The state of Arizona is a beautiful land with far and open roads to explore, which is any rider or drivers dream. As a motorcycle rider, you are exposed to more elements than the average driver. While being more “exposed” to dangers, riding a motorcycle comes with its advantages that allow riders to cut traffic, save time, and ride safely. As our traffic law stands now in the United States, it is illegal to participate in lane splitting, period, with the exception of California. Lane splitting is actually legal in most of the world and is seen as just a way of things. Motorcycle riders are susceptible to traffic violations in Phoenix, that in reality could prove to make them relatively safer on the roads.
The chairman of the Arizona Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs, known as, Bob Eberhardt said, “absolutely” thought lane-splitting should be legal — for safety reasons. Lane-splitting would likely “greatly reduce” rear-end collisions of motorcycles.” He proceeded to acknowledge the fact that it might take some time to get used to for other motorists. In the study conducted, they made it a point to experiment and survey the number of motorcycle accidents that occur in “stop and go” traffic. Turns out – any form of mitigating the riders exposure to congested traffic greatly reduced the odds of a motorcycle rider ending in a collision.
There have been many attempts at reopening this bill to legalize the special privilege but has been continuously shut down. The last attempt was in 2010 by a Harley-Davidson riding representative to legalize motorcycle lane splitting but was quickly vetoed by Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer.
Bill SB 1007 To Be Discussed Again this Month
This January the proposed bill, SB 1007 will be discussed again. Many studies have been done to debate the actual safety of lane splitting and finally, an experiment was done by the Safe Transportation Research & Education Center University of California Berkeley has proven that lane-splitting is actually a lot safer than people believe. The infographic created by, Corso Law Group home of Phoenix traffic violations attorneys, below goes into details discovered through their studies.
