Lane Splitting in North Carolina: Unlawful, Though Two Abreast Is Allowed

The section that speaks directly to motorcycles and lanes is short enough to read in full. G.S. 20-146.1(a) says all motorcycles are entitled to full use of a lane and no motor vehicle shall be driven so as to deprive any motorcycle of the full use of a lane. That is a shield against drivers who try to share a lane with a rider, not a licence for the rider to share a lane with them. Subsection (b) sets the co-riding limit at two abreast in a single lane, and since Session Law 2015-163, s. 12, the word motorcycle in that subsection excludes autocycles, which may not be operated more than one abreast. An autocycle in North Carolina is a three-wheeled motorcycle with a steering wheel, pedals, seat safety belts for each occupant, antilock brakes and enclosed seating that does not require the operator to straddle it, so the 2015 change kept Slingshot-style machines from pairing up inside one lane.

Nothing in that section authorises passing inside a lane, and no other section does either. A full-text read of Chapter 20 of the General Statutes returns zero occurrences of "lane splitting," "lane-splitting," "between lanes" or "filtering." This is the absence-of-authorisation case rather than the express-prohibition case, so the operative rules are the general ones.

G.S. 20-146(d)(1) is the first of them: whenever a street has been divided into two or more clearly marked lanes, a vehicle shall be driven as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane and shall not be moved from that lane until the driver has first ascertained that the movement can be made with safety. A motorcycle riding the painted line is by definition not within a single lane. G.S. 20-149(a) is the second: the driver of a vehicle overtaking another proceeding in the same direction shall pass at least two feet to the left of it and shall not return to the right until safely clear. Two feet of clearance measured to the left of a car cannot be found inside that car's own lane on a standard twelve-foot travel lane with mirrors extended.

Passing on the right does not open a door either, because North Carolina wrote that rule as a closed list. G.S. 20-150.1 permits overtaking on the right "only" in four situations: when the vehicle overtaken is in a lane designated for left turns, on a road of sufficient width marked for two or more lanes of moving vehicles in each direction and not occupied by parked cars, on a one-way street or one-direction highway marked for two or more lanes, and when driving in a lane designating a right turn on a red signal. Every one of those contemplates the passing vehicle occupying a different marked lane or a designated turn lane. Filtering up the gap between two occupied lanes fits none of the four.

The clearest proof that this is a deliberate gap rather than an oversight is what North Carolina did legislate. G.S. 20-150(e) creates a narrow, carefully drafted same-direction passing exception that lets a driver overtake across a no-passing marking, but only when the slower vehicle is a bicycle or a moped, only when the faster driver leaves a minimum of four feet or completely enters the left lane, and only when the slower operator is not turning or signalling a left turn. The General Assembly knows exactly how to write a targeted passing allowance. It has written one for bicycles and mopeds and none for motorcycles.

What riders can rely on is narrower but real. Two motorcycles may share a lane side by side, which makes staggered and paired group riding lawful in North Carolina. The "as nearly as practicable" wording in 20-146(d)(1) means nothing forces a rider to hold the centre of the lane, so choosing a wheel track for visibility or to avoid a road defect is fine. And 20-146.1(a) gives a rider a specific statutory complaint against a driver who tries to squeeze past inside the rider's own lane.

1 all sit in Part 10 of Article 3 of Chapter 20, the rules of the road. S. S. 20-176(b). S. 1(a) bars imprisonment for an infraction and sends the penalty money to the county for the use of the public schools. S. S. 1, which contains no prohibition aimed at riders at all. S. 20-140(a) or (b), a Class 2 misdemeanor under 20-140(d). S. 20-176(d) provides that for deciding whether a Chapter 20 violation constitutes negligence per se, crimes and infractions are treated identically, so a rider who was splitting when a collision happened hands the other side a statutory negligence argument.