Lane splitting/filtering: the legal and commonsense answers

[pzkpfw]

I'd be happy with this as a law!
Long as the components were enforced evenly, ie: No car driver to deliberately close a gap.
Riders don't do stupid speeds when filtering.
Splitting traffic at speed is one of the things that gives us all a bad name with joe bloggs car drivers, scares them silly and creates unnecessary angst.

So you're happy to split only where both you and the cars are doing less than 30 km/h?

[Akzle]

i dont pay much attention to policy, i just do what the fuck i want.

[caseye]

So you're happy to split only where both you and the cars are doing less than 30 km/h?

Does this mean that you want to reserve the right to filter/split at any speed, you perceive to be safe?

If traffic is moving at 30 K I will and do filter,in town and on the motorway.If traffic is moving at anything over 50 K on open roads and M/ways I usually just pootle along and take my legal passing opportunities as they come.

I see on a daily basis, riders splitting traffic that is moving at 70-80 kph,at much higher speeds than the traffic is moving at.
This is completely illegal and it is why car drivers are getting more and more pissed off with "all" motorcyclists, not just the numpties that do this and there are more and more of these numpties with L plates on who think this is the norm.
Inexperienced in the most part and not only ignorant of the law but also actively appearing to be defying it.

[swbarnett]

Does this mean that you want to reserve the right to filter/split at any speed, you perceive to be safe?

If traffic is moving at 30 K I will and do filter,in town and on the motorway.If traffic is moving at anything over 50 K on open roads and M/ways I usually just pootle along and take my legal passing opportunities as they come.

I see on a daily basis, riders splitting traffic that is moving at 70-80 kph,at much higher speeds than the traffic is moving at.
This is completely illegal and it is why car drivers are getting more and more pissed off with "all" motorcyclists, not just the numpties that do this and there are more and more of these numpties with L plates on who think this is the norm.
Inexperienced in the most part and not only ignorant of the law but also actively appearing to be defying it.

Nothing wrong with splitting higher speeds, within reason. Where it becomes a problem is too great a speed differential.

[Urano]

seems to me a perfectly reasonable approach...
maybe they have someone with a QI higher than 40 somewhere in public offices...
lucky them.

Does this mean that you want to reserve the right to filter/split at any speed, you perceive to be safe?
If traffic is moving at 30 K I will and do filter,in town and on the motorway.If traffic is moving at anything over 50 K on open roads and M/ways I usually just pootle along and take my legal passing opportunities as they come.

+1
passing "BETWEEN" two cars at speed is a very stupid thing to do.
it's different if the cars are slotted unevenly: then, if there's enough space you can pass one and connect the pass for the next.
but nearly no one do it with grano salis...

[Berries]

passing "BETWEEN" two cars at speed is a very stupid thing to do.

It is all relative. What is stupid to you may be safe to someone else and what is safe to you might seem stupid to someone else. Passing between two cars at speed was safe to me on busy UK motorways but I wouldn't do it on the dual carriageways down here.

Just don't complain when it goes wrong even if you are acting withing the rules, as will be the case in NSW. Just because there is a law change won't mean cars won't change lanes without indicating, it won't mean pedestrians won't walk between lanes of traffic. It will give the poorly skilled but righteous rider something else to hammer the 'cagers' with though when they make a mistake.

If it legitimises current practice fair enough, I filter through moving traffic every day. If it encourages others to do the same and they aren't aware of the particular risks then I cannot see how it could be a good thing. Might as well encourage more people on to bikes so the road toll goes up and they can finally kill them off for good. As motorbikes are so incompatible with the Safe System approach this has to be the end game if TPTB are really serious.

[swbarnett]

seems to me a perfectly reasonable approach...

As far as it goes, yes.

What I don't like is that what they call lane splitting will now more than likely be targeted.

passing "BETWEEN" two cars at speed is a very stupid thing to do.

Depends what you call "speed" - 40kph? 60? 120?

It's the speed differential that can be an issue.

it's different if the cars are slotted unevenly: then, if there's enough space you can pass one and connect the pass for the next.
but nearly no one do it with grano salis...

Many years ago I slalomed from one end of Auckland's southern motorway to the other. The bike was never upright for more than the instant when changing lean direction.

