Lane splitting/filtering: the legal and commonsense answers

[Irontusk]

Ok I'm reading my motorcyclists roadcode, and it says to pass a stopped car on a one lane road at an intersection on the LEFT. Everything is contradicting everything else. You can also pass at a no passing lane if you don't cross the yellow line.

[swbarnett]

Ok I'm reading my motorcyclists roadcode, and it says to pass a stopped car on a one lane road at an intersection on the LEFT.

This is just asking for trouble. Don't pass any car with a passenger - "Quick, get out while the lights are red".

You can also pass at a no passing lane if you don't cross the yellow line.

I was told there's no such thing as a "no passing" line. The line is actually a "no crossing" line - pass all you like but keep to the left of the line.

[Irontusk]

This is just asking for trouble. Don't pass any car with a passenger - "Quick, get out while the lights are red".



I was told there's no such thing as a "no passing" line. The line is actually a "no crossing" line - pass all you like but keep to the left of the line.

I'm just quoting from the book, to let people know what new riders (that's me ) are being told. But yeah, I'm not too keen to pull up on the left eh, alot of people are to lazy to indicate left too, cause they don't expect to be crossing anyone's path.

[vtec]

(Filtering is only OK if it's a proper bike, not some stupid scooter or pedal powered POS that just gets in the way. That reminds me, if they ticket riders for it, why don't they ticket cyclists because they are much MUCH worse.)

I ought to pedal power your ass. I was a bike courier for two years, and cars held me up heaps even though i was a master splitter. A bicycle is little and easy to pass, a car is big and harder to pass... unles you are on a bike. So get your bloody cars off the road.

Plus a 125 scooter is quicker than the average car. You just try saying this to Texmo... He'll scooterise your ass.

[vtec]

Ok I'm reading my motorcyclists roadcode, and it says to pass a stopped car on a one lane road at an intersection on the LEFT. Everything is contradicting everything else. You can also pass at a no passing lane if you don't cross the yellow line.

You are allowed to pass a stopped vehicle on whichever side you like. But a moving one only on the right... unless you are in a separate roadway (a different lane is considered a separate roadway). I've been looking at this for years, because I was saving 30mins to an hour every day just on my commute by lane splitting. That gave me a lot more time for my own life.

P.S. Lane splitting probably multiplied my income as a bike courier by 1.5

[vtec]

I'm just quoting from the book, to let people know what new riders (that's me ) are being told. But yeah, I'm not too keen to pull up on the left eh, alot of people are to lazy to indicate left too, cause they don't expect to be crossing anyone's path.

The trick to staying alive in traffic is allow for as many possibilities as you can. Judging all the different possibilities comes with experience unfortunately. My motto was always if in doubt be ready to stop. Make sure you know how fast your vehicle can stop. I could stop my bicycle so quickly. Got so good on the brakes I could balance it on the front wheel down hills. Used to pull endo's/stoppies to freak out pedestrians and vehicles that pulled out in front of me... and that was on my road bike with no suspension and skinny tyres, and simple rim brakes.

This didn't mean that I became immune to crashing. I just got good at avoiding the bad ones. I still crashed my bicycle well about once a month. But that was 9 hours a day 5 days a week in cbd crazyness.

Plus on my motorbikes I've probably clipped over 100 wing mirrors and broken a few aswell. used to hit wingmirrors daily on my bicycle.

If you are worried about the cops busting you... here's how it goes. If they don't like you they give you careless use. If they think you are a cocky bastard they will try to sting you with dangerous driving. They don't need any evidence, they just need to say you were overtaking in a careless or dangerous manner and give a couple of reasons why which may or may not be true, they will bend the truth to not look stupid. I didn't get a ticket in my 2 year stint as a courier, and I did some on a motorbike too. But I got careless use for splitting like a maniac not long before I started.

