Do you know what day it is?
For some of us, it's January 10 as I write this. But for riders in France, it's officially the day that the federal government has made lane filtering for certain two- and three-wheeled vehicles legal.
This new decree was officially signed into law on January 9, with an effective date of the day after its publication. It also follows years of lane filtering studies carried out in specific departments of France (think of them like counties, if you need an analogous idea). However, unlike those previous studies, this new law applies throughout the whole of the country, not just in specific regions.
At the beginning of January 2025, in fact, French legislators stated an intention to continue the study until the middle of 2025, instead of ending it on December 31, 2024. At the time, I asked why France didn't just make lane filtering legal since the results had so far been so positive, and it's been actual years since the studies started.
Now, it has!
Before you get too excited, there are very specific rules about who, when, and how lane filtering is legal to do on French roads. For a start, both two- and three-wheeled vehicles are eligible to participate in this road behavior, but only if they're under one meter wide (or just over three feet). So, something like a Piaggio MP3 (around 800mm in width, or about 31.5 inches) would be fine, but a Ural Gear Up (which is nearly 64 inches in width) wouldn't be.
The same speed limit requirements apply to the new French law as were tested during the years of studies in and around Paris. To practice lane filtering, the posted speed limit on the road must be at least 70 kilometers per hour (about 43.4 mph), but the lane-filtering rider must not be moving faster than 50 km/h (about 31 mph).
Additional rules apply as well, including:
- Lane filtering must take place within the two leftmost lanes of a highway
- No traffic lanes on the roadway may be under construction, or be obstructed by snow and/or ice
- Riders must indicate their intention to lane filter to other road users prior to performing the action
- If any lane of traffic is completely stopped, lane filtering motorbikes MUST not exceed a speed of 30 km/h (about 18.6 mph)
- No motorbike that is filtering can overtake another motorbike that is filtering
- Riders must rejoin traffic and cease filtering once they reach a point where surrounding traffic is moving faster than they can legally filter, and they must indicate their intention to rejoin traffic by signalling
- Violations of this decree may result in penalties including fines, points on their driver's license, and/or driver's license suspension
So, to summarize, as long as riders play nicely with traffic, it looks like lane filtering will soon be a regular, everyday part of French roadway life. Vive la France!
