Lane splitting/filtering: the legal and commonsense answers

[Wayne N]

I think general consensus is careful what you wish for. They could easily go the other way and make it illegal.

I take your point but wouldn't they have to actually have to change the law to do so (as they have in Germany)? I thought I recalled reading in this thread that someone in the NZ Police stated that it was not illegal to filter although subject to various overtaking rules.

I don't know how the NZ Road Code applies these days but in the UK this is how it is works:

Many of the rules in The Highway Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words ‘MUST/MUST NOT’. In addition, the rule includes an abbreviated reference to the legislation which creates the offence.
Although failure to comply with the other rules of The Highway Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under the Traffic Acts to establish liability. This includes rules which use advisory wording such as ‘should/should not’ or ‘do/do not’.

The rules I quoted in the post above are not legal requirements. There is no UK legislation that states filtering is or is not allowed. It is simply that that by having these rules in the Road Code there is no ambiguity (and therefor inconsistency) when it comes to enforcement.

[Gremlin]

The rules I quoted in the post above are not legal requirements. There is no UK legislation that states filtering is or is not allowed. It is simply that that by having these rules in the Road Code there is no ambiguity (and therefor inconsistency) when it comes to enforcement.

There are no reference at all to filtering/splitting and it effectively falls into passing.

In summary (as there are a few things) it is legal to pass a moving vehicle on it's right hand side within the same lane, but if you're on the left side of the vehicle then it must be stationary (ie, not moving). So on the motorway slipping down the right side is all fine... but move into the right lane and pass the cars on their left and you've gone from legal to illegal (Passing on the Left) in a couple of cm.

[Swoop]

Is it not possible to get something similar to the UK Highway Code written into the NZ Highway Code? At least it would make the filtering question less ambiguous .....

Those rules you posted are simple and well thought out.
The chances of something similar happening here are zero. The reason why: because it hasn't been thought up and enacted in the state of Victoria (Aus) first. Our bureaucrats suck their dick, and only their dick.

Weirdly, Melbourne has a sensible bike parking policy. Go figure?

[Juniper]

A mate of mine who works for NZTA watching the cameras has said that the police are targeting people who are splitting at 80km+ through slow traffic.

It's the bike cops that are the ones looking out for these people.

And TBH more power to them, splitting at 80km through 30-50km traffic is a bit ballsy. I'm not saying I'm innocent, but I do have my moments of stupidity lol!!

[Welly-Ray]

Have they taken any action against those whom they target at?

[Juniper]

Have they taken any action against those whom they target at?

Yep I've seen a few bikers been pulled over by bike cops on the northern. Not for a couple of weeks but I did quite a lot a few weeks ago.

[Latte]

A mate of mine who works for NZTA watching the cameras has said that the police are targeting people who are splitting at 80km+ through slow traffic.

It's the bike cops that are the ones looking out for these people.

And TBH more power to them, splitting at 80km through 30-50km traffic is a bit ballsy. I'm not saying I'm innocent, but I do have my moments of stupidity lol!!

From experience (and I concede others may find it different) the speed difference between splitters and the lanes of traffic isnt the risk, it's the difference of speed between the lanes of traffic, causing people to shoot across to get into a gap (focussing on avoiding the car behind and timing the gap, also not indicating until the last minute to avoid the gap being closed up etc).

An example of this is northbound on the harbour bridge, the splitters Ive seen collected all seem to be just after the St Mary's Bay Onramp, as L1 is almost stopped and L2 is moving, drivers are intent on getting into the faster lane.

This doesn't take into account Driver perception, and thats what will end up having splitting outlawed/banned/whatever. So I try to keep it to +30 and 50 max.

[Wayne N]

Weirdly, Melbourne has a sensible bike parking policy. Go figure?

Maybe we need to copy that over here! It is a total shambles - every town/city has a different policy. For example: In Liverpool it is illegal to park your bike in marked parking spot even if you have a 'pay and display' ticket attached. You are supposed to park in designated 'motorcycle parking' spots. Where are these? If you are from out of town, you would never know. There are no directions signposted. The city council who vigorously enforce this say that you should look on their web site for the location of these spots. There are not many spots - half a dozen or so over the whole city. So if you are from out of town and riding into Liverpool, as many will be over the next week for the IOM ferry, you are supposed to look at the LCC web site first to find a parking location!! OTH, you can ride in the bus lanes.

