Lane splitting bill moving through General Assembly, maybe a bit too fast

A bill that would legalize lane splitting – allowing motorcyclists to drive between cars and trucks on the dotted lines between lanes on streets and highways on which there are at least two lanes of travel in each direction – is quietly making its way through the Virginia General Assembly.

So quietly that, it’s hard to find any coverage of whatever back-and-forth there may be on the proposal.

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Track the bill

• Senate Bill 435 (Lamont Bagby)

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Advocates say allowing lane splitting would improve safety for motorcyclists. Critics, including, notably, the Virginia State Police, say, nah, hazardous, this a litany of accidents waiting to happen.

The part to the bill, authored by Lamont Bagby, a Richmond state senator, and the chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, that I don’t like: drivers who impede or attempt to impede a motorcyclist from being able to lane split could be exposed to a traffic ticket and a $300 fine.

Seems too open to interpretation there for me.

Diving into the details, it wouldn’t be open season for motorcyclists to weave in and out of traffic at will.

The bill, as written, allows motorcyclists to drive between lanes only when traffic is stopped or moving less than 10 miles per hour, so, basically, at stoplights, behind accidents, the like.

Advocates say lane splitting allows motorcyclists to protect themselves from being rear-ended in traffic.

The dangers:

• areas where the lanes are too narrow to allow safe lane splitting.
• the difficulty some drivers, particularly tractor-trailer drivers, might have seeing motorcycles passing through their blind spots.

Bagby’s bill passed the State Senate by a 32-8 vote last month, and it’s now awaiting a hearing and then action in the House Transportation Committee.

I’m not going to take a hard stand on it, though I’ll note discomfort with the language on impeding or attempting to impede as being too broad, and thus open to interpretation.

The idea of allowing lane splitting may have merit, but it seems to me that we should probably get more input from a wider cross-section of the driving community, not just those who drive motorcycles, who seem to be the folks who have been able to have their say on this bill to this point.