traffic laws

[RiffmasterII]

Well you know your traffic so your not a bencher, Im guessing your a shift worker, I think you a patrol sgt? with access to PNLD?

 

Hmmm... Do I take that as a compliment or an insult?

Stop thinking job, you're way off mark with that one

 

Ok, so its 02:37 on a Thursday night, your still awake. You are either at work or you dont work, you must be a student!!!

[Bogof]

Ok, so its 02:37 on a Thursday night, your still awake. You are either at work or you dont work, you must be a student!!!

 

Not at work, but I do. And I have to in about 6 hours, so night all

[TC1474]

The absolute offence of the nearside overtake (Undertaking) was removed from the statute book on the inroduction of the 1972 Road Traffic Act, but prior to that act it was an absolute offence.

Instead, the prosecution had to show that the vehicle carrying out the undertake drove in such a manner that it was likely to cause danger to other road users, and then in 1992 when the old section 2 offence of Reckless driving was replaced with dangerous, the prosecution had to show that the standard of riding of driving fell well below that considered reasonable for an average driver.

So for example, it can be perfectly acceptable on a Motorway or Dual Carriageway to carry out a nearside overtake if someone is sat in lane 2 but lane 1 is empty, or if traffic is queuing in lane 3 (as is often the case on the M4) but lanes 1 and 2 are moving freely.

It is also perfectly acceptable to undertake when directed to do so by a filter light or lane.

In the case of filtering, again a perfectly legal thing to do providing certain conditions are complied with (as has already been mentioned), but from a civil law point of view, in the past if an accident occured as a result of filtering, then the case law of Powell v Moody (1966) would be quoted as the statutory defence. In this case, the filtering motorcyclisy was held as 100% liable.

However, in 2006, the case of Farley v Buckley changed all that and the filtering motorcyclist was found to be 100% blameless so Powell v Moody was thrown out of the door.

In 2007 this was addressed again when another filtering case went against the rider, and so the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ) issued an instruction that all cases had to be decided on its merits and the evidence not merley on the principle of the case law that had gone before.

Hence why at the moment some filtering cases will go for the motorcyclist, some will go against, some will get settlement but with a degree of contributory negligence, but this is a better state of affairs than we had previously.

I have jsut finsihed a case in Lincoln where a motorcyclist was filtering down lane 1 of a two lane dual carriageway and a stationary car pulled out of the line of traffic and hit the bike.

Liability was settled in favour of the motorcyclist and he received £20,000 compensation plus all out of pocket expenses.

This is an area where I can ramble on for hours, so I won't bore you, but I do hope it has given you an idea thagt if you are hit whilst filtering, don't assume that you are going to be immidiatelym held liable. PM me if that is the case and I will be delighted to help.

[Pete]

Hi everyone,

just wondering if i can pick some brains. I've recently bought a gsxr600 and have obviously been spending lots of time on it. As you would guess it's really tempting to go around anything and everything...(cause you can) obviously within the speed limits! I found on A roads that are backed up with queing traffic that it's very very tempting to cut between them. My question is; Is this legal? I'm sure it's not, but have you ever tried to not do it. Also, what are the police like if you do get stopped doing this?

thanks.

 

So to answer the original question - yes it's legal (generally)! Many, MANY people don't realise motorcycle filtering is legal. Many of these many people try to take the law into their own hands by getting in your way to stop you filtering, get right up your arse if you filter past them, flash their lights and beep their horn, or even open their door on you. However, it is legal, lots of bikers do it and it's encouraged in many areas by local councils as it frees up congestion (take central London for example).

as a result the police will do nothing unless you take the piss!

[AngryAnt]

People will still filter past slow moving and i mean slow moving traffic jams when solid white lines are there. But sometimes car drivers will move over to let you passed.

oh and here's something to get your teeth into a traffic cop told me undertaking isn't illegal.

 

Car drivers will also at times, move to block you filter... Seen it done plenty of times (seen it while i was learning aswell!).

Never really done filtering myself. Always said while on a scooter/125cc that the cars would just overtake me on the A road so no point.. Now im on a 500cc... little scared (yeah, im not afraid to admit it!).

[rennie]

you don't have to filter!

The same as everything else you should only do it if you're comfortable with it!

I do it almost automatically but it is tiring! I once filtered almost the whole way from dover to telford, traffic was terrible! It was damn hard work though! I had to stop 3 times!

[asharin]

you don't have to filter!

The same as everything else you should only do it if you're comfortable with it!

