Some motorists might get angry or at least envious watching motorcyclists ride between lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic. Those who do it now are breaking the law, but starting July 1, 2025, it will be legal.

The new law is intended to improve safety for motorcyclists and all vehicles.

“We have cars driving faster on the freeways. Our vehicles are getting bigger and so as a motorcyclist, I’m a sitting duck if I’m sitting in stop-and-go traffic,” says Phil Stalboerger, who lobbied for the new law less than two years after he and his wife were injured when his motorcycle was rear-ended at 30 miles per hour.

They were stopped in freeway traffic at the time and his wife, a passenger on the motorcycle, was hospitalized for several days.

“Even though I’ve taken all my safety training and I knew exactly what I was going to do to make sure I didn’t get rear-ended, it happened so fast that I was rear-ended by a distracted driver,” Stalboerger told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. “As I heard the tires screeching, we were rear-ended… literally catapulted into the other lane of traffic. Luckily wasn’t hit again.”

Starting next year, motorcyclists will be able to ride between lanes of stopped or bumper-to-bumper slow traffic as long as they don’t go faster than 15 to 25 mph, depending on traffic conditions. Drivers who try to impede them could face a misdemeanor.

“In bumper-to-bumper traffic, it’s difficult for motorcyclists to be seen, so this provides one more option for the motorcyclist to put themselves in a good place instead of in a not-so-good-place,” says Jed Duncan, who teaches motorcycle safety at Rider Academy in St. Paul. “There’s no airbags, no crumple zones, nothing on this motorcycle, but I’ve got choices now where I can put my motorcycle and me in a better place.”

The new law won’t take effect until after a year-long public education campaign the Legislature funded at $200,000. It could include pamphlets and public service video announcements alerting all Minnesotans this is now legal. The campaign will also make it clear the law will not allow carelessly weaving in and out of traffic.

“It gets more people through traffic sooner and better,” Duncan says about the new law. “So we’re all going to benefit from it but it’s going to take a little bit of education.”

Stalboerger says he knows he and his wife were fortunate to survive the driver who struck them. He wants the new law to help keep other riders out of harm’s way.

“The motorcycle community does not want motorcyclists to be abusing this law,” he says. “We don’t want to be weaving in and out of traffic. This is all about safety.”

The new law was something of a rarity in the 2024 legislative session as it passed with bipartisan support.