Thought that you might like to here what has happened over here (UK) concerning lane splitting which we call filtering.

A major court case has just made a judgement involving a rider from Cheltenham who has been cleared of all blame when he was knocked off filtering through traffic.

He was filtering through two lanes of traffic in Bristol on a Suzuki GSX-R750 in 2003 when a car driver pulled in front of him and knocked him off his bike. He fought his case with a good lawyer and proved that he was taking all reasonable care and was not breaking any rule in the highway code. He had many witness statements and facts and took the courts, the police and the other diriver on in court and won the case. This has now set a precedent in this country which gives the official ok for bikes to filter in traffic as long it is not at a ridiculous speed

Its took a long time for justice to prevail but at least the car drivers are now liable if they make a lane change without due care and attention.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this from an American / rest of the world point of view

PS
One good thing going for us is that the Minister for transport does ride bikes !

 

The U.S. needs more legal protection from cagers. normally if someone in a cage kills a motorcyclist by not paying due care while driving they get a ticket and are free to do it again with the legal knowlege that they will only get a ticket out of it.

Congrats on the cager getting blamed for one over there, I wish it happened over here more often.

 

Good for him!

 

I know I'm the minority but, I don't think lane splitting or filtering should be legal. There are far to many vehicles on the road nowadays and it's too dangerous in most situations. I had the opportunity today to do this because a Cheby P/U was in my lane in front of me on fire. Traffic had stopped in one lane and was rubber necking in the other. I thought about it for a moment but was glad I didn't. A broad in a camaro got tired of waiting and decided to do a burn out U-turn, almost getting T-boned by oncoming traffic. If I would have split when I thought to, I would have been her hood ornament.
And yes, I want cell phone use while driving illegal also. That damn broad was on a phone as she spun her hillbilly **** around.[:@]

 

Its not so dangerous when done safely. Sounds odd, right...

Driving slow enough to stop on a dime, watching drivers in their mirrors, watching twitchy cars...

I find it safer, as a lot of cagers tailgate, and this allows me a way to get to a 'rider friendly' cager situation.

 

Lane filtering IMHO is necessary to get away from the crazies who don't care if they hit you AND the geezers who don't know you are there at all. I have been hit head on by a geezer and knocked almost off by a sideswiper crazy that I could have filtered away from. The way I figure it is this: If I hit a car filtering some paint gets scratched and maybe a dent or two at worst. My boys at State Farm will erase that. But I get the broken bones & rash & maybe worse. So who HAS to be more careful? The burden of safety and survival is always on the little guy....all of us! Filtering is a defense mechanism that should be legal everywhere. JMO [sm=rant.gif]

 

OJ, your not in the minority as far as I am concerned. If there is a vehicle in all the lanes and you split the difference, that puts two vehicles next to one another in the same lane, and that's not safe a any speed. How some judge could find in favor of the idiot that thinks the road belongs to him and he can ride wherever he damn well pleases is beyond me. IT IS UNSAFE. (PERIOD) I know I'm going to **** alot of people here off, but the dum *** deserves what he gets if someone hits him. Wait your turn like everyone else has to. A car isn't allowed to drive on the shoulder when traffic is backed up. What makes some people on a bike think the rules of the road don't apply to them.

 

wv, I couldn't agree more. It must be the WV thing (wife is a mountaineer). Seriously, if you split a lane to avoid impending danger, OK. But to split the lane because we can is asking for an accident. The risk isn't worth the benefits it may bring (getting to point A 5 minutes faster). We need to follow the same rules of the road we expect cagers to follow and criticize when they don't. And if some guy scratches my truck while splitting a lane to get to the front of a stop light, he'll have more to worry about than "just a paint scratch or a couple of dents at worst". State Farm won't help his **** out of that one if I'm on the receiving end of his wrecklessness. JMHFO

 

I believe lane splitting is idiotic except in the case to avoid harm, which in my opinion is defusing a situation, not inciting it.

Most lane splitting I see is a crotch rocket weaving their way to the front, annoying most of the cagers around them.

Like we need to give them more fuel for the fire! [:@]

 

For me, lane splitting (or filtering if you wish) is one of the benefits of motorcycling. Good for him.