| There are few issues that evoke as much passion in the motorcycling community nationwide as helmets and lane splitting. State laws govern both issues, so if you’re riding across country, or even up, down, or along the coast, you may discover that what was legal in Colorado may not be legal in California. Here is a primer on helmet and lane splitting laws across the U.S.
Helmet laws
Helmet laws are determined by each state and vary across the country. As of 2006, four states have no helmet laws: Colorado, Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire. Twenty states require helmets for all riders: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
The rest of the states have some sort of helmet law, based on age, riding experience and medical insurance. Riders above a certain age (typically 18 to 21) are exempted from wearing a helmet. A handful of states require inexperienced riders to wear a helmet for the first one or two years of being licensed regardless of their age. Two states (Texas and Florida) exempt riders with proof of medical insurance.
For the states that require some type of helmet, the helmet typically must be certified by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and carry DOT approval labels.
States may also require eye protection. This includes states without helmet requirements and states with full and partial helmet requirements.
Lane Splitting
Lane splitting is a driving maneuver commonly practiced by motorcycle riders to move between lanes of slow moving or stopped cars on congested roads.
Lane splitting is only legal in California. The California Highway Patrol says, “Lane splitting by motorcycles is permissible but must be done in a safe and prudent manner.” California lacks specific guidelines as to what is a safe and prudent manner. Two factors used to determine whether squeezing past traffic was done in a safe and prudent manner are the speed of the motorcycle and the speed of the surrounding traffic.
Lane sharing on the other hand, where two motorcycles occupy the same lane, is legal in a majority of states.
The Free Advice website has more information about motorcycle laws.
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