Lane Splitting Is Charged as Reckless Driving

Section 46.2-857 of the Code of Virginia is titled "Driving two abreast in a single lane," and it sits in Article 7 of Chapter 8, the article headed "Reckless Driving and Improper Driving." That placement is the whole point of the page. In most states a motorcyclist who splits lanes is cited for an equipment or lane-use infraction. In Virginia the conduct is defined as reckless driving by statute, so the charge is criminal from the moment the summons is written.

The operative language reaches the conduct twice over. A person is guilty of reckless driving who drives any motor vehicle so as to be abreast of another vehicle in a lane designed for one vehicle, and also who drives any motor vehicle so as to travel abreast of any other vehicle traveling in a lane designed for one vehicle. A motorcycle moving up between two lines of slowed traffic is abreast of vehicles in lanes designed for one vehicle each, whichever line the officer measures against.

The exception that does exist is narrow and specific: nothing in the section prohibits two two-wheeled motorcycles from traveling abreast while traveling in a lane designated for one vehicle. Virginia therefore permits lane sharing, two riders side by side in one lane, while prohibiting lane splitting. The wording is "two two-wheeled motorcycles," which excludes three-wheeled machines, and § 46.2-100 separately excludes autocycles, mopeds, golf carts and utility vehicles from the definition of motorcycle. Three further carve-outs follow: a validly authorized parade, motorcade, or motorcycle escort; a motor vehicle traveling in the same lane as a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, electric power-assisted bicycle, or moped; and any vehicle lawfully overtaking and passing in a separate lane.

Two neighboring sections close the obvious workarounds. Va. Code § 46.2-804(2) requires that a vehicle be driven as nearly as is practicable entirely within a single lane and not moved from that lane until the driver has ascertained that the movement can be made safely, and a violation of that section is punishable by a fine of $100. Riding the line is a lane-discipline offense on its own even where a prosecutor does not pursue the reckless charge. Va. Code § 46.2-841(B) then states that except where driving on paved shoulders is permitted by lawfully placed signs, no passing movement on the right may be made by driving on the shoulder of the highway or off the pavement or main traveled portion of the roadway. Filtering along the shoulder past stopped traffic is therefore not an alternative.

Virginia does grant an in-lane passing right, but not to motorcycles. Va. Code § 46.2-907 allows a person riding a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, electric power-assisted bicycle, motorized skateboard or foot-scooter, or moped to overtake and pass another vehicle on either the left or right side while staying in the same lane as the overtaken vehicle. Even those riders are told they shall not travel between two lanes of traffic moving in the same direction, except where one lane is a separate turn lane or a mandatory turn lane. Motorcycles appear nowhere in § 46.2-907, so the in-lane passing permission does not extend to them.

The Virginia General Assembly has amended § 46.2-857 repeatedly, most recently in 2012, and each amendment has added an exemption rather than opening the section up. There is no pilot program, no local option, and no county or city in Virginia where lane splitting has been authorized by ordinance.

A lane-splitting charge under § 46.2-857 is prosecuted as reckless driving. Va. Code § 46.2-868(A) makes every person convicted of reckless driving under that article guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, and § 18.2-11(a) sets the Class 1 punishment at confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both. That is a criminal conviction that appears on a Virginia criminal record, not a traffic infraction.

The court has a second lever. Under Va. Code § 46.2-392, in addition to the penalties for reckless driving prescribed in § 46.2-868, the court may suspend the driver's license of a person convicted of reckless driving for a period of not less than 10 days nor more than six months, and shall require the convicted person to surrender the license to the court. If the driver holds no Virginia license or is a nonresident, the court may instead order in the judgment of conviction that he not drive any motor vehicle in the Commonwealth for the same 10-day to six-month period. The court may, for good cause shown, issue a restricted permit for the purposes listed in subsection E of § 18.2-271.1, and that order must be carried at all times while driving.

There is a recognized off-ramp. Va. Code § 46.2-869 lets the court or jury, where the degree of culpability is slight, find the accused not guilty of reckless driving but guilty of improper driving instead, and it lets the attorney for the Commonwealth reduce the charge to improper driving at any time before the court's decision, with notice to the court. Improper driving is a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of not more than $500. That section was last amended in 2025.

The lesser lane-discipline charge under § 46.2-804 carries a fixed $100 fine and no jail exposure, and enforcement of all of these rests with Virginia State Police troopers and with county, city, and town police and sheriffs.