Filtering - I don't want to be a c**t

[skahigh]

I passed my test 18 months ago and have done about 5000 miles since so I still feel like I'm a total novice and not always totally sure of myself, though I have been a car driver for about 15 years and am perfectly happy with my knowledge of road laws and such.

I have a daily commute into Cardiff and back (7 miles each way) and most of it is in fairly heavy city traffic. In the car I drive quickly but generally considerately of other road users and don't speed excessively.

However, on the bike I occasionally find in my eagerness to get home at the end of the day I get a bit caught up in the filtering and occasionally think back on a manoeuvre I've performed and wonder if I should have been more patient.

This section of road for example, is a short section with double whites which, in the morning is often standstill traffic. Due to the width of the road filtering usually means crossing the double whites which, I'm well aware is illegal however, I tend to pass the traffic slowly, pulling back in whenever something comes the other way. This section takes 30-60 seconds filtering but could take 10-15 minutes if I sat in the traffic and waited.

So, do you ever look back on your riding and wonder if you should have been more patient/considerate? Would you filter (illegally) in the situation I describe above?

Any tips to improve my riding (and confidence) in heavy traffic (I usually find I tense up, my posture is ruined and all my weight is on my wrists) other than just practicing patience?

Or, do you just get from A to B as quickly as possible without taking unnecessary risks to yours and others safety and to some extent ignore rules such as crossing double whites or riding beyond the solid white stop line when filtering past a row of vehicles at a set of lights?

[Fleegle]

I can be a bit hasty, but crossing the solid white lines is a no-no. As far as the cops are concerned, there is no defence of that one

[marshalla]

Highway Code said:

Rule 129
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

[skahigh]

marshalla said:

Highway Code said:

Rule 129
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

I've read that before but I've also read elsewhere that vehicles simply waiting in a queue of traffic and moving forward sporadically are not counted as stationary.

[Fleegle]

marshalla said:

Highway Code said:

Rule 129
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

While that may be legal in those circumstances, I would still refrain from doing it. It could be habit forming if its your regular route only to be caught out with a cop arguing the traffic was travelling at 11mph. They can be arses like that!!

That's my opinion in the pot

[Prizam]

Screw that, if nothing is coming and you can see, and it is clearly safe... then cross the white lines.

A bit of white paint is no substitute for common scene.

[lindrup119]

skahigh said:

Or, do you just get from A to B as quickly as possible without taking unnecessary risks to yours and others safety and to some extent ignore rules such as crossing double whites or riding beyond the solid white stop line when filtering past a row of vehicles at a set of lights?

^^This.

[bogie]

Overtaking on double whites can get you a dangerous driving conviction (got the t-shirt). So thats not an easy 3 points, more like 12 months min ban and insurance hiked up for years. I always play on the safe side with overtaking on double whites, not worth the risk. After all, you are on the finest overtaking machine on the roads, waiting a few seconds longer before overtaking isnt a big deal.

The 10mph rule is real/practiced and taught on advanced training as "OK"; on my RoSPA test I filtered just over double whites alongside stationary traffic. Actually if you dont take this opportunity you lose marks on the test for not understanding where/when you can "make progress safely"

Obviously its up to you to judge each time when you filter, what is "safe" ...and squeezing through gaps 2" wider than your bars at 30mph with busy junctions either side may not be considered "safe"

The other thing to consider is speed differential. "filtering" over 10mph is just overtaking very close to traffic and all the usual overtaking rules apply should you end up in court. (no overtaking on double whites >10mph)

From a safety perspective at + 15mph you are probably doing 2-3 car lengths within your thinking distance alone, so basically no point in watching 3 cars in front, you are going to hit them regardless if them move. So watch 4-6 cars in front and keep your speed down ...driving down the side of stationary traffic at +30mph you stand no chance of avoiding 6-7 cars in front if they move into your path....and dont rely on a driver picking out your headlight in a glance when you are 6-7 cars back.

[Andy XRV]

Fleegle said:

marshalla said:

Highway Code said:

Rule 129
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

While that may be legal in those circumstances, I would still refrain from doing it. It could be habit forming if its your regular route only to be caught out with a cop arguing the traffic was travelling at 11mph. They can be arses like that!!

That's my opinion in the pot

+1

If there's room I'll ride very tight too or sometimes on the line but I never cross them either. I also never go the wrong side of traffic islands.

[tjlazer]

woowahwoo said:

Andy XRV said:

+1

If there's room I'll ride very tight too or sometimes on the line but I never cross them either. I also never go the wrong side of traffic islands.

