OFF THE WIRE
By
The Nevada lane splitting bill, better known to some as AB236, has
officially died on the state senate floor. While it looked as if the
bill had a great chance of succeeding after passing with flying colors
in the Nevada Assembly, the momentum of the proposed new law quickly
sputtered like a 60′s Vespa, and died like an 80′s Harley in the road
(sorry, we couldn’t help it).
The Nevada lane splitting proposal was amended in the assembly and
then again in the senate to give the bill a better chance of passing,
which is why its harsh defeat caught many of us over here by surprise.
The amended bill would have made lane splitting in Nevada legal only
when traffic was stationary, not regularly flowing, unlike lane
splitting in California; another reason why many of us thought the bill
would be passed. The amended law got rid of most of the ill-perceived
‘dangers’ of lane splitting and left a bare-bones law that would have at
least helped alleviate traffic and actually made riding in traffic
safer for motorcycles, a fact which has been discussed and proven many times over in the past.
While many lawmakers (and, sadly, many riders as well) tend to think
that lane splitting is dangerous and unsafe, the facts and evidence just
don’t back up that claim. In fact, almost every other country outside
of the USA allows lane-splitting in some fashion, and famed motorcycle safety guru David L. Hough has
even gone on the record to state that given a choice between lane
splitting and sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, motorcycle lane
splitting is almost ALWAYS the safer option. Motorcycles sitting in
heavy traffic are up to ten times more likely to suffer injuries and
accidents from rear-end collisions and other ‘cager’ mistakes.
So, while it looks like us California riders will continue to be the
only ones in the country to have an advanced form of transportation on
two wheels, we here at X-Motorcycle continue to hope that the rest of
the country will still come around someday. The false, negative stigma
around lane splitting really does need to come to an end, and we
sincerely hope that major organizations, such as HOG and the AMA will
continue to push harder for lane splitting to be legal and recognized in
all 50 states — sooner rather than later.
As for you Nevada riders out there, we weep for you, and your tears will not go unnoticed, friends.
