[*BCM*] leegle

[Tom Revay]

>Lee Peters <lfpeters at eltonhamptonarchitects.com> wrote:
>A question for you readers of the laws:
>
>Are those un-tagged, 50cc motor scooters allowed in that zone between
>parked cars and moving traffic, the area that I used to consider our
>own?
>
>I believe what motorcyclists call "lane splitting", is illegal in Mass.
>Can I dole out dirty looks to these scofflaws? 

Motorcyclists are prohibited from riding more than two abreast, and they are also prohibited from moving up between queues of stopped traffic.  Bicyclists are prohibited from riding any way other than single-file unless one cyclist is passing another (an eminently stupid law that MassBike has been trying to get changed for some time), but they may pass queued traffic on the right or the left.  

That much said, it's usually better to simply merge into the queue and move with it, rather than squidge up on the right and risk being right- or left-hooked, an all too common form of crash.

The issue for the tiny bikes is whether they're motorcycles or motorized bicycles.  Either is already regulated by the law, and from my reading of the law (which is not authoritative), I believe they're motorized bicycles, even though they have no pedals.  See this message on the MassBike list from May about them:

http://lists.topica.com/lists/massbike/read/message.html?mid=809256256&sort=d&start=16613

The issue seems to be their speed.  

If they're capable of going over 30 MPH, then they're motorcycles.  This means that their drivers must be licensed to operate motorcycles, and the vehicles must be registered and insured.  

If they're not able to go that fast, then they're motorized bicycles, and they cannot be driven by anyone under 16, or anyone who hasn't at least a learner's permit.

As for your question:  if they're motorcycles, their drivers can't lane-split.  If they're motorized bicycles, they can.  But since the police, the Registry, the Globe, the City of Boston, and nearly nobody else seems interested in understanding and enforcing the laws that already exist on the books (even as yesterday's Globe and the City endorse further regulations that have their own problems), I think all you can do is give their scofflaw operators dirty looks.

But let's remember something else:  "our" space on the road is wherever we happen to be, so long as we're riding according to traffic laws.  We're no more entitled to the right edge than is anyone else, but we're not prohibited legally using any other part of it either.  (Every travel lane is a bike lane.)

.....................Tom