A Texas senator has filed a bill in the senate that would make lane-splitting legal in the Lone Star State.
According to a report by KUHF Houston Public Radio, a spokesman for the senator claims lane-splitting would "help everybody get faster."
Lane-splitting is legal in California, but nowhere else in the U.S. and nowhere in Canada.
Stephen Polunsky, the director of the Texas Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security, says auto drivers might welcome the bill because the motorcycle that moves ahead between lanes frees space for the car to move ahead.
The bill would require that motocyclists wear helmets and would restrict speed differentials to five mph and would limit lane-splitting to situations where traffic is moving at 20 mph or slower.
A 2005 bill that would have legalized lane-splitting in Texas failed.
I’ll not be holding my breath for a similar law here in the COTU. The prevailing attitude in TO is “I’m getting nowhere, but I’m getting there ahead of you.”
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I think it would lead to an increase in side-swipe accident claims, and speeding tickets for us…
We’d have to ramp up the speed so we wouldn’t be between them when the ignoranus’ tried to squeeze together so we couldn’t get through.
But as long as we’re not in the HOV’s, carrying anyone under 15, ‘stunting’, racing, or otherwise being an irresponsible miscriant, then we only have to worry about the pesky little lane sharing being illegal thing…
Here in Ontario we can’t even use HOV lanes. How many other vehicles are always half full?
It’s legal and most of the world and it’s much safer. More information is available here http://apps.facebook.com/causes/113221?m=91e6b129 and you can even join the cause on Facebook and help legalize it (for those in the states).
Ask non-motorcyclist car drivers if they would support this.
So far most have told me they think it is too dangerous for
the motorcyclist, and they fear getting paint scratches. 🙁
A step in the right direction. Now would Canada follow suit? Based on the Ontario child passenger legislation, I’m not so sure. By the way, what happened with that?