Editor’s note: This story has been corrected. An earlier edition stated that motorcycle lane screening is only legal on roads with two or more lanes traveling in one direction, according to Utah’s lane screening law. In Colorado, however, lane filtering is legal in a single lane, as long as the motorcyclist does not cross the median line.
A new law went into effect Wednesday that adjusts regulations for motorcyclists on some Colorado roads. As of August 7, so-called “lane filtering” for motorcycles is legal in our state.
But what does this mean exactly?
Here’s what you want to know about the new law, SB24-079, and what exactly motorcyclists need to do.
The simplest way to know what lane filtering is might be to first identify what it is not. Lane filtering is not the same as what is known as “lane sharing,” a practice in which a bicyclist travels between lanes of moving traffic, which is legal. in places like California.
Lane sharing has been and remains illegal in Colorado, and equating one with is a “common misconception,” according to Sam Cole, CDOT’s chief of safety communications.
Colorado State Senator Nick Hinrichsen, one of the lead sponsors of SB24-079, describes lane cleaning as “a more conservative option” than lane sharing, which applies to “controlled traffic situations. “It is legal to clean lanes in Colorado if all of the following apply:
Lane filtering, and even lane sharing, is not an unusual practice around the world, Hinrichsen said. Utah, for example, has a lane filtering law much like Colorado’s. Colorado’s law is modeled after existing laws in other parts of the country and around the world. .
For example, many European laws prohibit a motorcyclist from traveling 30 kilometers per hour (18. 6 mph). One of Colorado’s first bills consistently limited a speed to 20 mph before being revised to 15 mph.
While supporters of the law hope it will lead to fringe innovations in areas such as congestion and vehicle emissions, they say its main target is motorcyclists, some of the most vulnerable drivers on our roads.
A record 149 motorcyclists were killed in Colorado in 2022. This accounts for about 20% of the state’s roadway fatalities that year, while motorcyclists account for 3% of the cars on our roadways.
The Lane Filtering Law aims to create a detrimental scenario for motorcyclists.
“One of the riskiest times for a motorcyclist is a traffic jam, when traffic is blocked for all road users,” Hinrichsen said. “That’s when you’re most likely to worry about a rear-end collision. “
Colorado’s written lane splitting law was based on studies of lane splitting in Australia, Europe and California. Some key takeaways from the official text of the bill:
We asked public protection officials in Utah and Arizona about the effect of their laws. In Utah, lane filtering became legal in 2019. However, officials tell us the law is too new to really understand its effect.
“We’re still in the data collection phase, looking to determine exactly what effect this has had on safety,” said Jason Mettman of the Utah Office of Highway Safety.
This is in part because the manner of the crash used by Utah police officials does not yet imply whether lane filtering played a role in the crash, Mettmann said. This checkbox will be added in 2025.
Off the record, Mettmann told Denver7 that crashes on roads where lane leaking had likely occurred had remained stable.
“As far as we know, we can’t show that there’s a lot of security, but we also can’t show any negativity that results from it,” he said.
In Arizona, lane filtering became legal in the fall of 2022. Their transportation branch had no main points to share and recommended that we contact local law enforcement branches.
Sergeant. Justin Ramsay, chief of the Glendale Police Department’s motorcycle division, spoke anecdotally with Denver7 and said he and his branch are aware of any issues resulting from lane filtering.
In short, a lot, if the filtering of the lines is done correctly. Here’s what our experts had to say:
“There’s nothing a motorist has to do specifically other than know the law and know that drivers can simply isolate themselves from each other and some other vehicle,” Cole said.
“It’s the duty of the motorcycle driver to make sure that [lane control is] safe, that situations are as they are, that he [or she] is following the law and [doing so] safely,” Ramsay said.
The Colorado legislature says the law will be “repealed” on September 1, 2027. In fact, this means that lawmakers see the law as a three-year check and will have the opportunity, in 2027, to introduce a new bill that expands and/or revises the law – or, of course, bans lane filtering altogether.
The official text of the law signed by Governor Polis calls for a CDOT report in January 2027 with insights into rear-end and motorcycle crashes before and after legalizing lane filtering.
“We’re going to see if the law is being abused [. . . ] We’re going to see what those unintentional consequences are,” Cole said. “Are we having fewer accidents? Or do we have more because of the law? The law has shown promising effects and other states expect it to have promising effects in reducing motorcyclist injuries and fatalities.
In Utah, the lane control law was extended five years beyond its 2022 expiration date to allow more knowledge to be gathered.
As the states themselves are in a multi-year learning phase and CDOT works to disseminate Colorado’s new law, one thing is abundantly clear: Lane filtering is an adjustment.
“It just takes time for other people to enjoy it and see it implemented, and then see the protection aspect,” said Lt. Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol.
Hinrichsen said this is a similar adjustment to those we’ve noticed before. He said he hoped lane filtering would be what roundabouts have had since they began to be widely used in the 1990s.
“I still don’t forget that many other people at the time were not sure. And that caused some consternation and heartburn because it wasn’t something we’re used to,” Hinrichsen said. “And now what we’ve noticed is that they’re working. Roundabouts are safer than four-lane intersections [. . . ] I think most Coloradans have adapted to it. And given the choice between four-lane prevention signs or a roundabout, the roundabout is universally preferred. .
“And I hope that since [lane filtering] works elsewhere, [it’s] something that’s part of the evolution of how we look at traffic, in 10 or maybe 20 years. Matrix: It is anything that we remember and don’t even think twice about.
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