Lane splitting

Lane splitting is riding a bicycle or motorcycle between roadway lanes of vehicles driving in the same direction. More narrowly, it refers to overtaking slow or stopped vehicles by traveling between lanes. It is also sometimes called lane sharing, whitelining, filtering, or stripe-riding.

Alternatively, lane splitting has been used to describe moving through traffic that is in motion. It is similar to filtering, or filtering forward, which is used to describe moving through traffic that is stopped. When the space used is between two lines of vehicles, this is also known as lane splitting; however, filtering can be accomplished by using space on the outside edge of same-direction traffic as well. There can be significant savings of time by bypassing what otherwise would be obstructions.

In the developing world

In population-dense and traffic-congested urban areas, particularly in the developing world, the space between larger vehicles is filled with a wide variety of different kinds of two-wheeled vehicles, as well as pedestrians, and many other human or animal powered conveyances. In places such as Bangkok, Thailand and in Indonesia, the ability of motorcycles to take advantage of the space between cars has led to the growth of a motorcycle taxi industry. In Indonesia, the motorcycle is the most common type of vehicle.