Yah, 'no' to passing the island-arrow things on the wrong side and no to shoving myself in the gap between them and vehicles, unless I can clear past the island completely. I will cross solid white lines if the traffic is stationary or 'crawling'. If the road isn't particularly wide, I try to make sure that I don't make a nuisance of myself through getting in the way of oncoming traffic e.g. buses, lorries.

That's my approach too, I've also tried to button down on using the cycle stop section at the lights. I'm also new to the riding game and I figure losing the odd minute here or there whilst I wait is worth it to avoid points or worse, I'm still miles ahead of where I'd be if I was still in the car!

[sc0tt]

I would cross white lines to avoid traffic but I'm a numpty.

[N Dentressangle]

woowahwoo said:

Yah, 'no' to passing the island-arrow things on the wrong side and no to shoving myself in the gap between them and vehicles, unless I can clear past the island completely. I will cross solid white lines if the traffic is stationary or 'crawling'. If the road isn't particularly wide, I try to make sure that I don't make a nuisance of myself through getting in the way of oncoming traffic e.g. buses, lorries.

Same here.

I will cross a solid white line to overtake stationary traffic, but not when it's moving, which is what the law allows. Like anything else, you need to do it carefully and try not to piss anyone off, but that's always my approach when filtering anyway.

If there's a safe chance to filter though, I'll always do it. No point having a bike just to sit in traffic. If other riders don't want to filter, that's OK with me too - just don't sit blocking others from doing so, like the chap on the 125 on the M4 westbound last week, or those guys Fleegle's moaning about in the other thread.

[Fleegle]

I don't enter the puff box either. Although I have noticed the cops are no longer doing the stake outs on my route

[sc0tt]

Fleegle said:

I don't enter the puff box either. Although I have noticed the cops are no longer doing the stake outs on my route

Don't need to. They should have paid for their Christmas party by mid feb.

[defblade]

I would probably filter there, slowly. Always looking ahead for the vehicle that's leaving a little more room to the one in front, or sits a little more to the gutter - ie, my next safe spot. And then tuck into one of those a reasonable way from the bend/s (probably watching some one else cut it much finer...)

If I'm ever feeling like filtering is getting a bit silly, I try and remember that unlike video games, there's no friendly magic sky crane to pick the bike back up and put it back on the road... so, as said above, make the progress you feel comfortable with and try not to get in anyone else's way the rest of the time.

[snorky782]

Fleegle said:

marshalla said:

Highway Code said:

Rule 129
Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.

While that may be legal in those circumstances, I would still refrain from doing it. It could be habit forming if its your regular route only to be caught out with a cop arguing the traffic was travelling at 11mph. They can be arses like that!!

That's my opinion in the pot

I doubt marshalla's defence would work at all in court. The traffic must be absolutely static, every single vehicle (excluding the specific three named ones) that you overtake must not be moving at all. The 10mph is exclusively for the pushbike, horse or road maintenance vehicle and nothing else. If they are travelling at 10.1mph then you're screwed.

[skahigh]

defblade said:

I would probably filter there, slowly. Always looking ahead for the vehicle that's leaving a little more room to the one in front, or sits a little more to the gutter - ie, my next safe spot. And then tuck into one of those a reasonable way from the bend/s (probably watching some one else cut it much finer...)

If I'm ever feeling like filtering is getting a bit silly, I try and remember that unlike video games, there's no friendly magic sky crane to pick the bike back up and put it back on the road... so, as said above, make the progress you feel comfortable with and try not to get in anyone else's way the rest of the time.

This is pretty much what I do, incidentally I have filtered past a police car there once with no consequences.

[bennyb24]

I always like to think of the numbers fwiw - it's your daily commute...... How long are you going to be doing it ? Say 10 years .... So 250 days ish by tens years is 2500 times - then I think, that was perhaps a little hasty / naughty - can I get away with that 2500 times - what are my odds ???? Is it really 2500-1 ? Sooner or later you'll hit your limit and it'll be the one that has you off..... Just the warped way my mind works.

[rufusgti]

I know that section of well. When I'm on my bike I would be overtaking almost constantly down the whole stretch down to the BBC studios. It's very slow, seems even worse now they've added a bus lane.

[WaferThinHam]

bennyb24 said:

I always like to think of the numbers fwiw - it's your daily commute...... How long are you going to be doing it ? Say 10 years .... So 250 days ish by tens years is 2500 times - then I think, that was perhaps a little hasty / naughty - can I get away with that 2500 times - what are my odds ???? Is it really 2500-1 ? Sooner or later you'll hit your limit and it'll be the one that has you off..... Just the warped way my mind works.

Irrational.

If you're flipping a coin and get fifty heads in a row, what's your odds of getting another head on the next flip?