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One more state has joined growing ranks of civilized places in North America to ride a motorcycle. In Colorado, lane filtering is now legal—for a little while, at least.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed SB 24-079 into law on April 4, making it legal for motorcycles to travel between lanes of traffic under certain conditions. This is not the free-for-all of California lane splitting. Most importantly, surrounding traffic must be at a complete stop before bikes can move between them, commonly known as lane filtering to differentiate it from California’s accepted practice. Additionally, the Colorado law stipulates that motorcycles may not exceed 15 mph while filtering (down from 20 mph in the original bill), ride on the right shoulder, to the right of a vehicle in the farthest right-hand lane if the highway is not limited access, or in a lane of traffic moving in the opposite direction. Effectively, this permits filtering only on roads with two or more lanes, wide enough to permit it, and that “Conditions permit prudent operation of the motorcycle while overtaking or passing.”
Automatic repeal in 2027
SB 24-079 also has one more unique provision. While valid now (9News reports the law is not effective until August 7, but I read nothing in the actual law to indicate it is not effective immediately), the law is set to be automatically repealed on September 1, 2027. A previous bill, HB 23-1059, failed to make it out of committee because of law enforcement concerns about the safety of lane filtering. SB 24-079 cites a great deal of evidence that filtering is actually safer for motorcyclists than sitting in traffic, including previous studies in other countries as well as Utah, Montana, and Arizona legalizing it, in addition to California permitting full-on lane splitting. The next three years will be a Colorado lane filtering safety assessment, providing enough time to gather a good amount of data both before and after it was legalized. If results are favorable, the law can be extended, amended, or replaced with a more permanent solution. If nothing happens, it will become illegal once again.
While perhaps not the most favorable outcome for riders, at least Colorado is giving it a chance. That’s more than can be said for most other states, most of which won’t touch lane filtering with a ten-foot pole, or Texas that has explicitly outlawed lane filtering.
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