Lane Sharing On my Mind

Confession: I have split lanes in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, so I speak from experience. Vast experience, I moved here from California 12 years ago where I lane-shared sometimes with a full-dress Gold Wing for 20 or 30 miles of a 100 mile daily commute on the 101. That is Ph.D. level lane splitting. There is no traffic in this state as bad as 101 south of SFO or the 405 in LA. When I first came here I saw no one doing it, big wide lanes and slow-moving cars, so I just did it- now it is common to see it in Austin across Town Lake on 35. I know it is far less safe to sit in 100 degree heat in traffic and get rear ended or die from diesel fumes.
No one will be required to do it, you can still sit there in your sweat and get rear-ended. The "threat" of road rage is nearly non-existent, that is a false issue of concern. On a quite bike you are gone before the car driver even knows you are there. In 12 years of splitting lanes in Texas I have had only ONE car ever try anything and that was a diesel pick-up that tried to chase me on a Honda ST1300 after traffic cleared. In 29 years, thousands of miles of lanes split I have touched one car bumper [a 1-ton dually with a edge of a saddle bag], never gone down. It is more common in LA to see the cars part slightly to let you go through.
This will make Texas the Great Motorcycle State it should be.

This will dramatically increase motorcycle commuting as it cuts the time in half and you won't get so hot and tired from the ride and when 100s of bikes do it everyday, car drivers will soon learn it is legal and safe. It will also encourage helmet use, which is good thing.