[pzkpfw]

... passing "BETWEEN" two cars at speed is a very stupid thing to do.
it's different if the cars are slotted unevenly: then, if there's enough space you can pass one and connect the pass for the next.
...

I usually feel (am) safer in the reverse situation. Where there are gaps between the cars within a lane, and the cars in different lanes are staggered, the cars can do dodgy lane-changes.

Where the cars are beside each other in the lanes, there is a chance they'll squeeze the gap if they have bad lane discipline, but it's much much less likely that they'll do a quickie lane change. They may not notice the bike splitting up from behind, but they do more likely see the car next to them.

Every week I see a bike have to avoid a car that darts across in front of them. I've never seen a car bang into the car beside them.

The slalom thing is fine, but less safe, in my opinion, than just splitting up between lines of congested traffic.

[Big Dog]

I usually feel (am) safer in the reverse situation. Where there are gaps between the cars within a lane, and the cars in different lanes are staggered, the cars can do dodgy lane-changes.

Where the cars are beside each other in the lanes, there is a chance they'll squeeze the gap if they have bad lane discipline, but it's much much less likely that they'll do a quickie lane change. They may not notice the bike splitting up from behind, but they do more likely see the car next to them.

Every week I see a bike have to avoid a car that darts across in front of them. I've never seen a car bang into the car beside them.

The slalom thing is fine, but less safe, in my opinion, than just splitting up between lines of congested traffic.

This morning I got pinched a couple of times. Both times by fancy cars driven by older women texting on cellphones.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[Akzle]

This morning I got pinched a couple of times. Both times by fancy cars driven by older women texting on cellphones.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

i fucking love texting old wimmen.
Especially if they send me up-skirts while theyre driving.

[Gremlin]

I usually feel (am) safer in the reverse situation. Where there are gaps between the cars within a lane, and the cars in different lanes are staggered, the cars can do dodgy lane-changes.

Yeup, same here.

[buggerit]

I usually feel (am) safer in the reverse situation. Where there are gaps between the cars within a lane, and the cars in different lanes are staggered, the cars can do dodgy lane-changes.

Where the cars are beside each other in the lanes, there is a chance they'll squeeze the gap if they have bad lane discipline, but it's much much less likely that they'll do a quickie lane change. They may not notice the bike splitting up from behind, but they do more likely see the car next to them.

Every week I see a bike have to avoid a car that darts across in front of them. I've never seen a car bang into the car beside them.

The slalom thing is fine, but less safe, in my opinion, than just splitting up between lines of congested traffic.

+1, speed differential is more important than actual speed within reason too .

[Urano]

I usually feel (am) safer in the reverse situation. Where there are gaps between the cars within a lane, and the cars in different lanes are staggered, the cars can do dodgy lane-changes.
Where the cars are beside each other in the lanes, there is a chance they'll squeeze the gap if they have bad lane discipline, but it's much much less likely that they'll do a quickie lane change. They may not notice the bike splitting up from behind, but they do more likely see the car next to them.

fair reasoning.
but i still don't agree.
true, if two cars are beside each other it's unlikely they'll squeeze.
but take a look at this situation: two cars paired are often between 1 and 1,50 mt apart. a bike is large something around 60 cm, so it gives you about 20 to 40 cm per side of gap between you and each car.
now, let's say both the cagers would proceed PERFECTLY STRAIGHT (and you know it'll never happen...), do you know how quickly you'd do those average 30 cm should any perturbation occur to you at speed?
what if between the cars shows up a pothole? what if the tarmac between the two lanes is uneven, or has any junctions, and this destabilize your ride?
you have 30 cm of margin.
at low speed you can react and try to save the situation, at high speed it could be gone south well before you had even the time to realize what happened, and this is not dependent on the speed differential with the cars, but only on your speed.

and after all, why?
if the traffic is flowing at speed it means it isn't stuck. wait 20 secs more and make a safe takeover.


to be clear: never said slaloming is intrinsically "safe" (as safe as motorbiking could be...). i said that done with the brain on it will leave you more space to keep the situation under control...

[James Deuce]

Fuck me, this is boring.

[pritch]

Cheer up James.

The fish hook in the NSW rules is the bit that says you are only permitted to filter if it is safe. In the event that an accident occurred that would be proof that the filtering was unsafe. Even if it was caused by a cell phone chatting post-menopause pessimist taking upskirt photos for Akzle's titllation.