If you have just come across from Manchester, the opposite applies: You have to use the 'pay and display' spots and you'll get booked for using the bus lanes!

Sorry, totally off-topic but bike parking touches a raw nerve!!

[Ocean1]

Maybe we need to copy that over here! It is a total shambles - every town/city has a different policy. For example: In Liverpool it is illegal to park your bike in marked parking spot even if you have a 'pay and display' ticket attached. You are supposed to park in designated 'motorcycle parking' spots. Where are these? If you are from out of town, you would never know. There are no directions signposted. The city council who vigorously enforce this say that you should look on their web site for the location of these spots. There are not many spots - half a dozen or so over the whole city. So if you are from out of town and riding into Liverpool, as many will be over the next week for the IOM ferry, you are supposed to look at the LCC web site first to find a parking location!! OTH, you can ride in the bus lanes.

So that's where Wellington got it from...

[Wayne N]

A mate of mine who works for NZTA watching the cameras has said that the police are targeting people who are splitting at 80km+ through slow traffic.

I suspect that you'd get booked over here for doing the same thing. Although I do see it every day, I personally wouldn't split lanes at that speed. There is just no margin for error. It takes just one car to swap lanes in front of you without looking ........ Once the traffic is moving at around 40kph+, I'll stop filtering and just go with the traffic flow until it slows down again and then I'll filter again.

I'm certainly not 'holier than thou' though. In my younger days I took a lot more risks. I recall getting booked for filtering on the Hutt road into Wellington back in the late 70's. The charge was 'riding in a manner dangerous...' or something similar. Mandatory disqualification for 6 months. Luckily, I was going overseas the following week and already had my international license

[Wayne N]

So that's where Wellington got it from...

Is it the same in Wellington? I was there last week and saw my old bike parking spot on Lambton Quay was still there??

[Ocean1]

Is it the same in Wellington? I was there last week and saw my old bike parking spot on Lambton Quay was still there??

Aye. No bikes in car parks. Designated free bike parks, but not enough, and not where anyone wants to park.

I can only presume those in charge of such things don't ride and get upset at seeing a bike taking up only half of a car park, paid for or not.

Mind you, when I've been where you can park in car parks cars often try to use the other half of your park...

[swbarnett]

A mate of mine who works for NZTA watching the cameras has said that the police are targeting people who are splitting at 80km+ through slow traffic.

The important point here is "through slow traffic". When splitting¹ there are a number of things that must be kept at the forefront of your mind. These are my top three in no particular order:

• Speed differential between yourself and the traffic. Anything under about 30kph is fine in my book. Even traffic doing 200kph could be safely split if you keep the differential relatively low. It's the reference frame that matters, not how fast it's moving².
• Speed differential between lanes - if this gets too high then it becomes impossible to keep your speed low relative to the slower lane.
• Mind the gap. Be VERY wary when passing a vehicle with no matching vehicle in the lane to the other side of you.

There are a number of other things that need to also be taken into consideration but these are the main three.




¹Doing a nearly daily commute of 100km return on Auckland's motorway this is something I have just a little bit of experience with

²This is why it's possible to play table tennis on a moving train.

[Erelyes]

Aye. No bikes in car parks. Designated free bike parks, but not enough, and not where anyone wants to park.

I can only presume those in charge of such things don't ride and get upset at seeing a bike taking up only half of a car park, paid for or not.

Mind you, when I've been where you can park in car parks cars often try to use the other half of your park...

Come to Dunedin. The rule of thumb is

- Bikes allowed in Pay and Display spaces. Moreover, if a group of bikes is travelling and they all park in one space, they only have to buy one pay and display receipt for the one space. However riders travelling separately must each buy their own receipt.

Receipt doesn't have to be displayed - if you don't and you get booked, you just come in with your proof of payment you get off.

Course we still get scooter riders that try their damndest to spoil it for everyone by parking in spaces already occupied by a car. You can tell because they are perched right on the white line, not anywhere near the middle of the space. This despite there being a motorcycle park every other block in the CBD.

[Swoop]

Designated free bike parks, but not enough, and not where anyone wants to park.

Easily solved with a pot of paint and a wooden template. Even faster with an aerosol can (but the paint will not last).

I've merilly sprayed lines for bike parking in an area and that is now loaded to capacity with bikes and scooters.
If anyone is worried about doing this, simply wear a Hi-Viz "cloak of invisibility" and you will be completely ignored as you go about your painting.