my memory, at least for a while. Some are more memorable than others.

I was headed to my ABATE District 10 meeting on Sunday and the first thing that hit me was that, oh my gosh, I forgot to attach the strap on my helmet. I had just gotten onto I-225 so it wasn’t like I could just do the strap at a stop light or something. Helmets don’t really work very well if they’re not attached so I figured I’d better take things pretty cautiously. And in the meantime I was strategizing about grabbing for my head in case something bad happened.

Of course nothing did, nothing ever does (knock wood), but you bet it had my attention.

Then as I proceeded up I-225 I was in the center lane and two guys on bikes came up on my left. One was on a sportbike of some kind and the other was on a Harley Sportster. Just ahead of us there were cars in both lanes. We were going 70. What did these guys do? They just blasted right up between the two cars and shot on out of sight. OK, I’ve done some lane-splitting, even on rare occasions in Colorado, but never when traffic was going 70. I don’t think I want to go for a ride with those guys.

Then in the stretch between 6th Avenue and Colfax, where I get off when going to ABATE, I encountered–as I always do–what I consider a true hazard on the road. For most of that stretch there is a gap in the pavement about two inches wide separating the lane of continuing traffic with the lane of exiting traffic. Two inches is a big gap!

I always very deliberately cross it at as sharp an angle as I can and it’s never an issue because I do this. But what would happen to a bike if the rider wasn’t paying attention–or maybe it’s dark at night–and you let your front tire drop into this groove? It would have to be scary at the very least and could very easily be a lot worse than scary.

I really don’t understand how CDOT can allow this sort of thing. The fact that it is unsafe goes without saying. But they do, and this is not the only place I’ve seen this sort of thing. A two-inch gap in the pavement when traffic is going across it at a right angle is one thing. Running parallel with traffic is something else entirely. Just be forewarned if you’re riding this stretch of road.

Biker Quote for Today

“Sometimes this place is like watching a truck left turn in front of someone you’re riding with.” — JonnyLotto

Motorcycles filtering to the front in Madrid.

We got home a few days ago from three weeks in Spain and of course I paid a lot of attention to the motorcycling scene over there and have some thoughts to pass along.

The first thing that struck me was how, unlike Paris or Rome, Madrid was actually not engulfed in small motorcycles and scooters. Yes, there were far more of them than you’ll see in any U.S. city, but not as many as in those other capitals. I think part of that may be that in Madrid–and in all of the Spanish cities we visited–the streets are generally wider, making things less congested and therefore the benefit of two-wheeling it is lessened. Just my speculation.

I was also interested to see that the Spanish seem to do a lot less lane-splitting. That seemed to be due to there not being enough room to get through up the middle when traffic stopped at red lights. Instead, the riders would filter to the front as much as they could by riding in the gutter–or even up on the sidewalk–or riding down the center stripe or even over into the oncoming lane. Then, as everywhere, when the light changed they would blast ahead.

Small bikes and scooters, and even a surprising number of larger bikes, were very common throughout the older, medieval areas of the cities where the streets are extremely narrow. We had rain off and on and I had to wonder how their tires gripped on the cobblestones and marble that were so common. I have a pair of Rockport shoes I took along and they slipped like crazy on wet marble, so much so that I quit wearing them if it was wet out or rain threatened. Presumably the tires had better grip.

I noticed how many of the scooter riders cruise along with one foot down. It makes sense. In the stop and go of working your way through dense city traffic you would forever be lifting your feet and putting them back down again. Many just don’t bother.

The city with the most bikes and scooters turned out to be Barcelona, the last stop on our trip. At last I was seeing the hordes of bikes I had expected to see in Madrid. Mostly scooters. Here it was amazing how sometimes almost entire blocks were given over to motorcycle/scooter parking only, and every slot was in use. Rather than stop in traffic and roll backward into a parking slot, the common approach was to pull up on the sidewalk and drive straight into the slot off the curb. Barcelona also has a large number of broad streets so actual lane-splitting, coming up the middle between lanes of cars, was much more common.

It was particularly interesting on Sunday, April 24, when we were driving from Sevilla to Arcos de la Frontera and the roads were full of motorcycles. Motorcycles by the hundreds, if not thousands. What, does every Spaniard go riding in the country on the weekend? I couldn’t believe how many bikes there were.

Well, we figured it out. We got to Arcos and were having beers and tapas in the bar at our hotel and they had the TV on. They were reporting on the Spanish Gran Prix, which had been held that day in nearby Jerez de la Frontera. All those bikes we saw were people riding home after the race. Valentino Rossi won, by the way, so he’s apparently not totally washed up yet, though he’s no longer the top dog he once was.

