Do you know what day it is?
For some of us, it's January 10 as I write this. But for riders in France, it's officially the day that the federal government has made lane filtering for certain two- and three-wheeled vehicles legal.
This new decree was officially signed into law on January 9, with an effective date of the day after its publication. It also follows years of lane filtering studies carried out in specific departments of France (think of them like counties, if you need an analogous idea). However, unlike those previous studies, this new law applies throughout the whole of the country, not just in specific regions.
At the beginning of January 2025, in fact, French legislators stated an intention to continue the study until the middle of 2025, instead of ending it on December 31, 2024. At the time, I asked why France didn't just make lane filtering legal since the results had so far been so positive, and it's been actual years since the studies started.
Now, it has!
