The Minnesota Legislature passed a law allowing motorcyclists to slowly ride in between lanes when there is bumper-to-bumper or very slow traffic.

But not so fast when it comes to actually doing this because it doesn’t become legal until next July.

You can expect to see a lot of motorcycles on the road this holiday week and with 28 motorcycle fatalities so far this year, Minnesota public safety officials have a message for motorcyclists and motorists.

“You’ve seen our campaign and bumper stickers for “start seeing motorcycles” so just please be aware,” said Jay Bock, a motorcycle safety coordinator in the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety. “Then, on the motorcyclist side, we need to do a better job of doing the same thing. We need to be aware of our surroundings. We need to keep our speeds in check.”

He also has a message about a new lane-splitting law passed by the Minnesota Legislature in May.

Patterned after a law passed in several other states, it allows motorcyclists to ride slowly between lanes in stopped or bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The Minnesota law doesn’t take effect until next year but there’s been instances where some riders already appear to be “lane-splitting.”

“It’s important to remind roadway users this law doesn’t take effect until July 1 of 2025,” Bock said.

In the year until then, the Legislature provided $200,000 for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety to educate the public about the new law aimed at both motorcyclists and vehicle drivers.

“The reason it has the lag in implementation, at least in part, was to give state agencies to develop strategies for education, media and implementation before the law takes effect,” Bock added.

When the law takes effect, Minnesota will be among at least a half dozen states allowing “lane-splitting” or “lane filtering.”