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The law will allow motorcycles to pass traffic by driving between two lanes of vehicles, but with a few caveats.
DENVER — Motorcyclists can now ride between vehicles in Colorado, but with some caveats.
Signed by Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday, SB24-079 allows motorcycles to move between cars if they’re stopped (also known as lane filtering). It also requires that the motorcycle move at 15 mph or less, lanes be wide enough to pass safely and that conditions are safe to allow the pass to happen in the first place.
State Rep. Ron Weinberg (R) was one of the co-sponsors of the bill and said that safety for motorcyclists was a big reason why he wanted this bill to get passed.
“What people don’t understand about motorcycles is [that] when we do get up into 100 degree weather, the road is so hot, sitting there and sucking in the fumes from the gas pipes. This is fully about safety,” Weinberg said.
Previous attempted legislation
Weinberg was also part of a previous effort to get a similar bill passed back in 2023. HB 23-1059 would have initiated a study by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol to assess the safety of so-called “lane splitting.” That bill eventually failed out of committee.
“The initial bill was to actually lane filter, and then once I had gotten the feedback as to whether CSP enjoys it, the police, sheriffs, so on and so forth, they were very nervous about it,” Weinberg said. “So I changed the bill initially last year to a study to let’s actually just study the effects of everything.”
According to Weinberg, they were able to find some middle ground this time around.
Three-year trial run
According to the bill’s language, the law will automatically be repealed effective Sept. 1, 2027. According to lawmakers, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) would be responsible for collecting safety data during that three-year period.
“The reason we put that into play is because we don’t want to do anything that is not safe for Colorado. So if we put this into effect, people can do it. Then we can actually get statistics as to whether this is good for Colorado as a safety aspect or not,” Weinberg said. “That’s how we’ll know. If it comes back and does actually prove (which is what many other states have done when they’ve conducted their studies) that this is safer for motorcycle riders and and everyone on the road, then the bill will be renewed [in 2027].”
Lane splitting is already legal in California, Utah, Montana and Arizona. A few other states like Missouri and Rhode Island are also considering bills to legalize it.
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