Utah passes motorcycle lane-splitting legislation

[98valk]

http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Home/AMA-News-And-Press-Releases/utah-passes-motorcycle-lane-splitting-legislation

 Utah became the second U.S. state to formally recognize a type of lane splitting, with the governor's signature on a bill legalizing the filtering of motorcycles between lanes of stopped traffic.

H.B. 149 allows motorcyclists traveling no faster than 15 mph to filter between lanes of stopped traffic traveling in the same direction on roads where the speed limit is 45 mph or less.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Walt Brooks (R-St. George) and state Sen. David P. Hinkins (R-Orangeville), was signed by Gov. Gary Herbert on March 21. The bill takes effect May 14.

There are provisions in the bill automatically repealing the law on July 1, 2022, if the legislature takes no action to extend it.

The AMA endorses lane splitting, given the long-term success in California and the University of California study by Berkeley researchers showing that it enhances motorcycle safety.

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[Flrider]

Nice 

[Jess from VA]

Utah has horrible traffic?   Who knew?

[The emperor has no clothes]

Utah has horrible traffic?   Who knew?

Salt Lake sucks ! The rest of it isn't bad.

[0leman]

So reading above, one can only lane split on roads with speed limit of 45 mph or less.  Sounds like it will only be on city streets, not highways.  Guess it would mainly be during rush hour on those streets.   

It also has will be canceled in 2022.   

[scooperhsd]

Canceled unless renewed. Basically an experiment.

[98valk]

So reading above, one can only lane split on roads with speed limit of 45 mph or less.  Sounds like it will only be on city streets, not highways.  Guess it would mainly be during rush hour on those streets.  

It also has will be canceled in 2022.  

its a great start so other states start allowing it.
funny california in 2016 actually made it legal and put lane splitting on the books.
the new ca law is even lower speed than Utah..Guidelines from the CHP’s Motorcycle Safety Program suggest that a motorcycle should travel no more than 10mph faster than the traffic it is passing. It is also not advisable to do this when traffic starts moving at 30mph or over. The faster you pass, the less time you have to react to an adverse situation.
https://www.motorcyclelegalfoundation.com/motorcycle-lane-splitting-guidelines/

people did it since it wasn't illegal to do it, but now its legal to do. This is going on in other states right now also, since many state laws do not say it is illegal to lane split and state law doesn't say its legal either. gay area.
http://lanesplittingislegal.com/lane-splitting-news/ab-51-signed-by-governor-brown-lane-splitting-is-officially-on-the-books-in-california

[98valk]

https://www.motorcyclelegalfoundation.com/motorcycle-lane-splitting-guidelines/

 Is Lane Splitting Legal in my State?

As of September 2017, lane splitting is currently only legal in California, however there are some states where it isn’t explicitly declared as illegal. Many have been asking about the legality in their own states so we scoured the statutes for each and put together this chart below.

Note that it’s up to the Highway Patrol to determine if your act is unsafe, which means you can still get a ticket, even though your state may not have a law forbidding it.

[Jess from VA]

It's kind of crappy to limit it to 45mph roads (or slower), instead of saying you can do it anytime traffic is not exceeding 45mph.

I split in CA, on freeways only, and only when traffic was dead stopped, or just rolling and stopping (which happened every single day in SoCA), and on 6 lanes.

Since a freeway is 55-80mph (depending), you could never do it in UT, even if traffic was backed up and stopped for hours..... just when you need it most.

Backed up freeways is the best place to split of all; because there's no lights or cross traffic, curves are always very minor, and there's never any shade on them (unless you get lucky enough to be stopped under an overpass;  good luck with that).

CA's longstanding lane splitting tolerance (with no law) was because the old air cooled Vtwins would blow up sitting in 100* traffic forever...... (though the thing to do was shut it down, not sit idling forever like a maroon).