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Montana Passes Motorcycle Lane-Filtering Legislation

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from https://www.cyclenews.com This is a press release from American Motorcyclist Association. Montana becomes the third U.S. state to allow filtering in traffic. Montana has become the third state to recognize lane filtering, with the Gov. Greg Gianforte’s signature on a bill legalizing filtering of motorcycles under certain conditions. “We applaud the efforts of Montana’s motorcycling community and the state’s legislators, and thank Gov. Gianforte for signing this legislation into law,” said Russ Ehnes, chair of the AMA Board of Directors. S.B. 9 allows the operator of a two-wheeled motorcycle to overtake stopped or slow-moving vehicles at a speed not in excess of 20 mph, to filter between lanes of stopped traffic traveling in the same direction as conditions permit, and specifies reasonable and prudent motorcycle operation while lane filtering. “With the signing of S.B. 9, Montanans have recognized the benefits of lane splitting, which allows motorcyclists the choice to filter in traffic when it is safe to do so,” said Tiffany Cipoletti, on-highway government relations manager for the American Motorcyclist Association. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Russ Tempel (R-SD14) and state Rep. Barry Usher (R-HD40), was signed by Gov. Gianforte on March 2 at a public signing ceremony in Helena. Ehnes was in attendance. The bill takes effect October 1, 2021. California (A.B. 51, 2016) and Utah (H.B. 149, 2018) were the first two states to codify and sign lane-splitting or lane-filtering legislation. Efforts to legalize and formally recognize lane filtering/splitting is under consideration in three other states during the 2021 legislative session. The AMA endorses lane splitting, given the long-term success in California and the University of California-Berkeley research study showing that the practice enhances motorcycle safety. The AMA will assist groups and individuals working to bring legal lane splitting and/or filtering to their state. “As lane splitting […]

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How data is driving new approaches to transportation

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from New York Times Analysing digital streams of information from electric scooters and motor-assisted bicycles are helping solve travel congestion issues. Five seconds after a Los Angeles rider unlocks a dockless electric scooter with a smartphone app and sets off to a destination, a cityoperated databank is informed. Five seconds after the trip ends, typically no more than a mile away, another alert updates the record, noting the location. In 24 hours, the exact route is uploaded and logged for analysis. That ride to the bus stop or the convenience store, emissions-free and nearly silent, would seem to be a zero-disruption event in a sprawling city with millions of people and vehicles. Yet extrapolated over years, it foreshadows a shift of potentially enormous consequences. While the identity of that rider is unknown to the city, a stream of data from the scooter’s GPS module and cellphone link — speed, time of day, battery state of charge — flows to cloud servers an average of a million times a month during Los Angeles’s pilot program. Each trip is but a trickle of bytes, yet it is a rich resource for the planners and the policymakers who hope to tame the persistent tangle of traffic in this vehicle-dependent metropolis. That vehicular chokehold can weigh as heavily on a neighborhood dweller as it does on a road user. “Cities have to assure that their resources are used efficiently, and that includes the shared spaces,” said Stephen Zoepf, chief of policy development at Ellis & Associates, a Silicon Valley consultancy that helps cities develop transportation technology plans. “The effects of crowding, in noise and emissions, are a tragedy of the commons,” he continued, using an economist’s term for situations in which resources are depleted by those acting in self-interest rather than the general good.

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U.S. moving to block California vehicle emissions rules

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Two U.S. agencies are preparing to submit for final White House regulatory review a plan to revoke California’s authority to set its own vehicle greenhouse gas standards and declare that states are pre-empted from setting their own vehicle rules, two people briefed on the matter said on Thursday. WASHINGTON: Two U.S. agencies are preparing to submit for final White House regulatory review a plan to revoke California’s authority to set its own vehicle greenhouse gas standards and declare that states are pre-empted from setting their own vehicle rules, two people briefed on the matter said on Thursday. The Environmental Protection Agency in August 2018 proposed revoking a waiver granted to California in 2013 under the Clean Air Act as part of the Trump administration’s plan to roll back Obama-era fuel economy standards through 2025. The EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are expected to seek approval to finalize the first portion of the rule dealing with California and other states before completing action on setting yearly fuel efficiency requirements. The plan would not revoke California’s ability to set low-emission vehicle standards that has been in place since 1990, the sources said. The move comes as President Donald Trump has expressed anger with automakers over the issue. In July, four major automakers, including Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG, said they had reached a voluntary agreement with California on fuel efficiency rules. California and other states had vowed to enforce stricter Obama-era emissions standards, after Trump proposed rolling back the federal rules. Automakers had worried that court battles between state and federal governments could create years of uncertainty for manufacturers. The plan, also backed by BMW AG and Honda Motor Co Ltd, is more stringent than Trump’s proposal but looser than the Obama-era rule. California, the most populous