I do it almost automatically but it is tiring! I once filtered almost the whole way from dover to telford, traffic was terrible! It was damn hard work though! I had to stop 3 times!

I have to admit, I pretty much never filter at all, it'll usually only save me 1 to 5 mins at best...I'm not in that much of a hurry that I'll worry about a few mins. That being said, if the traffic hasn't moved in a while I do occasionally filter...don't like to though!

[Guest]

I filtered for about 800 yards on sunday, traffic on the A6 through carnforth was gridlock with shoppers.. even bounced along the cats eyes... but only moved when i was happy enough to do so and had a place to ride back into..

[techno]

Always filter, am amazed when you go through traffic and another bikes sat there they see you go past and follow

But this is a good skill to have if you ever go to any race meets and theres an overly large amount of cars, was invaluable at assen especialy as it was at speed

[Pete]

I filtered for about 800 yards on sunday, traffic on the A6 through carnforth was gridlock with shoppers.. even bounced along the cats eyes... but only moved when i was happy enough to do so and had a place to ride back into..

 

I think that's an important point Frankie. I also only ever tend to filter when I can see where I will be rejoining traffic. I've seen people "automatically" filter before only to get so far and try and push their way back in and come into bother because there's just not the space.

On motorways I will filter if there's a jam, pretty much all the time (safest type I think). Sometimes I'll do it down busy high streets but only if I can see there are no side roads coming up or pedestrians likely to step out in front of me. If I filter to the front of a jam and there's a roundabout at the end or traffic lights the furthest I'll go is behind the front car. The reason being that the front car isn't paying attention to me, they're looking for a chance to pull out and it could end up nasty.

Rennie, you're my new hero! That's a damned long way to filter! Oh and I have to agree with you that it is very tiring. Though I did filter for about 5 miles through a complete stand-still jam on the M6 once where some people had gotten out of their cars because they'd been there so long - I was glad for the change because I was getting bored of sitting on the M6 for so long!

[PhatDad]

I filtered for about 800 yards on sunday, traffic on the A6 through carnforth was gridlock with shoppers.. even bounced along the cats eyes... but only moved when i was happy enough to do so and had a place to ride back into..

 

I think that's an important point Frankie. I also only ever tend to filter when I can see where I will be rejoining traffic. I've seen people "automatically" filter before only to get so far and try and push their way back in and come into bother because there's just not the space.

On motorways I will filter if there's a jam, pretty much all the time (safest type I think). Sometimes I'll do it down busy high streets but only if I can see there are no side roads coming up or pedestrians likely to step out in front of me. If I filter to the front of a jam and there's a roundabout at the end or traffic lights the furthest I'll go is behind the front car. The reason being that the front car isn't paying attention to me, they're looking for a chance to pull out and it could end up nasty.

Rennie, you're my new hero! That's a damned long way to filter! Oh and I have to agree with you that it is very tiring. Though I did filter for about 5 miles through a complete stand-still jam on the M6 once where some people had gotten out of their cars because they'd been there so long - I was glad for the change because I was getting bored of sitting on the M6 for so long!

 

I'm filtering everyday now on the A52 just before pentagon island in Derby. I love it, as it's at least a mile long, slowly moving too. Even today in the really bad rain I was filtering. Keep your wits about you and you're fine.

[Sheep_onna_Bandit]

Same here phatdad, but in the other direction!

Filtering through traffic from Bramcote island through past the Priory and on along to QMC.

For some reason the drivers in Notts seem to be a bit more tolerant of filtering bikes than they are in Derby, no idea why though. It must be all the peeps from Derby driving into Notts that are nice

Just about to don the jolly old wetsuit to venture out into the thunderstorm I expect will greet me as I open the Office door to go to the bike!

Oh, the bike with the new alarm and immobiliser fitted to it today!

[PhatDad]

Same here phatdad, but in the other direction!

Filtering through traffic from Bramcote island through past the Priory and on along to QMC.

For some reason the drivers in Notts seem to be a bit more tolerant of filtering bikes than they are in Derby, no idea why though. It must be all the peeps from Derby driving into Notts that are nice

Just about to don the jolly old wetsuit to venture out into the thunderstorm I expect will greet me as I open the Office door to go to the bike!

Oh, the bike with the new alarm and immobiliser fitted to it today!

 

I don't have a problem in either direction to be honest.

Have you ever turned right at pentagon island towards Belper? The third island on your exit has a huge ridge to go over which when accelerating to exit the island causes my front wheel to lift. It's cool as you tend to head towards oncoming traffic before you can control it so there's even more adrenaline rush than had you just raised the front wheel.