---
type: "Bill"
title: "Vehicles: motorcycles: lane splitting."
description: "Existing law requires, whenever a roadway has been divided into 2 or more clearly marked lanes for traffic in one direction, that a vehicle be driven as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane and not be moved from the lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 51"
citation: "California AB 51 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Vehicles: motorcycles: lane splitting."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Quirk"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 23
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2014-12-01"
last_action: "2016-08-19"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/641198ee-ca5f-4099-bfbe-cc1860e6676f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51"
source_hash: "3bb375e8ba6a899763c0b9cc2479ec89580eb81b5154953787919e502574af01"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 51 (20152016) — Vehicles: motorcycles: lane splitting.

Existing law requires, whenever a roadway has been divided into 2 or more clearly marked lanes for traffic in one direction, that a vehicle be driven as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane and not be moved from the lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **12/01/14 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51&version=20150AB5199INT)
2. **02/11/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51&version=20150AB5198AMD)
3. **05/22/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51&version=20150AB5197AMD)
4. **06/01/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51&version=20150AB5196AMD)
5. **08/19/16 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51&version=20150AB5194CHP)
6. **AB51** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51)
7. **08/05/16 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB51&version=20150AB5195ENR)

## Votes

- AB 51 QUIRK Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **74–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB51 Quirk By Cannella — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **16–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **13–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **11–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 51 QUIRK Assembly Third Reading — **58–14** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Quirk — primary (person)
- Chu — coauthor (person)
- Lackey — author (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2014-12-01** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2014-12-02** From printer. May be heard in committee January 1.
- **2015-01-22** Referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2015-02-11** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-02-12** Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 13. Noes 1.) (April 6). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 16. Noes 1.) (April 29). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-05-22** Read third time and amended. Ordered to third reading. (Page 1540.) `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-05-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 58. Noes 14. Page 1619.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-05-28** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-06-18** Referred to Com. on T. & H. `referral-committee`
- **2015-07-06** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2016-06-01** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on T. & H. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (June 14). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-06-27** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2016-06-28** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 4729.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-02** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 4 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2016-08-04** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 5700.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2016-08-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2016-08-19** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2016-08-19** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 141, Statutes of 2016.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/641198ee-ca5f-4099-bfbe-cc1860e6676f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).