Filtering is safe...

[Seeker]

Filtering, or lane splitting as they say in the US, is relatively safe if you only ride about 15 mph faster than the traffic and that traffic is doing 50 mph or less.


... but what about those times when you want to filter against the flow of traffic, what's the best speed for that?


https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/cmrna4/this_idiot_lane_splitting_against_traffic/

[SV650rules]

Only filter very rarely, and then only when traffic is stopped...when we lived in Australia you would get ticketed for lane splitting, and quite right too.

[timwilky]

The amount of car drivers when stuck in slow moving traffic and never check their mirrors is amazing. Filtering bike scare the pants off them. They then react stupidly, thinking bikers are breaking the law by filtering in the first place! Moving to block filtering bikes etc.

I have to admit I rarely filter, but that is because being a fair weather biker with a commute to the bottom of the garden. I do not tend to ride A roads, motorways etc. But when I have had to. It is a great feeling to make progress.

As for the video in the original post. Crazy nutter, my neighbours were killed by someone driving the wrong way on the M55. If caught should face a lifetime ban

[ethariel]

I commute SE London to Westminster and back daily, filtering is the only way to stay sane, and technically on the wrong side of the road a lot but you can tell when to duck in because that SUV coming wants to play chicken! (Cluck Cluck)

[punyXpress]

The faster you filter, the less time you're exposed to any danger? ;)

[Talking Heads]

The faster you filter, the less time you're exposed to any danger? ;)

Yes.
But a much more dangerous variety of danger than the slower kind.

[SV650rules]

Yes.
But a much more dangerous variety of danger than the slower kind.

I had to drive home really fast once because i had a problem with brakes and wanted to get home as quickly as possible before i had an accident :D

[shiftin_gear98]

I filter all the time, sometimes at speed. Part of the reason I recently found a more scenic route to work down some lovely twisty A and B roads. Which has reduced my speed and increased my smiles per miles.

However that video wasn't filtering. That's a retard riding the wrong way on a ****ing motorway.
Here's hoping he was squashed shortly after.

[Talking Heads]

Riding like a crazed maniac isn't fatal but crashing certainly can be.
Ride as mad as you want but absolutely do not crash.
Sorted.


p.s. most people die in their beds, so absolutely do not ever get in a bed.

[keith_d]

... well safe-ish.

To try and keep it safe-ish I don't filter above 30mph, and when joining a queue I'll wait until the cars are settled in their lanes before filtering.

My reasoning is that below 30mph if someone (me included) does screw up there's a fair chance I'll walk away, or at least avoid life changing injuries. No guarantees of course, that's why it's safe-ish.

Keith.

[keith_d]

Riding like a crazed maniac isn't fatal but crashing certainly can be.
Ride as mad as you want but absolutely do not crash.
Sorted.


p.s. most people die in their beds, so absolutely do not ever get in a bed.


I doubt anyone remembers the 'Speed Kills' campaign from years ago. It was completely wrong of course, Speed doesn't kill - it's the Smack that does.

p.s. 46.9% of people die in hospital (2016 figures), so never ever go to hospital.

[Chris_SVS]

I'm a huge fan of filtering but I do it situationally. I prefer the traffic I'm passing to be <15mph or stopped, in particular to the front of a queue, without passing the lead vehicle (that would be illegal)

[SV650rules]

I doubt anyone remembers the 'Speed Kills' campaign from years ago. It was completely wrong of course, Speed doesn't kill - it's the Smack that does.

p.s. 46.9% of people die in hospital (2016 figures), so never ever go to hospital.

Well the faster you are travelling the bigger the smack, if you double the speed the smack is four times as big. When you are on the road to have to rely on other road users to do the right thing, when you are filtering you are much closer to other traffic and people are not expecting a vehicle to appear alongside them so may do something that can put a motor bike rider in danger...

They also say 10% of road accidents caused by drink driving, so 90% caused by sober people, maybe it is safer to share the roads with people who have been drinking.