Connecticut Bans Riding Between Lanes but Allows Two Bikes Abreast

Connecticut answers the lane-splitting question twice in one section, once as a right and once as a prohibition. Sec. 14-289b(a) entitles the operator of a motorcycle to the full use of any single traffic lane, which means a driver may not treat a motorcycle as a half-lane vehicle to be squeezed past. The same subsection then sets the outer limit of lane sharing: operating more than two motorcycles abreast in any single traffic lane is prohibited. Two riders side by side in one lane is therefore lawful in Connecticut; three is not.

Subsection (b) is the prohibition that matters to a rider in stopped traffic on I-91 or the Merritt Parkway. It bars a motorcycle operator from operating a motorcycle between lanes of traffic, with no exception for congestion, for a speed differential, or for stopped vehicles. Connecticut is not one of the states that bans filtering and then re-authorizes it under stated conditions in the next paragraph; there is no speed cap, no pilot programme and no sunset date attached to the ban. The section has read this way since P.A. 79-590 replaced the previous provisions.

Subsection (b) also carries a second, narrower ban that riders often miss. A motorcycle operator may not overtake and pass, in the same single traffic lane the motorcycle occupies, any motor vehicle other than a motorcycle. The qualifier is doing real work: because another motorcycle is carved out, a rider may lawfully move up alongside a second motorcycle inside one lane, which is exactly what the two-abreast allowance in subsection (a) contemplates. Passing a car by using the unoccupied part of its lane is prohibited even though the rider never crosses the lane line.

Autocycles are treated more strictly. Sec. 14-1(61) defines "motorcycle" to include an autocycle, so every rule in Sec. 14-289b reaches one, and subsection (b) then adds a sentence with no motorcycle exception at all: an autocycle shall not overtake and pass any motor vehicle operating in the same single traffic lane occupied by such autocycle. An autocycle, defined in Sec. 14-1(6) as a three-wheeled vehicle meeting the federal motorcycle requirements, controlled by a steering mechanism and foot pedals, with enclosed seating and safety belts, therefore may not share a lane to pass even another motorcycle. That sentence was added by P.A. 15-46 effective July 1, 2015.

The section does not reach every two-wheeler on a Connecticut road. Sec. 14-1(61) excludes a motor-driven cycle from the definition of motorcycle, and Sec. 14-1(59) defines that as a machine with a seat height of at least twenty-six inches and an engine under fifty cubic centimeters, a wattage not exceeding three thousand seven hundred watts, or five brake horsepower or less. Mopeds and small scooters in that class are governed by Sec. 14-286 rather than by Sec. 14-289b, as are electric bicycles and electric scooters.

One exemption is written into the statute. Sec. 14-289b(d) provides that no provision of the section applies to a police officer during the performance of official duties, so a motorcycle officer may ride between lanes to reach a crash or work a traffic post. There is no equivalent carve-out for emergency medical riders, escort riders or funeral processions.

Subsection (c) of the same section carries the daytime headlight rule for motorcycles manufactured after January 1, 1980, which must have the head lamp illuminated at all times of operation on a highway. It is a separate requirement, but it shares the infraction penalty in subsection (e). On currency, Sec. 14-289b does not appear in the 2026 Supplement to chapter 248, so the 2025 sessions did not touch it and the text above is in force.

Sec. 14-289b(e) makes any violation of the section an infraction, which is a non-criminal offence payable to the Centralized Infractions Bureau on the Judicial Branch schedule without a court appearance, though a rider may plead not guilty and be assigned a court date. The same infraction penalty applies whether the conduct was riding between lanes, passing a car inside its lane, running three abreast in one lane, or riding without the daytime head lamp required by subsection (c). Enforcement is roadside by state and municipal police. A note printed with the section directs readers to Sec. 14-111g, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles operator retraining program, which is the administrative consequence a repeat offender can face on top of the fine. Insurance and civil consequences follow separately: because subsection (a) entitles a motorcycle to the full lane, a driver who crowds a rider out of the lane is on the wrong side of the same statute.