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Lane splitting legal in Australia?

3K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  allaussiegrown 
#1 ·
#2 ·
With great responsibility should come great power :thumbup:
 
#3 ·
Lane splitting will not be allowed.

The motorcycle council of NSW has worked with the RTA and the Sydney Council to start a trial within the city to Lane FILTER. This is to monitor the effectiveness of traffic congestion vs safety.

It is a great step forward but no doubt car drivers are going to be against it because their cage restricts their mental capacity to calculate that their overall travel time will decrease due to motorcycles agility.
 
#4 ·
It is a great step forward but no doubt car drivers are going to be against it because their cage restricts their mental capacity to calculate that their overall travel time will decrease due to motorcycles agility.
That's the big trouble!

Not the motorbike riders, although some of them can push their luck a bit, but the dopey aggressive car drivers.

Most parts of Europe the car drivers are smart enough to handle motorbikes and scooters have certain designed in advantages, including being able to squeeze between stopped cars.

But here in Oz..... no chance. :(

regards,CrazyCam
 
#5 ·
It's a start...why that zone and not out to Pyrmont/Surrey Hills/Nth Syd etc...or indeed all of NSW. Yesterday I filtered/split in front of a bikecop down Market St and not only could he tell I've done this stuff before responsibly, a couple of cars made way to the left for me to get thru (with a big thanks from me) and he (the cop) didn't mind getting left behind.
There's a way of doing it safely...I'm a little worried that if the practice is made overtly legal we'll get those douchebags on scooters screaming b/w lanes with their barely clad gfs on the back about to become clay pidgeons/skin graft studies
 
#7 ·
There's a way of doing it safely...I'm a little worried that if the practice is made overtly legal we'll get those douchebags on scooters screaming b/w lanes with their barely clad gfs on the back about to become clay pidgeons/skin graft studies
I am afraid that I share your worry, Tripod.

In about 30 years of commuting into Sydney for work, I did vast amounts of filtering....gently, between stopped cars.

I never got a ticket for it.

I hesitate to say this, but I suspect that the cops tend to be fairly selective about who they book for lane splitting, except when they are specifically tasked to have a blitz on it.

I got warned once, by a bike cop on Victoria Road, that the next Monday there was going to be a blitz on, and to watch out! :nod:

regards,CrazyCam
 
#6 ·
...Sigh.... It would have been nice to get the trial period covering all of NSW or even Australia..

Still, it's a start, maybe the thin edge of the wedge for Oz riders. I hope so.

If it works out well, we could even see some sense from the powers-that-be about other motorcycling in general.

Lately, after years of lane splitting and filtering through traffic, i've noticed that the growing number of Asian drivers here in Australia, especially the young girls, become absolutely brain dead when you put them in a car.

Then when you try filtering past them in grid-locked traffic they get a surprise to see a motorcycle rider beside their shiny new car trying to squeeze past to get to the front of the long queue of stopped vehicles.

It's like ... Wha!!?? where did he come from? Oohh watch out! Don't scratch my car while i'm chatting to my girlfriends on my phone with my car stereo blaring while i'm doing my nails.

Honestly...it's like they leave their brain behind once they get behind the wheel.

Hmmm, after reading what I just typed, I realised that they are not so different from most other cage drivers.

Anyways, I hope that the area of "legal" filtering is extended to cover all of Australia in the near future.

Either way, it won't stop me from doing it.



S.
 
#8 ·
Yeah im not so sure about cops being keen on it.
I've been filtering on my comute into sydney for ages now and the last few years theres been more and more cops booking people for it. i've seen it a dozen times.
I know its slightly different but moore park rd, there is a bicycle lane on the left between parked cars and the 2 lanes of heavily banked up traffic 4 out of 5 morning a week. at least once a week theres a cop sitting there waiting to book people riding in the cycle lane or lane filtering in between the 2 lanes of stopped cars. ive had so many close calls of being booked there it kills me.

Hope they make it legal asap.:bowdown:
-Rhys
 
#9 ·
They book you in Brisbane, and even set up traps for it. Indooroopilly just uphill of the police station is a favourite spot for them to set up, because you can't see them as you come over the hill. I've been pinched there. They also set up regularly coming down the hill from Chapel Hill, because traffic is backed up for 500m and again you can't see them until you come around the corner. There they bust you for taking the shoulder (guilty and apprehended) or splitting lanes. I've seen 5 bikes pulled over there at the same time.
 
