Did They Suddenly Make It Legal?

I was stuck in traffic yesterday. Nothing unusual about that. What threw me was the number of motorcyclists who opted for the illegal option of driving on the shoulder of the road. Now if it had simply been one group it would not have sparked my interest. It was a number of individuals (and at one point a pair) over the course of two hours. There were at least ten people who all seemed to think that the law suddenly changes just because the traffic is bad.