Minnesota Lane Filtering - Coming 7/1/2025!

[drneo66]

The new Minnesota lane filtering law will take effect on July 1, 2025 which allows motorcyclists to filter through traffic “at not more than 25 miles per hour AND no more than 15 miles per hour over the speed of traffic.”

The BMW Motorcycle Owners of Minnesota have created a pretty detailed website to help riders and other road users get educated on the new law:
https://www.bmwmocm.com/lanefiltering


I hope you'll help spread this info far and wide!

 

[omega man]

Do you think that the “other” drivers on the road will know and accept this? Around the Boston area I would expect some aggressive action from “other” drivers.
Hopefully everyone can safely groove into this new program.

OM

 

[PGlaves]

Do you think that the “other” drivers on the road will know and accept this? Around the Boston area I would expect some aggressive action from “other” drivers.
Hopefully everyone can safely groove into this new program.

OM

Probably there will be some stupidness. But with some good publicity hopefully not a lot. And after some publicity about tickets and maybe a reckless endangerment charge or two most of the meatheads might figure it out.

 

[kbasa]

If I have trouble lane splitting around here, it seems like it’s always a tourist blocking me out. When I commuted into San Francisco, it’d be some jerk on 101 pinching the lane shut in their rental car heading to Napa.

It’s not as if me filtering at the light slows them one nanosecond. Or sliding between them on 101 slowed them down.

Also, get ready for a new religious war among local riders about whether it’s more or less safe to split lanes. Depends on how you do it and when, in my experience.

Congratulations, my Minnesotan friends. Be careful and be prepared to do some education while being the super nice folks Minnesotans are famous for.

 

[omega man]

If I have trouble lane splitting around here, it seems like it’s always a tourist blocking me out. When I commuted into San Francisco, it’d be some jerk on 101 pinching the lane shut in their rental car heading to Napa.

It’s not as if me filtering at the light slows them one nanosecond. Or sliding between them on 101 slowed them down.

Also, get ready for a new religious war among local riders about whether it’s more or less safe to split lanes. Depends on how you do it and when, in my experience.

Congratulations, my Minnesotan friends. Be careful and be prepared to do some education while being the super nice folks Minnesotans are famous for.

Yeah……
OM

 

[oldcamper]

I’m not convinced lane splitting is worth it here in Minnesota. It’s going to irritate lots of car drivers and benefit very few motorcycle riders. We basically have one metropolitan area and our riding season is relatively short. Even on nice days there are few motorcycles on the congested inner city freeways. With over 400 cars stolen in Minneapolis alone every month, and many of them being driven to destruction by unlicensed kids 12 to 16 years old, it’s just not a safe place to ride any more.

 

[kbasa]

Until that accident on the highway…

 

[r0ckrat]

My understanding from the seminar at the 2024 Redmond rally was that late 2025 to late 2026 was going to be a very heavy educational campaign to let drivers know that filtering was going to start happening, and then allow motorcyclists to start doing so late 2026?

Either way congrats Minnesota for getting the law (styled much like Colorado's) on the books and rolling!

If the state has motorcycle patrol officers, the best way to get motorists used to the idea is for the officers to do it first, and pull over/give warnings to anyone that even tries to block...

 

[Scott9999]

Do you think that the “other” drivers on the road will know and accept this? Around the Boston area I would expect some aggressive action from “other” drivers.
Hopefully everyone can safely groove into this new program.

OM

When I traveled in California freeway traffic, I got either one or the other reaction while filtering. Either they parted for me like the Red Sea for Moses, or they tried to kill me. Of course, I WAS riding an RT-P at the time, so ....

I don't know how Boston drivers will react. Having spent a year there on business, I figure nothing's gonna deter them or change their driving habits. Not in their DNA.

PS: I'm NOT a LEO, not even a "Walter Mitty" or retired LEO. However, first bike after a 20 year hiatus (due to getting married, having kids, etc.), was a retired RT-P that I bought specifically for low-cost (and faster, and safer) freeway commuting. I couldn't bear Southern California freeways, anymore, and that Beemer was my solution. All the fun and frolics of riding a B&W BMW was just a bonus (and curse).

 

[61996]

This is a bad idea.

 

[61996]

I’m not convinced lane splitting is worth it here in Minnesota. It’s going to irritate lots of car drivers and benefit very few motorcycle riders. We basically have one metropolitan area and our riding season is relatively short. Even on nice days there are few motorcycles on the congested inner city freeways. With over 400 cars stolen in Minneapolis alone every month, and many of them being driven to destruction by unlicensed kids 12 to 16 years old, it’s just not a safe place to ride any more.

That's precisely why I avoid the metro highways like the plague.

 

[omega man]

When I traveled in California freeway traffic, I got either one or the other reaction while filtering. Either they parted for me like the Red Sea for Moses, or they tried to kill me. Of course, I WAS riding an RT-P at the time, so ....

I don't know how Boston drivers will react. Having spent a year there on business, I figure nothing's gonna deter them or change their driving habits. Not in their DNA.

