While you’re barely moving, caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the guy on the motorcycle casually keeps moving between cars, driving down the dotted line separating the lanes.

Talk about annoying.

You’ve cursed them or flipped them off, thinking about those movies where the driver opens their door just as the motorcyclist closes in.

Here’s the thing: only five states actually legalized what’s called lane-spitting or lane filtering.

According to the Twisted Road website, this moving violation can get pricey if you’re caught, and let’s be honest, a frustrated driver could easily get on the phone and report it out of pettiness.

However, in these five states, you can be as irritated as you want; calling the police will not do anything.

While California has always looked the other way on its busy freeways for decades, the Golden State became the first state to officially legalize lane-splitting in 2016.

Utah has had the lane filter law since 2019 while neighboring Colorado didn’t legally allow motorcyclists to ride between cars until 2024.

Arizona followed shortly after Colorado last year as well.

Montana has had the law on the books since early 2021.

Minnesota legalized lane-splitting started this year.

You’ve probably noticed I’ve used the terms lane filtering and lane splitting, and while they’re often used interchangeably, there is a subtle difference if you care about semantics.

Lane Filtering versus Lane Splitting

According to the Ride Apart website, lane-filtering is when a motorcycle overtakes a stopped vehicle, drives between two lanes, and gets in front of another vehicle, basically filtering in and out of the actual lanes.

Splitting is just driving down the dotted line between vehicles, essentially creating a new lane.

Meanwhile, several states are considering lane splitting or filtering, while law enforcement officials in other states simply ignore it.

Then there are those states that will issue you a ticket in a heartbeat while others will write you up.