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Berlin to tighten rules for electric scooter users

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City transport officials said after a meeting with scooter providers that they’ll designate special on-street parking zones for the battery-powered vehicles BERLIN: Berlin plans to stop electric scooters from being left haphazardly on sidewalks and other anti-social behavior that’s drawn the ire of residents in the German capital since the vehicles were made legal two months ago. City transport officials said Wednesday after a meeting with scooter providers that they’ll designate special on-street parking zones for the battery-powered vehicles, which are popular among tourists and young people. Berlin police will also step up patrols to prevent illegal behavior such as doubling. Police say seven people have been seriously injured and 27 suffered minor injuries in scooter accidents since mid-June, saying most were due to riders behaving carelessly. In Paris, where about 20,000 scooters roam the streets , authorities recently proposed limiting speeds to 8 kilometers per hour (5 mph) in areas with heavy foot traffic.

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Paris clamps down on electric scooters as law of the jungle rules

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More than 1,000 tickets have been issued and about 600 scooters impounded, authorities said, and a new surveillance force has been set up. PARIS: If you’re spending time in Paris this summer and decide to check out one of the 20,000 electric scooters buzzing along its boulevards, you might want to be careful how you ride and where you end up parking. Over the past year the city has become awash with the zippy two-wheelers, with 12 start-ups offering the chance to download an app and dash across the Seine for not much more than the cost of a metro ticket. But the scooters’ popularity, and the relative lack of rules around their use, has prompted City Hall to impose overdue restrictions, with fines for driving them on the pavement or parking them in doorways, crosswalks and other busy places. After two deaths and scores of injuries, residents have become increasingly vocal against the scooters, which are expected to number up to 40,000 by the end of this year. From July 1, a spot fine of 35 euros ($40) will be levied on bad parking, while those caught on the sidewalk will be hit with a 135-euro penalty. A speed limit of 20 km/hr has been imposed across the capital. Even before the legislation kicks in, police have been stepping up their efforts. More than 1,000 tickets have been issued and about 600 scooters impounded, authorities said, and a new surveillance force has been set up. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has described the scooters as “anarchic”, while transport minister Elisabeth Borne told Le Parisien the city was experiencing “the law of the jungle”. To regulate the number of scooters, City Hall has introduced a fee of 50 euros per scooter for the first 499 units, rising to 65 euros for

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Google Maps introduces a feature to make commute easy

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Google has reportedly introduced a new features in Google Maps which will offer preview of users’ commute with a map as soon as they get into the car. Tech giant Google keep on introducing new features in its navigation app Google Maps in order to enhance the user experience. Recently, the company rolled out the speed camera and accident alert features. Now, Google has reportedly introduced a new features in Google Maps which will offer preview of users’ commute with a map as soon as they get into the car. According to a report by Android Police, Google is working on a major improvement which will offer advance notification including a small preview of the route that the Maps suggest the user to take. This will offer a better idea to the driver as they will get to know about the traffic congestion in advance. The company will be using the same colour codes to inform about the traffic condition. The blue area will suggest the clear route and the orange will highlight the slow traffic movement. The roads which will appear red indicate heavy traffic. In order to access the preview users just will have to expand the notification which they will receive before their morning and afternoon commutes. The report also adds that the update consisting of the new feature has started rolling out as a server-side update and is yet to reach the Android users. Recently, Google Maps were updated with features like report a Crash, Speed alert and traffic slowdown. While the first one lets the app know about a possible crash and show others a different route, the second one alerts them about upcoming Speed Traps on the way. However, the team is rolling out the third ‘Add a report’ option in the app –

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Chinese driver gets ticket for scratching his face

