I was waiting at some traffic lights. The road is two lanes wide here. I was the third car back in the nearside lane. As the lights changed to green and just as the first car had begun to pull away, a motorcycle shot down between the two lanes of cars, went past me and the car in front but clipped the mirror of the front car and rode away at speed. I know we quite often see motorcycles going between vehicles in similar situations. Is it legal for motorcycles to come down between lanes of vehicles like this?
slt
Edited by Pugugly on 19/05/2008 at 21:12
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Filtering is perfectly legal, but the rider has a duty to make sure his actions do not endanger anyone else. In this case it sounds like the biker was a bit of a cowboy.
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If the outside lane was for vehicles turning right at the lights, then i would think the biker overtaking you would have been in the right (except for hitting the mirror!), but if the ouside lane was just for "straight on" like your lane, then i think he would be breaking the law by "undertaking" the cars in the outside lane.
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Bikes are allowed to filter in the UK and France. It was even encouraged as part of my test in 2002 though how the examiner was supposed to follow a CB500 through traffic on his Pan-European was a joke...
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I don't filter much on the GS - its a blinking big bike !!!
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I almost failed my bike test because I didn't filter when I was able to. The examiner said "What's the point of riding a bike if you don't make your way through the traffic?".
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I almost failed my bike test because I didn't filter when I was able to. The examiner said "What's the point of riding a bike if you don't make your way through the traffic?".
That and the fact it isn't much fun sat in a queue when cats and dogs are coming down.
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As the lights changed to green and just as the first car had begun to pull away a motorcycle shot down between the two lanes of cars went past me and the car in front but clipped the mirror of the front car and rode away at speed.
Obviously he shouldn't have hit the mirror. But legal in general. The big exception is that its illegal to pass the front car stopped at a zebra crossing (but OK to pass the ones behind the front car).
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What about the 3-wheeled motorcycle thingies? What is the definition of a motorcycle that can legally be filtered?
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It will all depend where, how and at what speed whether or not it is legal.
That reported, with witnesses, could be bordering on dangerous driving or due care at least......................providing you could get Plod interested.
dvd
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Even if it was illegal it would never be chased up. Just like Tax, MOT, uninsured, daytime foglights, tailgating - the page isn't long enough for a complete list!
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I find on the motorway these days that cars won't pull over for bikes, even if the inside lanes are empty, some just pull to the right so you can ride up the inside, as if an empty lane wasn't temptation enough.
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I was encouraged to filter on my test too (I have NEVER been so nervous in my entire life!). It's second nature now. Sitting in traffic on a bike is pointless. If you're going to do that, you may as well be in the car in your comfy chair with air-con and music.
I've filtered past police cars without them batting an eyelid, but they take a very dim view if the traffic is moving at anything much beyond 20 mph or so (it's then seen as undertaking / dangerous driving). Weaving in and out of moving traffic is also a big no-no, but is commonplace on rush hour motorways.
From friends experience, it is also nigh on impossible to avoid taking a share of the liability if an accident occurs when filtering, whatever the circumstances.
Cheers
DP
Edited by DP on 20/05/2008 at 11:46
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Coming up the A3 recently, filtering through the (very slow moving) traffic, I spotted a police bike stopped near one of the exits. He noticed that one or two drivers weren't very good at moving over, and he pulled out in just ahead of me and led my filtering for the next mile - they moved over much quicker for him! I'd never had a police escort before!
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Straying slightly from the original topic, I saw two police motorbikes today riding in the usual side-by-side formation along the M8 - I'm curious as a non-biker, is this practice allowed for civilian bikers?
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If it wasn't legal for motorbikes to filter and zigzag through the traffic and to work their way to the front at the traffic lights, they would have no advantages over cars in urban traffic, and of course many disadvantages.
Not being a biker myself, I'm not sure which is the machine of choice for the thousands of London motorbike couriers, but I think I would go for a fairly quiet, preferably four-stroke, 250cc or so off-roader. Very big and fast machines are not really necessary and have to be tiring in traffic, as well as being a bit bulky and harder to manoeuvre through tight gaps. Indeed I once had a conversation with a courier who had come off some sort of 1000cc muscle bike in front of me in London, fortunately without much damage, and he said his normal steed was a 250, currently being repaired...
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Found this, gives some info on the legal precedents:
www.sites4bikes.com/Motorbike_filtering.htm
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That said, car drivers in London are a constant danger to bikers. My BiL gave up motorcycle commuting a year or so back after yet another car 'failed to see him' and tried to murder him on a roundabout. About ten years ago he was deflected off his bike into the other carriageway on Shoot-up Hill by a right-turning Jaguar XJS whose driver simply didn't check his mirror. My BiL could easily have been killed as it was rush hour.
By the way he is a large, stable Yorkshireman raised in a garage, a good and careful driver and the best amateur mechanic I know, who was always properly dressed with reflective Sam Browne etc and carefully driving a big BMW flat twin.
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I spotted apolice bike stopped near one of the exits. he pulled out in just ahead of me and led my filtering for the next mile - they moved over much quicker for him!
See my comments on the "Bikes and Lights" thread. Proves the point that most drivers see all bikes but a few idiots are selective about which ones they move over for.
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Someitimes the gap between cars in adjacent lanes at junctions would be big enough to get my Panda through. Is this legal????
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Someitimes the gap between cars in adjacent lanes at junctions would be big enough to get my Panda through. Is this legal????
Maybe, as long as he's cute enough! I assume he's a giant Panda - so weighs about the same as a medium motorbike?
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