North Shore: Northern Motorway: Police targeting motorcycles (25 January)

[aroberts]

Good one d.path. Well written letter and a good response that spells it out.

[caseye]

The writer is correct in saying that the OFFENCE is Overtaking on the left.
If you are passing a car on it's left in it's lane.
However, there is no offence committed if you are passing said car while it is stationary.
Everything to do with lane splitting is dangerous, open to interpretation and problematic to Police Officers who see one motorcyclist lane splitting at slow reasonable speeds and then sees another travelling at warp nine between two rows of moving cars.
Those riders are who we should be beating over the head with brick bats, cause it's them giving the rest of us a bad name and giving the Police the incentive to start actively Policing lane splitting.
Once again p.dath, nice work and a surprising result, a pleasnat surprise for a change.
Red whats yer name, again, if you can't say something nice, Don't bloody well say it.
Haven't seen you in Wellington (both times) nor up here in Dorkland any of the times or with/alongside Ixion, p.dath or any of the other riders who are doing something besides sitting at their console slagging off others.

[p.dath]

Did you catch the response from the Police all the way back in post #166?
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...post1129641502

A pleasing result I thought. It's amazing what happens when you just ask.

[R-Soul]

I must say that I thought it was an honest, well reasoned and well thought out response from the cops. It confirmed waht we already suspected - a bit more black and white though.


HOWEVER: It still annoys me that the bikers and the cops have to tiptoe their way around the damn badly written law, in which an inch to the right of the line, or to the left of the line, can make such a difference (while making nopractical difference safety wise) - and that doesnt cover what happens when you are ON the line?

What does it take to find a politician in NZ that has some balls to say either:
- Right we will make lanes plitting LEGAL, and paint mini-lanes between motroway lans, for bikes to follow, and to remind car users to leave space for them OR
- We will make a thin lane to the far right the on motorways that is for bike use only OR
- we wil make use of bus lanes on motorways legal for bikes


If roads are clearly marked to encourage use by bikes, then cars will be constantly reminded to look out for us.
Any of these are no brainers, as it encourages use of bikes to reduce fuel imports, reduces crashes, and decreases traffic and parking congestion. Perhaps if the latest safety initiatives have a useful effect on reducing the number of bike crashes (especially those caused by the bike riders losing control all by themself), the government will feel more confident in encouraging the use of bikes for commuting.

[p.dath]

What does it take to find a politician in NZ that has some balls to say either:

The problem is you need to find about 50, not one ...

[BevanPT]

Lane splitting is literally a way of life in Auckland. As long as its done carefully and done when traffic is either stalled or near stalled it was considered okay according to feedback on traffic laws posted in the Herald some time back.

Not all cops are legal gurus. Would be interesting to see case law on the issue in cases where splitting is done as per overtaking rules. Bummer for the poor lamb being sacrifieced in court to set a legal precedent.

Can't say its much fun sitting in 25 degree heat in full gear stuck in smoky exhaust fumed traffic lanes for longer than is necessary. Commonsense and safely executed riding practice should hopefully prevail. Tui....

Not all cops actually know the laws anyway. I got pulled over by a really angry cop a while back for using the bus lane at the end of Lincoln Road (heading towards NW motorway). He eventually had to apologise but his excuse was that he was used to just patrolling the motorway bus lanes and didn't realise there was a difference.

[pzkpfw]

What does it take to find a politician in NZ that has some balls to say either:
- Right we will make lanes plitting LEGAL, and paint mini-lanes between motroway lans, for bikes to follow, and to remind car users to leave space for them OR
- We will make a thin lane to the far right the on motorways that is for bike use only OR
- we wil make use of bus lanes on motorways legal for bikes

They are lazy, and would just go for option 4 which is to make it clearly illegal.

They don't want to pain extra lanes for us. They'd rather just make us "wait in line" with the cars. Easy. For them.

[R-Soul]

They are lazy, and would just go for option 4 which is to make it clearly illegal.

They don't want to pain extra lanes for us. They'd rather just make us "wait in line" with the cars. Easy. For them.

I have written to LTNZ asking about motorway busway use by bikes - and just got a lackadaisical response about "bus drivers having had special training" to use teh motorway buslanes. FFS what a cop out. They would rather just let us risk our lives between trucks on the main motorway.

[p.dath]

I have written to LTNZ asking about motorway busway use by bikes - and just got a lackadaisical response about "bus drivers having had special training" to use teh motorway buslanes. FFS what a cop out. They would rather just let us risk our lives between trucks on the main motorway.

The motorway bus lanes are a special case - LTNZ claim they are not bus lanes but "special purpose lanes".

I have tried to get my hands on the rule ("Transit Bylaw 2002/19") that has declared that they are a special purpose vehicle lanes. However I can not.
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/wiki/Bus_Lanes

If you are keen, write to LTNZ and ask for a copy of this bylaw. It could also be an Auckland City Bylaw I guess.

If this bylaw does not actually exist (as in, they planned for it to be created but it never was) then it is a completely different game.

[Toaster]

Not all cops actually know the laws anyway. I got pulled over by a really angry cop a while back for using the bus lane at the end of Lincoln Road (heading towards NW motorway). He eventually had to apologise but his excuse was that he was used to just patrolling the motorway bus lanes and didn't realise there was a difference.

Yes well, firstly, they shouldn't pull anyone over unless the reason for the stop is lawful and in your case it was not. Secondly, the training around the finer points of law is seriously lacking. Disappointing... and I say that as an ex-cop, not a cop basher.

I now work with a guy who was ex UK police and we compared training courses and detail.... if only we invested the time and money they do in their on road police training. That is the problem with a small tax base generated from a small population. Per capita we still don't invest enough though.