No. Lane splitting is illegal in Utah. Lane filtering is a different maneuver and it is still legal, but only when every statutory condition is met. Most sources online use the two terms interchangeably, and that confusion can cost an injured rider real money when an insurer starts assigning fault.
Utah treats these as two separate acts with two separate legal outcomes. Lane splitting means riding between marked lanes while the traffic around you is moving. Lane filtering means moving past a vehicle that is stopped. One is prohibited and carries escalating license penalties. The other is permitted under narrow conditions and is currently scheduled to expire. This page covers where the line falls, what changed under House Bill 190, and how either maneuver affects a Utah injury claim.
Utah law prohibits lane splitting. Riding a motorcycle between clearly marked lanes carrying traffic that is traveling in the same direction while that traffic is in motion is an infraction.
A conviction does more than generate a ticket. On a first offense the Driver License Division suspends the rider’s motorcycle endorsement for 90 days, or the driver license itself for 90 days if the rider has no valid endorsement. A second offense carries a 180-day suspension of the endorsement. A third or subsequent offense results in revocation of the endorsement, and the rider becomes ineligible to obtain one. The court forwards the conviction to the Driver License Division, and a law enforcement officer may impound the motorcycle.
Those penalties are steep for an infraction, and they are the clearest signal of how the Legislature views the maneuver.
Lane filtering remains legal in Utah under Utah Code 41-6a-704. Utah legalized it in 2019, becoming one of the first states to define and permit the maneuver under controlled conditions.
The statutory definitions turn on one fact: whether the vehicle you are passing is stopped. Lane filtering is overtaking and passing a vehicle that is stopped in the same direction of travel in the same lane. Lane splitting is riding between marked lanes while traffic is in motion. Utah Code 41-6a-102 defines each term to exclude the other, so they are not interchangeable and never have been under Utah law.
The reasoning behind allowing filtering is that a motorcycle stopped at the back of a queue is exposed to being rear-ended, and moving to the front removes that risk. Passing between vehicles that are still moving presents a different problem entirely, which is why the Legislature drew the line where it did.
Filtering is legal only when all of the following are true at the same time. Missing any one of them turns a lawful maneuver into an infraction:
Two points get missed constantly. Filtering is never legal on a freeway, because the speed limit condition rules it out. And the vehicle you are passing has to be stopped, not merely moving slowly, so once traffic starts rolling again the legal protection ends and you need to return to a single lane.
House Bill 190, the Motorcycle Amendments bill from the 2025 General Session, reshaped how Utah handles both maneuvers. Three changes matter to riders:
The same bill also prohibited performing a wheelie on a highway, carrying the same suspension structure. If you were cited under any of these provisions and later injured in a crash, the citation will come up in the claim.
Utah’s lane filtering provision carries a scheduled repeal date of July 1, 2027. Unless the Legislature acts before then, the statutory authorization for filtering lapses on that date.
This has happened before without the law disappearing. Filtering was originally enacted in 2019 with a sunset date, and the Legislature extended it in 2022 rather than letting it expire. Whether it gets extended again, modified, or allowed to lapse is an open question.
The practical point for riders: if the provision does lapse, filtering after that date would lose its statutory protection, which would expose riders to citations and weaken their position in any injury claim arising from the maneuver. Check the current status before relying on this page after mid-2027.
Utah follows a comparative negligence system under Utah Code 78B-5-818. Your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if your share of fault reaches the statutory bar you recover nothing. That makes any traffic violation in a motorcycle crash worth taking seriously.
A violation does not automatically end your claim. It functions as evidence of negligence that an insurer, or a jury, can weigh when allocating fault. If a rider was splitting lanes illegally when the crash happened, that fact can push the rider’s assigned percentage up sharply, potentially past the point where recovery is barred.
The reverse is also true and is worth understanding. If you were filtering lawfully and met every condition, that compliance supports the position that you were not negligent. The other driver’s conduct, whether that was failing to check a mirror, opening a door, or moving into the lane you occupied, then carries more weight in the fault analysis.
Small deviations matter more than riders expect. Filtering slightly above 15 miles per hour, or on a road posted above 45, is enough for an insurer to argue the maneuver was unlawful. Utah’s statute of limitations for a personal injury claim is four years, but the evidence that establishes compliance is easiest to preserve immediately after the crash.
If you were following the statutory conditions and another driver hit you, you have grounds to pursue a claim. What you do next affects how strong it is:
No. Lane splitting, meaning riding between clearly marked lanes while surrounding traffic is moving, is prohibited in Utah and is an infraction. A conviction also triggers suspension of the rider’s motorcycle endorsement, and law enforcement may impound the motorcycle.
Yes, but only when every statutory condition is met at once: you are on a roadway with two or more lanes in the same direction or on an off-ramp, the speed limit is 45 miles per hour or less or you are on an off-ramp, you are not on an on-ramp, the vehicle you are passing in your lane is stopped, you are traveling at 15 miles per hour or less, and the movement can be made safely.
Whether the traffic is moving. Lane filtering is passing a vehicle that is stopped in your lane, in the same direction of travel. Lane splitting is riding between marked lanes while traffic is in motion. Utah Code 41-6a-102 defines each term to exclude the other, and Utah law treats them very differently.
A first offense results in a 90-day suspension of the motorcycle endorsement, or of the driver license if the rider holds no endorsement. A second offense carries a 180-day suspension. A third or subsequent offense results in revocation of the endorsement and ineligibility to obtain one. An officer may also impound the motorcycle.
Possibly, but it is harder. Under Utah’s comparative negligence statute, Utah Code 78B-5-818, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and once your share reaches the statutory bar you recover nothing. An unlawful maneuver is evidence of negligence that raises your assigned percentage. It is not an automatic bar, though, and the other driver’s conduct still gets weighed.
The lane filtering provision is currently scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2027. The Legislature has extended it before rather than letting it lapse, and it may do so again, but until that happens the repeal date stands.
This is general information, not legal advice. Contacting Robert J. DeBry & Associates or submitting a form does not create an attorney-client relationship.