Whether Nevada is your home state or you just ride into Vegas every year for the Las Vegas Bikefest, it’s important that you know and follow the traffic rules. Vegas often sees very high levels of traffic, which can make navigating the busy roads on a motorcycle that much more nerve-wracking.
Especially if you are from California, you may try to get out of heavy traffic gridlock by splitting lanes with another vehicle. However, splitting lanes in Nevada could lead to major issues for a rider.
Lane-splitting is not a legal practice in Nevada
Those used to driving their motorcycles on the California highway could easily make mistakes here in Nevada. Lane-splitting is legal under California traffic laws but not in Nevada. Two motorcycles can share a lane, but a motorcycle can not share lanes as a means of passing other vehicles.
In other words, if you encounter very dense traffic and believe that you could maneuver through it by sharing lanes with some of the smaller vehicles near you, doing so might lead to a traffic ticket. More importantly, if you do get into a crash, your lane-splitting might give the other driver an opportunity to claim contributory negligence on your part.
If you file a civil lawsuit against the driver who caused the crash, they can defend themselves by blaming you for splitting lanes. The courts may then assign some of the blame for the crash to you. The percentage of your contributory negligence will affect your compensation, and if you have more blame than the other driver, may stop you from pursuing a civil suit altogether.
Knowing the rules that apply to motorcycle riding can help you avoid a motorcycle crash or better respond if one does happen.
