new Texas law outlaws filtering/ lane splitting

stingray

Sweet Dreams
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Mar 3, 2022
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Almost Heaven, WV
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'21 Rocket 3GT

Texas State Law Now Officially Outlaws Lane Splitting And Filtering

As of September 2023, motorcycle riders in Texas cannot legally lane split or lane filter thanks to an amendment to the state's existing transportation code.
www.rideapart.com

Do you ride motorcycles in Texas, or have plans to do so in the future? If that’s you, then it’s important that you know about an amendment to the state transportation code that went into effect on September 1, 2023. Under the terms of this amendment, both lane splitting and lane filtering have now explicitly been made illegal for motorcycles riding within the state of Texas.

The amendment arose in Texas State Legislative Session 88(R) in 2023, with the filing of House Bill 4122 in March 2023 by state representative Ryan Guillen. After passing through a calendar of meetings, public hearings, and votes, it was signed in both the state House and the state Senate in May 2023. On June 12, 2023, it was officially signed into state law by the governor, to go into effect on September 1, 2023.

The amended text is short and to the point. It specifies actions for Operation of Motorcycles on Roadway Laned for Traffic. It contains two sections (each with subsections), discussing what motorcycle riders may and may not legally do while operating their motorcycles on public roads in the state.
 
stingray said:
I support a BAN ON MOBILE PHONES. GUILTY?
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Imo if you can afford a data plane you can afford a hands free and learn how to use voice commands.
Now your just being silly.
I fully support the right for anyone to do anytjing as long as it's not possibly endangering or infringing those same rights and saftey onto others.
Splitting lanes ... doing anything that is not "predictable" around traffic is dangerous to the point that it's not needed.
"If you are in a hurry to get somewhere... dont take a motorcycle."
-Jay Leno

In a utopia it would be great to have motorcycle exempt type of road laws but we live on a world of idiot road rage road Karen's and Ken's.
 
To my knoweldge lane splitting has never been legal in Texas since arriving here in 2017. The filtering thing may be new. That said I see nimrods on sport bikes lane split all the time during dense DFW traffic. Because the law says it's illegal doesn't stop it from occurring. It's also illegal to exceed the speed limit. It's really a matter of what highway patrol and local police are willing to enforce. There is a law on the books in Kansas that requires a person (servant) to carry a red flag and walk 30 feet in front of any moving car when driving in town (gives the horse riders a chance to clear the area). They don't enforce that one much.
 
One more note, lane splitting is legal in California. But it's also part of their driver education too. If I wanted to pick on a nit it would be the number of paper tags I see roaming the roads around my neck of the woods. Most of them are printed at home and usually with an expiration date 2 years ago. They had an enforcement arm in the metro that cracked down on that sort of thing and they disbanded it because it was only raising state tax revenues by tens of millions, i.e. not worth the effort.
 
Tripps said:
Lanesplitting is one of those things that I have no problem with, but I personally would never do. Kind of the same with helmet laws.
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Agreed. If you want to you can if you don't want to then don't. Why would anyone give a sh** about someone else lane splitting? It makes no sense. How many collisions have you heard of from someone splitting lanes? Very few if any. How many cell phone/inattention collisions or Red Light violations, stop sign or Right of way violations occur in any area at any given time. A ton of them. Splitting traffic is way down on the collision spectrum. I hate it when I see a knucklehead race through traffic at warp speed but seriously I have only seen it once on the freeway that I considered just plain dumb. Two morons on Sport bikes seeing who could be the bigger Di**. Please stop saying they are infringing on your rights and the safety of others unless you drive only the speed limit and never, ever break any kind of law. It alleviates the mess on the freeways and roadways here in California because traffic is at most times horrible. If I can safely split traffic I will if I don't feel like it I won't. Freedom of choice.
 
Because the majority of accidents that do result of lane splitting result in massive damages (usually total) to a vehicle and or property. I know it happens very infrequently bit when it does it was unnessasary and uncalled for for any reason. Filtering at a light is a bit different but highway traffic lane splitting is pointless. Yea it saves a lot of time and if it was done right (it's not) then it would be fine. But the world we live in is a world of liability and it's not right that it's legal to put other cars and property and ignorant risk takers at risk of damage or loss of life.
That's why i give an S...
But that's what an opinion is... a fact we all experience differently.

No one.. not you or I have the right to keep others from caring or not caring, posting or not.
Isnt that after all the essence of why we ride... race... split lanes... ride atgatt?
 
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