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A man in eastern China received a fine after a traffic camera using artificial intelligence captured him scratching his face, it’s reported. According to the Jilu Evening Post, the male motorist surnamed Liu was driving on Monday in Jinan, eastern Shandong province, and had raised his hand to scratch his face while passing a traffic camera. The next thing he knew, he’d received a notification instructing him that he had violated the laws of the road for “driving while holding a phone”. A surveillance picture of his “offence” was attached. He was told that he would receive two points on his licence and was also ordered to pay a 50 yuan (£5.70; $7.25) fine. “I often see people online exposed for driving and touching [others’] legs,” he said on the popular Sina Weibo microblog,” “but this morning, for touching my face, I was also snapped ‘breaking the rules’!” He shared the surveillance picture of himself that he had been sent, and said that he was going to go the authorities to try to sort the situation, after “no one would help him” over the phone. The Global Times newspaper says that the city’s traffic authority have now cancelled his ticket, and told him that “the traffic surveillance system automatically identifies a driver’s motion and then takes a photo”, which is why his face-scratching had been mistaken for him taking a phone call. While many online are amused by his case joking that the positioning of his hand signalled he certainly appeared to be on an “invisible” phone, some are also voicing their concerns about the level of surveillance placed on them. “This is quite embarrassing,” says one, “that monitored people have no privacy.” “Chinese people’s privacy – is that not an important issue?” another asks. There are more than 170

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Utah Legalizes Lane Splitting

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from rideapart.com Governor Gary Herbert signed H.B. 149 into law Thursday, making Utah the second state to permit the practice. Update: Imprecise language to discuss the contents of this bill was used. The Utah bill clearly states that “lane filtering” is now legal, however, we referred to it as “lane splitting”, which is often colloquially used to describe both. We have clarified the information and changed the article to reflect the subtleties between both terminologies, and we apologize for the mistake. – SG On Thursday, the number of states to take motorcycle safety measures doubled to two, as Governor Gary Herbert signed H.B. 149, legalizing lane filtering in the great state of Utah. Only 48 U.S. states, Canada, and a few other countries prohibit motorcycles from traveling between lanes of cars in slow or stopped traffic. It’s common and expected practice throughout Europe and Asia. As long as cars are expecting it and everyone involved does it safely, it’s not only faster for bikes to cut through traffic, but safer, too. Bikes can safely make their way to the front of the line, rather than be stuck in the back where an inattentive driver could crash into them from behind. Of course, since this is a motorcycle safety bill, it’s not about doing a wheelie between cars at 100 mph. The law stipulates certain conditions under which lane filtering is allowed. The road must have two or more lanes with a speed limit no greater than 45 mph, which unfortunately rules out interstates. Additionally, traffic must be completely stopped, and the motorcycle may not exceed 15 mph while navigating between lanes (unlike lane splitting that allows motorcycles to cruise in-between lanes while traffic is in motion). It’s not exactly the Wild West of California’s lane splitting laws (or lack of

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An Eye on Recent Motorist Rights Court Cases

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FROM National Motorists Association https://www.motorists.org Motorist rights cases have made news and even history recently. There have been so many as of late, we are dedicating two separate newsletters to provide some insight on the legal rulings that are affecting drivers around the country. This week’s newsletter focuses on recent rulings and pending US Supreme Court and federal court cases. Part 2 next week will outline state court decisions. TheNewspaper.com, featured prominently in these two newsletters, is a great supplement to the NMA’s Motorists.org site for the latest news and opinions on the politics of driving. The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) Last week’s unanimous decision that curtails excessive government fines and property seizures has provided further impetus for one of the NMA’s primary lobbying initiatives: civil asset forfeiture (CAF) reform. The decision received broad bipartisan praise. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the ruling that the excessive fines clause is a fundamental restriction that applies to the states under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. While the SCOTUS decision is monumental, the fight is far from over. Some states still allow the seizure of property from citizens — motorists are prime targets — who have never been charged with a crime. Our work for reform at the federal and state levels continues in earnest. Additionally, SCOTUS accepted a case in January that will decide whether an unconscious drunk person has given implied consent for a blood draw to determine alcohol level. The case might resolve an important constitutional question: Can state legislatures obviate the warrant requirement by “deeming” that citizens can consent to Fourth Amendment searches without explicitly expressing that consent? Federal Appeals Court Cases Judges for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in late January that a person driving a registered vehicle on a public road

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