Mark Richardson rides in the HOV lane, taking pictures with his helmet-mounted GoPro. One option to test the waters of lane filtering in Ontario would be to allow motorcyclists to ride in the space between the solid lines that separate HOV lanes on highways.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
It was hot when I drove in to Toronto this month. Like, steam-off-the-sidewalks hot. Even so, I rode my motorcycle, to not pay for parking and not add to road congestion.
I didn’t travel in the traditional rush hours, but even so, traffic ground to a halt on the Don Valley Parkway and I paddled the bike along, feeling the heat now with no wind to breeze through my ventilated mesh jacket and gloves.
I thought about how I used to ride a bike between the crawling lanes of thick London traffic in the U.K., and of how doing that is illegal here. And three separate times I watched motorcycles pass me: once on the hard shoulder, once in the GO Transit bus lane and once between the lanes. Those are all illegal moves.
But why is it illegal for motorcycles and scooters in Canada to ride between the lanes of traffic, anyway? It looks dangerous, but a 2015 study by the University of California, Berkeley found that “lane-splitting appears to be a relatively safe motorcycle riding strategy if done in traffic moving at 50 mph (80 kilometres an hour) or less and if motorcyclists do not exceed the speed of other vehicles by more than 15 mph (24 kilometres an hour).” The study compared almost 6,000 motorcycle collisions, of which 997 were lane-splitting at the time. Generally, the lane-splitters were injured less severely than the others.
A motorcyclists rides between the lanes in California, where it is legal.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
After years of non-enforcement, California finally defined and legalized lane-splitting in 2017, and developed guidelines for riders to do so safely. Several other American states have since passed laws of their own to permit some form of lane-sharing with motorcycles to relieve congestion: Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Montana and now Minnesota have laws on the books that allow motorcycles to move through slow or stalled traffic. Oregon and New Hampshire considered it before rejecting it. Texas explicitly banned it two years ago.
Ontario law, typical of the rest of Canada, states that “a vehicle shall be driven as nearly as practicable entirely within one lane,” which prohibits passing another vehicle in the same lane.
The argument from riders is that they are in more danger of being rear-ended by vehicles while waiting in traffic than they are of being side-swiped by vehicles while riding between them. Also, if they’re stalled in traffic, they’re contributing to congestion instead of providing a solution.
After all, a 2012 study in Belgium, where lane-splitting is legal, found that if just one in 10 car drivers instead rode a motorcycle or scooter to commute into and out of a city, it would reduce everybody’s time on the road by 40 per cent.
“When done safely, it keeps people moving, and the goal of traffic is to be moving,” says Mike Moloney, a motorcyclist in Coldwater, Ont., who also keeps personal motorcycles in California and England, and is an advanced road-riding instructor certified in the U.K. by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).“
I believe it can be done safely, on a theoretical basis, but on a practical basis, it’s a bit hit-and-miss. I filter regularly in the U.K. and California, but you’re up against a cultural thing in North America,” he says. “In Europe, motorcycles are part of traffic, but in North America, motorcycles are dangerous toys. We’re seen that way, whether we like it or not.”
A motorcyclist rides between lanes of slow moving traffic in the U.K., where lane filtering is legal.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
Aside from looking dangerous, and actually being dangerous when the motorcycle’s speed is too fast, drivers of cars and trucks often resent a bike being able to make more rapid progress in traffic. Images of perceived chaos on Asian and South American roads spring to mind. Many will say that the worst drivers in the world live in their community and while it may work elsewhere, it will never work in congested Canadian cities such as Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.
However, David Grummett, chief instructor for the Expert Riders Academy, has a potential solution. “It’s sort of a no-brainer in my mind that if people are stopped, you should just go to the front of the pack,” he says. “I don’t see any real downside other than the reaction from car drivers who feel put out by people sneaking to the front of the line.”
Grummett is an advocate of lane-filtering, which is the correct term for a motorcycle or scooter riding between lanes of stopped or very slow traffic, compared to lane-splitting, which occurs in faster moving traffic. He believes that if filtering is to be permitted, drivers must first be made aware of it through public education, such as overhead highway signs. This wouldn’t take long, though.
“You know, when you fly into LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) and you get your rental car and you get on the highway,” he says, “the first two guys who lane-split past you on motorcycles scare the bejezuz out of you, but then after that, you’re aware of them and leave space for them and it’s no big deal.”
A good way to test the water safely before legalizing lane-filtering, he says, would be to allow motorcycles and scooters to ride inside the wide painted medians that separate High Occupancy Vehicle lanes from regular lanes on the highway. They’re about the width of a bike’s handlebars and already exist, so their space is not wasted during the colder months when motorcycles and scooters are impractical to ride.“
With controlled speeds, it shouldn’t be an issue,” says Grummett. “Just paint an ‘M’ between those solid lines and make it a pilot project. It could be a safe start and if you can save some time getting into work, that just helps everybody.”
A motorcyclist rides between the lane markers in the U.K.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
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