Should motorcycles be allowed to ride on the shoulder? WA lawmakers weigh in

How many times have you been stuck in traffic and had a motorcycle pass you between the lanes or on the shoulder? Both are illegal in Washington, but that might be changing.

If you’re not a rider, you probably don’t understand how dangerous it can be to be stuck in slow or bumper-to-bumper traffic. Your engine can overheat, and you are at a greater risk of being hit from behind in those conditions. That’s why you see so many riders breaking the law by lane-splitting or riding on the shoulder. And let’s be honest about it, too; it saves those riders a lot of time.

Shoulder riding proposed as safer alternative to lane splitting

Washington State Representative Ed Orcutt has been pushing to allow shoulder driving by motorcycles for a few sessions. His bill, HB 1367, will be heard again Thursday in the legislature.

This was his testimony on the bill last session.

“I don’t like lane splitting,” Orcutt said. “I think it’s dangerous, and I have concerns that somebody’s going to get squished between a couple of cars if they’re doing lane splitting in that situation. But, you know, they’re still trying to hold that bike up. They still got that strain. So what is an alternative solution? And that’s what led me to this bill: to allow the shoulder driving.”

Orcutt’s bill would allow motorcycles to use the right shoulder during slow traffic, where the average speeds have dropped to 25 miles an hour. This would only be allowed on freeways or major highways. Riders would not be able to go faster than 10 miles an hour over the slowed traffic.

Shoulders would need to be at least four feet wide, and riders must re-enter the traffic lanes to get around emergencies or debris.

“A motorcycle must re-enter traffic lanes if the shoulder is occupied by a parked vehicle, emergency vehicle, tow truck, or other vehicle providing roadside assistance until the motorcycle is safely past the obstruction,” Orcutt testified.

Riders would have to exit from the shoulder at the next off-ramp.

“This also says that you have to, at the next exit where there’s an alternative route, they have to get off,” he said. “So they can’t do this for 20 or 30 miles up I-5.”

Riders would assume any liability for damage or injury incurred by traveling on the shoulder.

Motorcycle riders say shoulder driving works and is safe

This rider from ABATE Washington testified last year that he tried shoulder riding, which is legal in Hawaii.

“This works,” he testified. “It’s safe. And if you’ve ever seen a motorcycle rear-ended by a vehicle, this is a very dangerous situation. Seven to 11% of accidents with motorcycles are rear ending, and that may be just a fender bender for a car, but for a motorcycle, it’s a life and death situation.”

Fellow ABATE Washington rider Larry Walker also spoke.

“Getting hit from behind is probably not a really good thing for a motorcycle,” Walker said. “This gets us out of that mix and also allows us to keep proceeding forward, even if a motorcycle is water-cooled. Those fans on the radiators are not good enough to keep that engine cool, so this allows us to get air flow across there.”

The bill also requires the state to add right shoulder driving to driver’s education and the manuals. There would be public education, too.

This bill did not make it out of committee last session, but it has been rewritten to address concerns from the Washington State Patrol and Washington State Department of Transportation.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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