PS: I'm NOT a LEO, not even a "Walter Mitty" or retired LEO. However, first bike after a 20 year hiatus (due to getting married, having kids, etc.), was a retired RT-P that I bought specifically for low-cost (and faster, and safer) freeway commuting. I couldn't bear Southern California freeways, anymore, and that Beemer was my solution. All the fun and frolics of riding a B&W BMW was just a bonus (and curse).

In the Boston area, using your Blinka, is viewed as “giving information to the enemy”. I’m not even sure how many people are allowed to run through a red light change anymore.
OM

 

[drneo66]

Thanks for all the comment so far! We (the BMW club of MN) have noticed that there isn't a lot of formal education being released, so we took it upon ourselves to hopefully educate some of the public before the MNDOT ad campaign begins.

We are also trying to push more on the "filtering" part vs the high-speed lane "splitting" that many people think of when a motorcyclist is traveling between two lanes (as the law is written to include low speeds).

Will this be a huge benefit to people riding outside of the major cites in MN? No... we are fortunate enough to have a lot of roads where traffic congestion is minimal. Funny enough there's not one stretch of road in the town of 8000 people where I grew up that this would even be allowed. I personally know there's huge swaths of MN that this wouldn't be allowed, even if traffic is bumper to bumper. However, I can see using this at peak times here in Rochester (city of 100k+ people) on several streets by filtering to the front. Will I be using this all the time on my commute? No, but it's nice to have the option.

 

[omega man]

It’s too bad this “land splitting” concept failed in New Hampshire. Anyone ever stuck in North Conway summer traffic just plain roasting…..and hoping for a break, understands the value of this.
It’s unfortunate that in this “roasting” circumstance that when a rider decides to split a lane that vehicle drivers, complete with A/C, view it as “just a rider looking to beat traffic” and not as a rider looking to not roast/overheat on the road.
OM

 

[r0ckrat]

We are also trying to push more on the "filtering" part vs the high-speed lane "splitting" that many people think of when a motorcyclist is traveling between two lanes (as the law is written to include low speeds).

My understanding is that this law specifically disallows what we in CA consider "splitting" - and only allows "filtering" when traffic is at a complete stop, is that correct?

 

[PGlaves]

Lane splitting / filtering is a common practice in most of the developed countries in the world and more of the 3rd world countries. It has been a common practice in California since Henry Ford was a Cub Scout. But somehow, I am told, most US drivers in other states are too aggressive and too self centered to allow or tolerate the practice. That is actually a pretty sad commentary on the US culture.

 

[PGlaves]

My understanding is that this law specifically disallows what we in CA consider "splitting" - and only allows "filtering" when traffic is at a complete stop, is that correct?

If I read correctly it is allowed no faster than 25mph when traffic is flowing 15mph or slower. Minnesnowtons please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[drneo66]

If I read correctly it is allowed no faster than 25mph when traffic is flowing 15mph or slower. Minnesnowtons please correct me if I am wrong.

That's correct, the current law states:

A person may operate a motorcycle and overtake and pass another vehicle in the same direction of travel and within the same traffic lane if the motorcycle is operated:

(1) at not more than 25 miles per hour; and

(2) no more than 15 miles per hour over the speed of traffic in the relevant traffic lanes.



So slow speed lane splitting... and lane filtering (moving up to the front of the queue, out of the potential for getting rear-ended)...


(I'm not a lawyer, nor a rep from the state, nor do I play either one on TV)

 

[Scott9999]

If I read correctly it is allowed no faster than 25mph when traffic is flowing 15mph or slower. Minnesnowtons please correct me if I am wrong.

I believe California's law reads similar, or at least is enforced that way. If you "lane split" going 60 MPH on the freeway in your crotch rocket while traffic is slow and go (10 mph +/-) in front of a LEO, he's gonna ring you up. There are general safety laws that overarch everything else, e.g. "traveling no faster than conditions allow", or something to that effect. It's a pretty reasonable precondition, though I'd prefer the moving traffic limitation at about 20 MPH, because when I ~~ AM ~~ lane splitting through traffic, I want to give the indecisive and/or angry cager's as little time to intervene as possible, while my reflexes and the brake's binders still have time/room to stop "just in case". That's about 20 MPH, for me.

 

[Scott9999]

One more thing to remember. Lane splitting where legal is always an "option", not a mandatory requirement. It's about an increasingly little known thingy called "freedom", which I whole heartedly support. Freedom has risks. So does riding a motorcycle. So does lane splitting. (So does, for that matter, venturing out in a car on many of US city freeway/expressways!) I don't believe government laws should try to "childproof" life. Safety, reasonable safety, yes. All encompassing safety guarantees, impossible, and the juice (safety benefits) ain't worth that squeeze (loss of freedoms).

Let motorcyclist split lanes safely, and if those "entitled motorcycle riders" really bothers someone, drop 'em off a their local motorcycle dealer.

/end rant