A habit that saved me from a crash this afternoon.

So I have a habit when riding, whenever I am filtering and there is a large gap on my right or left, I move into the gap…even though I know that I will be pulling back to the middle to filter after a short duration.

This image hopefully explains what I mean…you will have to forgive my naff drawing abilities…

So this evening, riding along, can’t see ahead of the vehicles due the size of vehicles, and this happens:

The car with the red line, without looking, without indicating of course, but deciding that they don’t have to slow down, just went massively wide and into the right hand lane to avoid a car that was turning into a lane of traffic that was busy, and hadn’t quite cleared his own lane.

Fortunately, I have a habit of following the green lane, but still sh!t myself because I thought the car was attempting to dive into the gap and that would have been messy…green line or not…

Strange how habits pay off sometimes.

I should add, I don’t usually filter unless there are cars in both lanes…I am just lazy on paint and couldn’t be bothered to draw any more boxes.

Yep, do this always! every gap, there is always a potential num nuts who will decide to change lanes into it.

Me too - wise habit.

Thanks, l will adopt this as filtering is the required norm in my neck of the woods and hopefully habitise for my own good.:slight_smile:

this happened to me once, van took me out on my fazer.

Riding that far on to the wrong side of the road with moving traffic is begging for grief to happen and you will have no come back or any chance of winning any claim should the worse happen.
That isnt filtering, that is riding on the wrong side of the road.

Think it’s a motorway…

Errrrm - I think that is the fast lane on a motorway he is referring to…:Wow:

Always do that too.

Aha, not explained well.

Dual carriageway, but also done on the motorway.

Sorry should have explained better, wouldn’t move into a “gap” into oncoming traffic…though I do move that far into the oncoming lane if the road ahead is clear…

To be fair though, looking at the drawing I would be playing a massive game of chicken with oncoming traffic if that is what I meant…

Do the same myself. I still can’t get used to the filter speeds london bikers do (not the web site, people that ride bikes in london). have been at it a year now, and I have to keep checking my mirrors and pull over because I know I am going to slow. I just can’t do the speeds, I get to scared and my natural senses kick in… if that cars just pulls over, I will never stop etc etc, so I slow away down, pull over and the other london bikers are going past me twice as fast. Weird, I just can’t do it. I now start to travel in at 6am and out at 4pm, and I am only doing A40…

I do this also, and it has saved my bacon also.

I have been filtering in London for almost 20 years, on and off. There was a time when I was young and stupid that I thought that filtering as fast as humanly possible was a badge of honour.

I don’t think like that any more.

It is such a high risk, for such a small gain.

If you really that desperate to get home 5 minutes earlier…leave work 5 minutes earlier.

Don’t feel that you are somehow wrong, you just have a lot more sense that a lot of the commuter bikers out there.

Saying that, in time you will get better at using vision, and knowing a particular route, and knowing the places where you can take advantage of the road layout.

I ride to Fleet Street via the Limehoue Link and the Highway, and I watch maniacs shooting through gaps at alarming speeds, even when the traffic is doing 28mph…I don’t even bother to filter at those speeds. Due to all of the above, I meet them at the next set of traffic lights.

They took all those risks, and got no further ahead, because they didn’t bother to make the best use of the road layout and they didn’t exercise good forward planning.

Great advice. Thanks for posting…

I always take as wide a line as possible/safe. I can see what’s coming towards me. What I can’t see, and won’t see if I take a narrow line are the scooter idiots that go up the inside and then come out at right angles into the middle of the road, and gaps in the traffic where someone is trying to come out into the traffic flow or turn right. For me, its all about visibility.

+1 They’re either young or stupid (or both) and will eventually get themselves killed if they keep going like that. Like you said if someone changes lane unexpectedly (which does happen quite regularly), at that speed you won’t be able to stop in time and, presumably with traffic on both sides, nowhere to swerve either. So it’s not in your head, the danger is quite real and you’re smart enough to recognize it. I commute on A40 at around 4pm almost daily, and have seen quite a few of those boyracers you speak of.

When a lane is full, like the outside lane,I frequently drop into the second lane, not to undertake but to give myself more clear road and vision.