Just curious to see if any of you out there have been observing any trends that might lead to new motorcycle legislation - for better or worse. I noticed that for 2024 Nebraska surprisingly repealed their motorcycle helmet law making it optional for wear. Definitely raised an eyebrow as they still criminalize lane splitting.
I try to stay on the optimistic side for lane filtering eventually passing here in Virginia but seeing how we are one of only two states where radar detectors are illegal, I think it’s fair to say we may just stay in stasis for a while. Anyone else optimistic or pessimistic on new moto laws for this year?
Lane filtering would be amazing but New York never does anything that makes sense so…
Texas officially made it illegal in 2023, was previously just a gray area.
Yeah, but now it’s official that motorcycles get to have use of their whole lane! Because that was ever and always in question! I often wonder at what politicians are thinking when they create some laws. Did they have someone whispering in their ear that lane splitting was bad? Did someone else propose lane splitting and then another just knee-jerked an opposing bill, and then ‘common sense’ took the lead with the majority? Was it truly as idiotic as a reaction to California being a place where lane splitting is common, and we can’t have Texas being like California, oh noooo!
I have a bit of a theory on this. I think most people associate lane splitting/filtering with sport bikes. Makes sense because they’re narrowers than cruisers/touring bikes, so they can take advantage of this more than those riders. So it can be a negative association type thing where its catering to squids, and that’s not going to go over well in states where people have stronger feelings about protecting an Americana roots.
Purely conjecture on my part tho.
Not sure if that is what you asked for or if you only meant in the US but anyway: Europe currently sees a rise in laws that forbid motorbikes on certain roads/areas based on their idle noise (completely idiotic), the weekday or just completely. Austria started some months ago with parts of Germany now following, it is getting slightly more hostile here for bikers…
Thats unfortunate. I know we have sound ordinance laws in some jurisdictions here in the US but I think most go largely unenforced. That is unless it’s a state that requires safety checks.
Europe does seem to be getting more non-biker friendly. I sort of recently found out that EU emission standards are kind of throttling supersport (i4) production in the US. A golden lining is that I think there’s a focus now on making different types of bikes to fill that void.
Lane filtering?