Most of the Spanish countryside we saw was not very interesting, and didn’t look like particularly compelling riding country. The one place that was not true was in the de la Frontera area. This area of what they call the Spanish white hill towns is, as the name suggests, a very hilly area. Narrow, twisty roads going up high with fabulous views. It’s probably like that up north in the Pyrenees, too, so if you ever go to Spain to ride just head straight for the good parts.

Biker Quote for Today

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.

ABATE State Coordinator Bruce Downs speaks to the committee in support of the bill.

Lane-splitting in Colorado met with defeat on Wednesday, though in a way that possibly bodes well for future attempts.

Dying on a 5-8 vote in the Transportation and Energy Committee, House Bill 16-1205, which would have legalized lane-splitting, was noted to be a non-partisan bill but the vote was on party lines just the same. One Republican joined the Democrats in defeating it. But sponsor Gordon Klingenschmitt was please afterward that it had received as many votes as it did. We just have to keep working at it.

Reservations expressed by several of the representatives focused largely on a lack of comprehensive data to back up the existing data that seem to show that lane-splitting is safer than sitting in traffic because it reduces the likelihood of motorcyclists getting rear-ended.

Max Tyler, the committee chairman, argued that California experience with lane-splitting does not equate to Colorado because California has a mandatory helmet law. Another representative, Daneya Esgar, noted that she is “constantly worried” when her mother and the mother’s husband ride, not for what they might do but for what other drivers might do. Faith Winter expressed her concern that lane-splitting would be permitted on roads other than major highways. None of the opponents expressed any willingness to be the first state to officially legalize lane-splitting. Although it is not illegal in California, neither is it officially permitted and a bill to do that has been stalled for a long time.

Dave Hall, of the Colorado State Patrol (CSP), expressed that agency’s opposition to the bill. He, too, suggested CSP would be amenable to the possibility if further evidence could be developed that authoritatively supported the safety claim.

Rep. Klingenschmitt summed up his argument saying this is one of those rare times when liberty and safety are not in conflict. Allowing riders this freedom would also help make them safer, he said. However, this time at least, his argument was not enough.

Just a gratuitous photo of a cool old bike.

Hearings will be held this week on legislation concerning motorcycle lane-splitting and the need for transponders when motorcycles use HOV lanes.

The hearing on House Bill 16-1205, to allow lane-splitting, will be at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17, in room 0112 at the Capitol. Senate Bill 16-123, on HOV lanes, will be taken up on Thursday in Senate conference room 352 following the Senate’s adjournment, at around 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

HB 16-1205, sponsored by Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt (R), from the Colorado Springs area, reads as follows:

Concerning An Exception To The Prohibitions Against Driving A Motorcycle Around Motor Vehicles Blocking The Lanes Of Traffic Moving In The Same Direction.

Currently, the driver of a motorcycle is prohibited from driving between rows of motor vehicles or overtaking on the right. The bill allows motorcycles to drive between rows of motor vehicles or overtake on the right when traffic is moving at less than 5 miles per hour if:

• The motor vehicles that the motorcycle is driving around are traveling in the same direction as the motorcycle and at no more than 5 miles per hour;
• The motorcycle is driven no faster than 15 miles per hour; and
• The motorcycle does not exceed by more than 10 miles per hour the speed of traffic the motorcycle is passing.

Overtaking on the right is not allowed when a vehicle is using the shoulder.

The Colorado department of transportation may notify the public of these changes.

FYI, this bill does not meet the criteria desired by ABATE of Colorado and because there was no time for the ABATE board to discuss it the group will not be taking a stand for or against it.

The Senate bill is quite brief:

Concerning Free Access For High Occupancy Vehicles To High Occupancy Vehicle And High Occupancy Toll Lanes On State Highways, And, In Connection Therewith, Prohibiting The Department Of Transportation And The High-Performance Transportation Enterprise From Requiring A Vehicle Owner To Use A Switchable Transponder Or Other Device In Order To Travel In A High Occupancy Vehicle On Such A Lane Without Paying A Toll.

The bill prohibits the department of transportation or the high-performance transportation enterprise from requiring a vehicle owner to use a switchable transponder or other device in order to travel in a high occupancy vehicle on either a high occupancy vehicle lane or a high occupancy toll lane on a toll-free basis.

Can’t get much clearer than that. If you’re on a motorcycle and use an HOV lane you don’t need a transponder to freely do what you are legally allowed to do. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Kevin Lundberg, from the Fort Collins area. ABATE will be supporting this one.

I’m planning to be there so I’ll report back on what happens. If you want your voice heard, come down and testify.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you like to ride by stores with big picture windows so you can admire your reflection.