The Bad News

As Friday, February 24th drew to a close, this year's Senate Transportation Committee deadline came and went without SB 5622 (the bill that would legalize lane-filtering in WA) going up for a vote. Despite the PNWRiders community rising to meet the call to action and managing to collectively make enough noise in the legislature to convince our representatives to hear the bill in committee, lane-splitting was not one of the dozens of last-minute transportation-related bills that got voted out of the committee at the end of this week. Even the so-called "compromise" bill, HB 1487, that would have allowed motorcycles to use the shoulder on congested freeways as an alternative to outright lane-splitting, was also killed off in committee.

The failure of these bills was certainly not due to a lack of effort on the part of this community. We have come together on this issue like never before, showing our representatives that all types of motorcyclists care about safety and congestion relief. We have pestered and commented on bills and registered our positions. Every single member of the Transportation Committee has had an earful from their staffers about how "those motorcycle guys just won't let up about this bill".

During the public hearing, members of this community, in conjunction with the ABATE folks, organized a perfect rebuttal of all the anti-splitting arguments from the WA Traffic Safety Commission. A wide range of bikers (and even a moped rider) gave heartfelt, factual testimony in favor of the bill while the lone opponent faltered under questioning from the senators themselves. On the days leading up to the deadline, emails and phone calls from bikers across the state poured into their offices in Olympia, pleading for them to give rider safety a chance. From A to Z, we had everything on our side: an extended legislative session, bi-partisan support, an amenable committee chair, and the ferocious energy of almost all motorcycle organizations in the state.

Why, then? Why did they kill such a popular bill?

Ultimately, the senators in the Transportation Committee decided that the lack of political will to push for lane-sharing outweighed everything I outlined above.

"Lack of political will? What does that mean?" Essentially, it means that lawmakers don't see lane-splitting as important enough to matter. They're very rarely exposed to it and their opinion are tainted by nebulous ideas of danger. They don't see lane-splitting as the domain of law-abiding motorcyclists, but rather something that "only those reckless squids do" when they're "running from cops".

If this bill had passed the committee and actually made it to the senate with real hopes of becoming law, thousands of angry WA motorists whose only exposure to lane-sharing comes from YouTube videos and their flawed opinions could have created so much negative backlash that the senators in the Transportation Committee could have had their political careers damaged over it.

In short, by shooting down all lane-sharing and shoulder-surfing bills, the transportation committee has told us loud and clear: "until it becomes more widespread and accepted, don't expect us to stick our necks out for it."

Is lane-sharing just going to be illegal forever, then? What can we do?

Don't despair. Whereas most riders will take the senators' message with disheartened sadness and want to give up the fight altogether (or just move to California), this is- believe it or not- progress.

We now know that waiting around for filtering to be legalized won't work, no matter how much we organize and how much pressure we put on lawmakers. We now can disprove those who say, "hey bro- I'm pro-splitting, but don't split when it's illegal! Go write a letter to your senator instead!"

We now know that no matter how many letters get written, how many bills get proposed, and how much calls are made to senators, the only path to legalization is one that rests entirely within our hands, and our hands alone: normalization.

A guide to normalizing lane-sharing

The gist behind normalization is simple. As enforcement of lane-sharing goes down, more riders feel empowered to slowly and tepidly engage in it. This exposes other motorists and LEOs to safe, unremarkable lane-sharing, causing them to care less- that means less traffic stops, less road rage, and less kerfuffle about a motorcycle slowly making its way up between cars.

As this cycle continues to grow, lane-sharing eventually becomes something that is normal, expected, and completely unenforced. In essence, lane-sharing becomes legalized by the riders themselves. This process is how lane-sharing became de-facto legal almost everywhere else in the world, including in such US locales as California, Washington DC, and, more recently, NYC.

Once the process is normalized, the political capital will exist to pass a bill through standardizing, codifying and regulating the procedure.

If you're a WA rider who's passionate about lane-filtering, cares about rider safety, and wants to be a part of the change, I invite you to join the growing number of bikers who have begun to normalize low-speed filtering by following the steps below. The best news? It's already happening, mostly due to the widespread understanding of lane-filtering as a safety maneuver and the large influx of California transplants.

1. Don't be reckless. I'm encouraging you to use lane-sharing as a slow and safe tool to avoid accidents. Don't try to normalize it by speeding between cars or splitting at excessive speeds. Not only is it unsafe, but this will harm normalization. The whole point of lane-sharing is to get yourself out of gridlock, away from rear-end collisions, and lower your chances of getting hurt on your bike. If splitting in the situation you're in would expose you to a higher risk of an accident, then don't do it!
2. Keep it respectful. In many places where lane-sharing is normalized, bikers expect cars to make room and honk at them when they don't. WA is not there yet, so you should only filter if there's enough room, don't rev your engines like crazy and don't intimidate other motorists (even if they're hanging out over the lane markings). Just filter up and stay out of people's ways. Don't give them anything to bitch/gripe about!
3. Reward good behaviour. More and more drivers are moving over, making room for you when they see you splitting, or even waving you up and past. Always give these drivers a big wave and a thumbs up. This will make them feel good about lane-sharing in general, and will encourage them to repeat these positive behaviours.
4. Ignore bad behaviour. Although it's becoming much rarer to see, there is still the occasional motorist who will get angry at lane-filtering motorcycles, viewing them as "cutting the line", and saying "if I have to wait in line, they should too!". For your own safety and sanity, don't engage these road-ragers. These naysayers are the exact people that we're trying to desensitize. They're only raging because lane-sharing is strange and new to them. By the sixth or seventh time they see a motorcyclist filtering, their anger will dissolve and they'll just stop caring.
5. Consider recording your lane-sharing. Recording yourself performing an illegal act seems counter-intuitive, but the benefits are actually twofold: first of all, you protect yourself from an insurance standpoint in the very unlikely event that a driver purposefully tries to block you or hit you. This was actually recommended to me by my insurance agent- if there is video evidence of the other driver intentionally harming you, they're screwed. Second of all, footage of lane-sharing being performed safely can encourage other local motorcyclists who commute on those roads daily to begin engaging in it too, helping normalization further. (By the way, no, you won't receive a ticket in the mail because you uploaded footage of yourself filtering)

Assuaging concerns about normalization

Even with the lessons learned from this year's legislative session, normalization might remain a controversial idea to some riders. For most, they may support the idea but are very worried about receiving a citation, increasing their insurance premiums, or causing issues with their job's clearances, among other issues. These are valid concerns, but Washington's unique enforcement situation means lane-sharing is way more accessible than most people realize.

