Hawaii Bans Lane Splitting After Its Shoulder Pilot Expired

Section 291C-153 stacks four rules in one short section, and reading only the first subsection produces the wrong answer. Subsection (a) gives every motorcycle an entitlement to full use of a lane and forbids any motor vehicle from driving so as to deprive a motorcycle of that lane. Subsection (d) then permits two motorcycles to ride abreast in a single lane but no more than two. The trade is written into (a) itself: the full-lane entitlement does not apply to motorcycles operated two abreast, so a pair that chooses to share a lane gives up the statutory claim to the whole of it.

Subsections (b) and (c) are the prohibitions. Subsection (b) bans same-lane overtaking, which is the manoeuvre riders describe as passing a car without leaving its lane. Subsection (c) bans riding between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles, which covers both moving-traffic splitting and stop-and-go filtering. Neither carries the conditions found in filtering states: no speed cap, no requirement that traffic be stopped, no limit to two-wheeled machines, no roads-under-a-certain-speed-limit qualifier. Subsection (e) excuses police officers in the performance of their official duties from (b) and (c) only, so an officer may filter but retains no special position under (a) or (d).

The legislative history matters here because Hawaii is often listed as a state that tried filtering. Act 218, Session Laws of Hawaii 2018 (H.B. No. 2589), which became law on July 10, 2018 without the Governor's signature, added a new section 291C-54 letting the Department of Transportation, in its sole discretion, designate shoulders that two-wheeled motorcycles could use. The conditions were tight: the shoulder had to belong to a roadway with at least two lanes running the same direction, a rider could enter only once traffic had stopped because of an intersection or congestion, the speed limit on the shoulder was ten miles per hour, no turn could be made from the shoulder, and the rider had to exit as soon as the adjacent lane began to move. Act 218 also amended 291C-153(b) and (c) to let a rider cross lanes solely to reach such a designated shoulder. Section 9 of the same Act repealed the whole scheme on December 31, 2020 and reenacted sections 291C-43, 291C-44, 291C-49, 291C-125 and 291C-153 as they read the day before it took effect. HRS 291C-54 now prints in the Hawaii Revised Statutes as a single line reading REPEALED, and the lane-crossing permission went with it.

Mopeds are governed separately and more tightly. Under HRS section 291C-196(b) moped drivers on a roadway must ride in single file, and section 291C-197(a) requires them to use a bicycle lane wherever one is provided on the roadway. A moped is not a motorcycle under the Statewide Traffic Code, so nothing in section 291C-153 helps a moped rider.

Section 291C-153 sets no penalty of its own, so HRS section 291C-161(b) supplies it. Violating any provision of chapter 291C for which another penalty is not provided draws a fine of not more than $250 for a first violation, not more than $300 for a second committed within one year of the first, and not more than $500 for a third or subsequent violation committed within one year of the first. Section 291C-153 is not listed in subsection (c) or (d) of 291C-161, so there is no separate sentencing track and no jail exposure for splitting alone. A rider who fails to appear on the citation can be assessed up to $50 for the cost of issuing a penal summons under 291C-161(e). Enforcement is by the county police department for the island where the stop occurs, and a driver who crowds a motorcycle out of its lane is the one breaking 291C-153(a).