P.S. It's relatively easy to run from the cops on a bicycle in the CBD if you know it really well. That's part of the reason I never got a ticket. Although I wouldn't try it on with a bike cop. They are capable of following you where cars can't and are pretty quick too. Not only that, they are constantly agitated by the retardedness of the average road user in Auckland and thusly will be willing to vent on anybody who "pushes their buttons" ie. runners on bicycles... it's kind of cheeky.

[Swoop]

ie. runners on bicycles... it's kind of cheeky.

So... the plod took away your pushbike driving licence then?

[jrandom]

For the first time ever, yesterday, a car driver clipped my wing mirror.

At the Nelson Street offramp from the northwestern motorway, it was. While taking off from the lights.

I was very affronted!



I shall never again line up directly behind another filtering bike at the front of an intersection unless I'm positive that he won't fuck about when the lights turn green.



Rider Of The Blue SV1000, karma will get you one of these days.

I have no doubt that one of your mirrors will be donked by a chortling cager in a most unpleasant fashion when you least expect it.

So there.

[vtec]

So... the plod took away your pushbike driving licence then?

Nope I told you I never got a ticket as a courier. I've always got away. I was clever though didn't put myself in a position where I had to run all that often. Just from what I'd seen with the other bike couriers you don't push your luck with the bike cops.

I don't know what the deal is with licencing. Whether or not they can take your drivers licence off you for a bicycle offence. But I did have a friend who was the nuttiest if not the most talented bike courier in Auckland who used to make runners a sport. They caught up with him three times and I think the worst part was the fact that he got arrested. The fines were only about $200... totally worth the risk.

He'd got away every time... it was just that we are always around town and if they see you again, they will pull you over and because we'll think we haven't done anything wrong we'll stop. Then the drop it on you that you were the guy who ran from them previously. Hasn't happened to me thankfully.

Another guy I knew. Total character started as a bike courier then migrated to a suzuki streetmagic then to vans, now he's a motorvehicle sales rep. Another complete animal though. A cop was pulling over red light runners, and he ran the red, and she got radio'd by another cop, then when he came up on his bike she stepped out in front with her hand out and shouted "stop" at which point he yelled back "NO". And cycled around her and on his merry way. A few days later she recognised him and pulled him over, busted, hilarious.

[Irontusk]

I ought to pedal power your ass. I was a bike courier for two years, and cars held me up heaps even though i was a master splitter. A bicycle is little and easy to pass, a car is big and harder to pass... unles you are on a bike. So get your bloody cars off the road.

Plus a 125 scooter is quicker than the average car. You just try saying this to Texmo... He'll scooterise your ass.

Most cyclists wobble along at 15km/h. You might be ok with riding past a stopped car quite closely, but I'm not going to attempt to pass that narrowly (As you said, car vs bicycle..). I hope you didn't ride like this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiXfv...eature=related
And just because you do something wrong every day, doesn't mean it's alright. I'm assume you just rode off when you broke mirrors.

Oh, and who buys a 125 scooter?
Wow I'm off topic.

[CookMySock]

I shall never again line up directly behind another filtering bike at the front of an intersection unless I'm positive that he won't fuck about when the lights turn green.

I might have done that if I thought I could get alongside him, but never if I thought I would be second in line.

I stalled while splitting between two trucks once.. nasty fright! I agree - if you cant get away pronto, don't go in.


Steve

[vtec]

Most cyclists wobble along at 15km/h. You might be ok with riding past a stopped car quite closely, but I'm not going to attempt to pass that narrowly (As you said, car vs bicycle..). I hope you didn't ride like this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiXfv...eature=related
And just because you do something wrong every day, doesn't mean it's alright. I'm assume you just rode off when you broke mirrors.

Oh, and who buys a 125 scooter?
Wow I'm off topic.

Don't worry I didn't ride like that guy... I'm better. Plus Auckland is a lot hillier so we hold onto cars and all sorts. Plus I did it with an oversized pack. I did it for 2 years, you get good at it when you do it all day every day. And you work out how to do it safely. Some people don't have the foresight to be a bike courier, they generally don't last very long and get hurt very quickly and/or bike's broken.