• I have a pristine driving record. I insure multiple vehicles. I can't get a ticket!
  • I totally agree, and I feel the same way - I've never gotten a ticket, and I don't plan to. In fact, almost every single WA rider that I know that constantly engages in lane-filtering has a pristine driving record, and many even hold security clearances that are contingent on good driving records. Here's why you can engage in normalization without ever worrying about a ticket:
    • 1. Lane-sharing is de-facto unenforced along the entire I-5 corridor. Due to a unique combination of LEO attitudes towards bikers, Californian transplants and some early vanguards of normalization, the "hard part" is already done. Usually- as long as you're being very slow and safe- you can filter past most LEOs without any traffic stop occurring. This isn't just anecdotal evidence, this is corroborated by a large amount of bikers in this very community as well as personal observation. Here's just one example from many of last year
    • 2. When cops do stop riders for lane-sharing, it's almost always to give a warning. This usually happens when people are splitting lanes too fast and also blatantly speeding, right in front of WSP officers. Example 1, Example 2. The chance that you get pulled over is already tiny, and chance that you get anything more than a warning is even tinier. This isn't Virginia were you'll be tackled for daring to filter at 2MPH. In the words of many PNW Riders, "cops out here mostly leave bikers alone".
    • 3. In the extremely unlikely event that you do receive a ticket for some sort of lane-filtering, don't fret- WA state allows you to defer the ticket if you have a good driving record. It basically disappears and never shows up on your insurance, provided you don't get a second ticket within sixth months. You can use the deferral as your "one free pass" for lane-filtering, knowing that the odds of police caring are extremely low in the first place. The other obvious answer is a traffic attorney- for a couple of hundred dollars (your "filtering tax"), they will make any ticket disappear or be brought down to a non-moving violation where it will not affect your insurance premiums or driving record. Essentially, you have many layers of defense between you and a citation, and the worst-case scenario is just an extremely rare "filtering tax" you pay to a traffic attorney.
• Other drivers will rage at me. I don't want to give them an excuse to scream profanities or hurt me. Plus, I'd feel awkward being the object of everyone else's scorn
  • Remember how I said that normalization is already sweeping the state? Rider encounters with angry drivers has drastically decreased over just the past two years. When I started filtering in 2021, I would constantly encounter angry Karens and other cagers who would scream, flip me off, or yell "that's illegal!" as I slowly filtered past. However, these behaviours have almost completely disappeared. Even bro-dozers and lifted trucks now move out of the way more often than they will attempt to block you or get angry at you.
    • 1. Encountering raging drivers is now rarer than ever. I filter constantly and haven't encountered an angry driver in more than a year at this point.
    • 2. You're filtering past the road-ragers, so who cares? They might honk at you after you've made it past them, but just don't engage, and keep moving. No matter how angry they are, you're now past them in the traffic jam and you won't ever see them again.
    • 3. Go slow, so if someone does try to block you, you can easily avoid it. I once had a van pull into the lane to try and block me as I was filtering at low speeds. All I did was quietly reroute around them. If ever someone tried opening their door on me, it'd be the same story. Stop and quietly reroute. Filter at a speed that you're comfortable stopping very quickly at, and the very rare "doorings" or cars swerving at you won't be an issue.
    • 4. As normalization continues, people really don't care much anymore. I've filtered past hundreds of open bro-dozer windows and beaters in rough neighborhoods, and no one really bats an eye. Road conflict really isn't an integral part of lane-filtering in WA anymore, and a friendly wave disarms almost any situation.
• Encouraging others to break the law is stupid and harmful!
  • Unfortunately, the lessons we've learned from the failure of all the bills this year shows us that encouraging normalization (which, yes, is an infraction of RCW 46.61.608) is the only way we'll ever get progress on lane-sharing in this state. The safety benefits of lane-filtering are well-documented, and it doesn't inconvenience other motorists in any way. Lane-sharing is purely positive and the laws currently on the books objectively hamper motorcyclist's safety. I'd wager that encouraging widespread safe lane-sharing is the opposite of "stupid and harmful" if it can reduce congestion, increase rider visibility and safety, and help us get to a point where it can be legalized in our state.

In conclusion

The #lane-filtering-advocacy channel in the PNWRiders Discord server has now become the hub for normalization discussion in Washington. There are an abundance of resources there to help you take the plunge and join the growing number of lane-sharing riders in our state.

Whether it's dozens of testimonials from daily lane-splitters all throughout Western WA, tips on how to be on the lookout for unmarked cruisers, how to spot XMT license plates, stories of positive LEO interactions, resources on traffic attorneys and deferrals (which no one has had to use yet), videos of lane-filtering being performed in your region, or tips on how to start filtering safely, the discord channel has it all. The community is welcoming and more than happy to help anyone who is thinking about taking the plunge.

Remember, every rider that joins in directly helps the future of lane-filtering in our state. If the legislature won't help us, we have no choice but to help ourselves. Happy (safe) lane-sharing this season!