Washington Motorcycle Law

A CONDEMNATION OF RIDE APART MAGAZINE

Recently RideApart, a well-known and, heretofore, respected motorcycle publication, published two completely irresponsible, erroneous, and misleadingly alarmist articles relating to Utah's lane filtering law.

In 2019 Utah passed a bill which legalized "LANE FILTERING", which limited the practice of riding between lanes on a motorcyce to essentially STOPPED traffic on ROADS with speed limits of 45 miles per hour or less. The bill did NOT legalize "LANE SPLITTING" which is generally known as riding a motorcycles between lanes on HIGHWAYS (55 mph +) while traffic is MOVING.

The first article, published an article on January 15, 2026 entitled "Utah Bans Lane-Splitting, Makes Wheelies a Crime" which reported correctly that Utah passed a bill in 2025 which expressely stated lane splitting was illegal, which, of course it already was. Arguably a misleading title, but, OK.

HOWEVER, on April 20, 2026, RideApart published an article titled "Utah Motorcycle Riders, Lane Filtering Is Next On The List To Be Outlawed," which was a COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE, MISLEADING, AND ALARMIST article that violated journalism ethics.

The article used the previous January "lane splitting now illegal" article as a launching pad to CLAIM THAT AN ELECTRIC BICYCLE AMENDMENT BILL (incorporating electric bikes into existing statutes) WAS IN FACT THE FIRST STEP IN MAKING LANE FILTERING ILLEGAL IN UTAH, UNNECESSARILY ALARMING UTAH RIDERS and those of us with functional brains who are fighting for motorcycle rights across the country.

Needless to say, THIS claim, nay SCHEME, did not survive legal scrutiny.

This WAS undoubtedly JUST FOR ATTENTION AT THE MOTORCYCLE COMMUNITY'S EXPENSE.

Shame on you RideApart Magazine.

This RIDER and LAWYER calls on RideApart Magazine to ISSUE A RETRACTION AND WRITTEN CORRECTION and APOLOGIZE to its readers and the motorcycle community at large.

UNTIL SUCH TIME, I CALL ON THE MOTORCYCLE COMMUNITY TO BOYCOTT RIDEAPART MAGAZINE.

We expect better from "our own."

Christopher A. Slater, Attorney at Law.

Just a few photos from the 15th annual, The One Motorcycle Show in Portland, OR. Hundreds of custom bikes, local vendors, stunt riders, and good times all around!