Minnesota Legalized Lane Splitting and Filtering on July 1, 2025

The change came in two steps and both landed on the same day. Laws 2024, chapter 127, article 3, section 61 struck the old text of paragraph (e), which had read that no person shall operate a motorcycle between lanes of moving or stationary vehicles headed in the same direction, nor drive a motorcycle abreast of or overtake or pass another vehicle within the same traffic lane. In its place the act built the current two-part structure, a prohibition in paragraph (f) that yields to a conditional permission in paragraph (g), and set the effective date at July 1, 2025. Laws 2025, First Special Session chapter 8, article 2, section 36 then inserted a new paragraph (h) carving four locations out of paragraph (g), also effective July 1, 2025. So Minnesota riders who split a lane before that date were committing a traffic offence; riders who do it now within the numbers are not.

The permission is written around speed rather than around traffic conditions or road type. Paragraph (g) allows a rider to overtake and pass another vehicle in the same direction of travel and within the same traffic lane if the motorcycle is operated at not more than 25 miles per hour and no more than 15 miles per hour over the speed of traffic in the relevant traffic lanes. Both limits apply together, so a rider passing traffic that is stopped dead may move at up to 15 miles per hour, while a rider passing traffic rolling at 15 may go no faster than 25. There is no separate rule for freeways and no requirement that traffic be congested; the 25 mile per hour ceiling does that work on its own, since traffic moving faster than 10 miles per hour leaves no lawful margin worth using.

Paragraph (h) is the Minnesota-specific geography of the rule and it is the part riders most often miss. For the purposes of paragraph (g), a traffic lane does not include the approach, drive-through or exit of a roundabout; a school zone established under section 169.14, subdivision 5a; a work zone where only a single travel lane is available for use; or an on-ramp to a freeway or expressway, with or without an active control device, where moving or stationary vehicles are queued in one or more traffic lanes. That last item deliberately reaches the metered ramps common on the Twin Cities freeway system, where queued vehicles would otherwise be the most tempting place to filter. Inside any of these four, paragraph (g) simply does not operate and the paragraph (f) prohibition applies in full.

Two neighbouring rules round out the picture. Paragraph (e) lets two motorcycles ride abreast in a single traffic lane, but only with the consent of both drivers and only if the machines fit safely within the designated space of the lane. Paragraph (i) states that motor vehicles including motorcycles are entitled to the full use of a traffic lane, and that no motor vehicle may be driven so as to deprive a motorcycle of the full use of a lane, which means a driver who closes a gap to block a filtering rider is on the wrong side of the statute. Paragraph (k) exempts police officers in the performance of their official duties from paragraphs (e) and (f) entirely. None of this changes the licensing rules in subdivision 2: a motorcycle endorsement is required, and a rider operating on an instruction permit may not carry passengers, ride at night, or ride without approved protective headgear, restrictions that apply while splitting a lane exactly as they do anywhere else.

Splitting or filtering outside the paragraph (g) numbers, or anywhere in the four paragraph (h) locations, is a violation of chapter 169. Minn. 89, subd. 1 makes any act forbidden by the chapter a petty misdemeanor unless the chapter declares otherwise, and subdivision 2 limits a petty misdemeanor to a fine of not more than $300 with no jury trial and no possibility of imprisonment. The offence becomes a misdemeanor where it is committed in a manner or under circumstances so as to endanger or be likely to endanger any person or property, which is the realistic exposure for a rider who filters at 40 miles per hour on a freeway, or where the rider already has two or more petty misdemeanor convictions from the immediately preceding 12-month period.

89, subd. 5 the court may also order attendance at an approved driver improvement clinic, and the commissioner of public safety may suspend the operator's license for up to 30 days if the rider fails to comply with that order. Enforcement is by the State Patrol and local police at the roadside; Minnesota has no motorcycle inspection at which lane position would ever be reviewed.