Legalizing Lane Splitting in Minnesota

And Buying a Powerball Ticket.

Good luck or bad luck supposedly comes in threes so I’m today buying a Powerball ticket for the first (or possibly second?) time in my life. I’m feeling lucky because this week Minnesota unexpectedly became the sixth state in America to formally legalize lane splitting. Separately, another bit of possible good luck may be about to happen at Aerostich (which will be described a little further below).

That makes two. Perhaps a lucky Powerball number is out there waiting for me. How could it not be?

There is a terrific story about how this new Minnesota lane splitting law suddenly became reality and it will soon be told elsewhere, but for now, a simple explanation is the planets all aligned and a few Minnesota riders in key legislative and leadership positions saw the opportunity and acted quickly, doing all the right kinds of things at exactly the right time. So beginning on July 1 of 2025, all motorcycle riders in MN will be able to filter through congested traffic as if they were riding bicycles.

It will take years before many Minnesota drivers become comfortable with motorcycles filtering around them in congested traffic. To begin familiarizing them Minnesota is planning PSA announcements and other kinds of public information and education programs between now and next July. Essentially only two elements are involved:

1.) In congested areas worldwide the operators of smaller nimbler vehicles have always naturally and safely filtered through the interstices between the larger and clumsier vehicles. This is why lane-splitting is legal or well-accepted just about everywhere in the world except America. Millions of riders across the planet safely do this every single day, especially through the most road-congested densely populated cities in ‘developing’ areas throughout Asia, Africa, and South America.

2.) Only in America did almost everyone go right to cars, because a 1916 Model T automobile cost about the same as a 1916 motorcycle. People could get four wheels or two wheels for the same price, and everyone then in the market for wheels chose the Ford. This happened across America, and nowhere else. Since then, most bikes designed, manufactured, and marketed in the United States have been consumed as sport and leisure vehicles. Bikes became societally marginalized as leisure toys and sporting machines, and riding them came to be identified with rebellion, recreation, and sport, not useful utility transportation.

Our unique moto-history continues to influence how motorcycling in America is understood and consumed, which is why there are so few motorcycle commuters and utility riders here today. But globally motorcycles are a well-established economically proven safe way to reduce road congestion, improve society, and place a lighter footprint on the earth.

Very significantly, the behavioral differences between typical utility riders and recreational riders are immense and consequential.  People riding mostly for sport and recreation are far more likely to ride in ways that are unsafe, and those who ride for utility transportation tend naturally to ride as safely as possible. This is why lane splitting tends to be far safer than most Americans think it is.

The second bit of potentially very good luck which came Aerostich’s way earlier this week is a lot simpler to explain. After fifteen years of fruitlessly trying to persuade the YKK zipper company to develop a slightly stronger and slightly easier-to-handle version of the main entry zipper in Aerostich suits, it looks like this may finally be happening. The zipper we’ve been using for about the past fifteen years is the very best available from any zipper company I am aware of, and it has worked extremely well for about 97% of our customers, but it isn’t quite perfect. Our long-time YKK zipper sales rep just sent me a photo of a new model that looks good. A sample of this zipper should show up on my desk next week. If it does work for us (?), then several months from now all Aerostich suits will begin to come with this new zipper and we’ll probably also figure out a way to offer it as a replacement upgrade to those with older Aerostich gear. Hopefully, I’ll soon be sending a bottle of fancy whiskey to our YKK zipper rep along with a sincere thank-you note.

Good luck (and trouble) supposedly comes in threes. This afternoon I’m buying a Powerball ticket.

Mr. Subjective, May 24, 2024.

PS – Unfortunately, after writing this blog post, the ticket I purchased (shown here) had only one matching number. So maybe the old saying about ‘luck (or bad things) coming in 3’s isn’t as quite true as people believe. Or maybe some other good thing will still happen? Or maybe the new zipper won’t work out? Or?

This is the photo of the possible new zipper:

Here’s the text of the new Minnesota lane splitting law:

PPS -- Also, unfortunately, when the possible zipper solution arrived, it won't work for us. But we'll keep trying.