Lots of people buy 125's, my ex-girlfriend bought one after I left. They make the best powered delivery vehicle. The guy who made the most money in the whole company not including contract deliverys was on a 125, he probably averaged about $270 a day before tax. Plus a lot of the 50's, are very quick off the mark and up to 50 kph.

With regard to passing stopped cars closely, there's certain rules you need to follow to not get a door in the face. You need to be aware of if there is anybody in a seat that could open a door on you, so if you can't see in through the back window, then you slow down enough that you can stop... but yes, if the cars are going slow, you're better off riding down the centreline of the road, helps to avoid death by pedestrian/taxi pulling out/door opening.

[buzzard]

I had an interesting experience on the way home last night with a car driver getting extremely upset that i was filtering. He seemed to be incensed that I was passing illegally. This prompted him to drive like an absoluite idoit at extremely high speeds weaving in and out of the traffic as he tried to catch up with once I had filtered through the traffic waiting at traffic lights (technically parked according to others in this forum). Not only does this piss me off as he seemed to be a complete peasant but I know that he will endanger other riders on the road with his behaviour.

Most car driver seem to be OK but ignorant in their own little worlds, busy texting or talking on their mobiles or just day dreaming out the windows. As long as you ride with the attitude that they are just not going to see you and hence do something completely stupid, then you will be ok. This means expecting them to pull out in front of you or swerve erratically down the motorway.

Now I got my license in the UK about 10 years ago and commuted through central london every day on a bike. In addition I did some IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) courses and a couple of Bikesafe London courses that are run by the police. In London the cops encourage you to filter, thier rationale is that the safest place for a motorbike is in front of the traffic - Get to the front of the cars at traffic lights and stay in front of them. So after 10 years riding about 40 miles a day every day I had only 1 accident and that was very minor and the other guys fault (his insurance paid out).

So in the UK the cops encourage you do it. In some parts on the US its legal and the Department of Transportation say that its safer than sitting in traffic (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...30/MN87097.DTL)

So it interests me that there is nothing concrete that the NZ cops or Land Trasport are willing to put down on paper. Sure the cops have told us that as long as we are riding [I]conservatively[I] then we should be ok. But this is extremely arbitrary and subject to the judgement of the officer at the time.

Its time for the authorities to get this sorted out, surely more people on bikes is better for the traffic problems that Auckland and Wellington have. Making filtering legal would make it clear that bikes are better to commute on and if this could be legalised then the car drivers would have no beef with people filtering.

Anyway thats my rant.

[rossw]

As I understand it "lane sharing", aka filtering, if not illegal is frowned upon and will cause you to fail a motorcycle licence test. That being said, when the motorway speed drops below 50... On Friday there were cops everywhere on the Southern motorway (most unusual). I passed 3 without them doing anything. It was almost a parking lot anyway so they never would have caught up with me on 4 wheels. I agree, it IS risky. There are in fact so many risks that it resembles driving on suburban streets or great south road for danger. Drivers changing lanes, gaps between lanes get bigger and smaller quickly and then there's the trucks. I don't enter a gap unless I am confident I have a clear path out and I am in a low enough gear. Full attention to the road is necessary (no cellphones or sandwiches). Home to work is just under 20 minutes (at the legal speed limit!) but turns into 40 to 60 minutes if you go with the flow. I would feel stupid waiting in lines of traffic.

[swbarnett]

I agree, it IS risky.

This is a very subjective observation.

So is walking out your front door.

Done properly lane splitting can be safer than staying with traffic.

Compare lane splitting with the necessity of kayaking in an Arctic storm because if you don't hunt you'll starve. We don't know how safe we really are.

The "safety" focus of today's society is going to be responsible for it's downfall. The amount of effort, expense and resources put in to "safety" is at a level that cannot be sustained indefinitely and only getting worse.