Riding down the middle of slow moving traffic

[WLG Commuta]

Morning,

I had yet another F@#!*% near death experience with my wife on pillion this morning when i had to slam on anchors when a dopey guy in a van changed lanes!!! (w/out indicating of course). I was going roughly 40kmph (not keen on any faster knowing i have limited time to break with two of us on board, but the issue i have is this idiot not only changed lanes, as i've explained, but decided to then open his window down and yell:
'Get out of the centre lane C%$T!!'

At this point not only did i get a healthy dose of adrenalin from the fright, but being provoked, tempted me to stop traffic and share my Hulk like anger and throbbing vein under my helmut with him and give him some back by.... i dont know?.... Rip his F%$!@g head off!

My wife needless to say calmed me down and we biked off with me spitting tacs all the way to work!

My question: Is it legal / do we have the right to move through the traffic with our indicator on at a reasonable speed i.e slightly faster than the traffic we're in?

Unsure and still angry!

[CookMySock]

do you mean riding up the white line between the lanes? Yes you are fully entitled to do that. A site search here will reveal a wide range of information on lane-splitting. He is not remotely entitled to cut you off and abuse you - that is dangerous driving at the very least.

Steve

[vgcspares]

yes it might be legal, BUT

both the insurance community and the police will consider you at fault if you have any kind of accident while lane splitting

you can do it so long as you get away with it - which for once appears to be an interpretation of the law which makes some sense !

[BMWST?]

i dont think it is legal

[James Deuce]

i dont think it is legal

It is, and it has been gone into at length and legal advice has been provided by the Police on KB repeatedly.

If you over take a vehicle on the right hand side whilst indicating you are fine. That also applies to overtaking on double yellows. Don't cross them, use your indicators, all good.

The Popo apply discretion to the situation and will pull you if you are a danger to yourself or others.

[Ixion]

Splitting through stopped traffic : Unequivocally legal

Splitting through 100kph traffic : Almost certainly illegal

Splitting through slow moving traffic : Define slow

Input from cops has indicated that they are relaxed about it under around 50kph bike speed and < 20kph differential

[portokiwi]

COOL

[CookMySock]

Splitting through 100kph traffic : Almost certainly illegal

This is not what I thought. My understanding is, we can pass at or around open-road speeds, where there is room, and when it is safe, and the speed differential is not excessive.

Anyone else?

Steve

[vindy500]

This is not what I thought. My understanding is, we can pass at or around open-road speeds, where there is room, and when it is safe, and the speed differential is not excessive.

Anyone else?

Steve

if youre splitting through 100kmph traffic it implies youre going over 100kmph. this is called speeding as far as i know which is illigal

[Dealer]

In the same lane-
legal to overtake on the right hand side, not the left.
Unfortunately there is more room to overtake on the left, as everyone drives to the right of their lanes. I usually limit my speed to 60km or 20km faster than traffic (usually).
Have ridden past cops and not received any letters in the post (yet).

[marty]

is the 'search' function disabled on your browser?

[Dealer]

theres a search function on the browser?

[vifferman]

My understanding is, we can pass at or around open-road speeds, where there is room, and when it is safe, and the speed differential is not excessive.

If you're lanesplitting (which is what we were talking about), and "the speed differential is not excessive " (i.e., less than 20km/h), then to be going at up to 100 km/h, the traffic must be doing up to 80km/h. The police would most likely view that as too fast to be safe.

If the traffic is doing 70km/h or more, I generally don't lanesplit.

[CookMySock]

I ask, as I often roll up behind cars while I am travelling at 100-110 ish, and they usually move over just a little, which is plenty of room to roll past while straddling the white line. It's just too easy, even with oncoming traffic. It's hardly even a "passing manoever" - more a split past. 50% of the time I won't do it because there is some risk - traffic doesn't move over, cager hasn't seen me (rare!), cager moves up to the white centerline, cager is driving erratically, can't see their eyes in the their rear-vision mirrors, ad nauseum.

Not legal? Dangerous? Comments? I seem to have no problem doing it, and cars widely assist me with it even.

Steve

[Cynos]

Morning,

I had yet another F@#!*% near death experience with my wife on pillion this morning when i had to slam on anchors when a dopey guy in a van changed lanes!!! (w/out indicating of course). I was going roughly 40kmph (not keen on any faster knowing i have limited time to break with two of us on board, but the issue i have is this idiot not only changed lanes, as i've explained, but decided to then open his window down and yell:
'Get out of the centre lane C%$T!!'

At this point not only did i get a healthy dose of adrenalin from the fright, but being provoked, tempted me to stop traffic and share my Hulk like anger and throbbing vein under my helmut with him and give him some back by.... i dont know?.... Rip his F%$!@g head off!

My wife needless to say calmed me down and we biked off with me spitting tacs all the way to work!

My question: Is it legal / do we have the right to move through the traffic with our indicator on at a reasonable speed i.e slightly faster than the traffic we're in?

Unsure and still angry!

40kmh is about as fast as I'll travel when lane splitting in heavy traffic - most lane changes by cars in that kinda traffic are split-second decisions, which means they don't bother indicating, so I try to ride like it - I'm on a 150kg 250cc, to give you an idea of my stopping distance. If you've extra weight on the bike, your stopping distance will be longer, so IMO 40km/h is a bit too fast.