#11 ·
They book you in Brisbane, and even set up traps for it. Indooroopilly just uphill of the police station is a favourite spot for them to set up, because you can't see them as you come over the hill. I've been pinched there. They also set up regularly coming down the hill from Chapel Hill, because traffic is backed up for 500m and again you can't see them until you come around the corner. There they bust you for taking the shoulder (guilty and apprehended) or splitting lanes. I've seen 5 bikes pulled over there at the same time.
I have been done twice for filtering on the Centenary Highway into Brisbane in as many years, it was a blitz both times and to put it bluntly the police take no prisoners, first time was only a fine, but the last time was a fine and two points. You also take your life in your hands on that same freeway as I have had as many drivers move towards the centre line to try and block your path or take you out as those who happily move over to let you flow through. It hasn't stopped me I am just more selective when and where I filter...
 
#10 ·
I do it all the time in hear in S.Aus and never had any problem from police and have seen them do it also.
Comes down to common sense I will only lane split when I get to a fresh set of red lights and there is enough space and time to get to the front of the que , Ive had a few cars tail gate so I couldn't get in front of them into the left or right lane that's a precious 2 second of there life they will never get back the horror :stupid::rant: , I think its frowned upon here in SA but not in forced.
 
#13 ·
What was the infringement when you got booked for lane splitting?
I read through the australian road rules a while ago and iirc its legal to pass someone in the same lane on the right of them, and on the left if they are stopped.

Its legal for a car to pass a cyclist in the same lane, when the car is putting the cyclist at risk so why cant a motorcycle pass a car when its the motorcyclist themselves at risk? :whistle:
 
#14 ·
I can't remember exactly what it was called... it was about $80 and no points. I do remember a cop telling me what you said (if you stay in the lane you're ok), but when I've gotten dinged I was pretty much riding down the dotted line between lanes. It might have been an illegal lane change ticket.
 
#15 ·
With the $80 fine I cannot remember the actual infringement, but the policeman was on the far left of me and I was (by that time) back in the outside lane, there is no way he could specifically charge me, so I assume it was a sort of 'catch all'. They hide on the bend on the same location each time (Tuesdays seem to be their favourite day) and have a spotter with a video camera on the overpass above. I was more pissed off with myself as I know when they are there and it is relatively easy to spot the cop on the overpass from a distance whilst staying in lane and thus behaving if the cop is there, but traffic was heavy and few cars stop/starting for no real reason when they could just have flowed, anyway I just plain forgot and they got me on camera in the middle of two lanes that were probably crawling at about 4kph. I did say I had to take evasive action due to a sudden braker in front, which was true, but they would not wear it. I just tend to avoid the centenary now as it is a favourite haunt for the police and easy bike pickings...
 
#16 ·
Interesting Update on this topic!

On the way to work this fine (horrible) morning in sydney. I spy a sneaky undercover cop turn on to moore park road a couple cars in front. Hes in a hotted up lime green holden with a few too many aerials.

So the traffic is jammed and normally I would lane filter all the way down the street, but I don’t cos I can see the cop watching me in his mirrors. So the traffic crawls along for about 1-2kms, i flagged down another bike who was lane filtering behind me and point out the cop too him so he jumps in my lane as well and then another bike flies past us and the cop up ahead. So the cop flicks his lights on for a few seconds and the bike doesn’t stop. Then the traffic moves along and I end up next to the cop in the lane next to him. He rolls his window down and says to me “don’t worry I got him on video so he’ll get a fine later. Lucky you spotted me early..” I was like, haha who me office? I wouldn’t lane split.... Then I asked him about them making it legal and he said its only gonna be legal for a few streets in the sydney CBD.

How shits that.

Moral of the story:
They'll get you on video.
And the new laws will only apply to a few streets in the busy CBD's.
And I'm still probably still going to risk it.

Cheers
Rhys
 
#18 ·
Amazingly, earlier last week I hit the intersection of Macquarie and Bridge and traffic was stalled...it was a stop-protest by cabbies due to the no stopping rule at the roundabout close to the opera house and all the fines being given out and traffic was totally gridlocked...anyways there was a bike cop at the intersection and he allowed me to go thru even though I said I'd be lane splitting...pretty cool if you ask me...big ups to that cop :cool2:
 
#19 ·
I have been booked for it on the gore hill expressway but in saying that have had many a copper not even flinch, I recall a guy in a patrol car once saying to me "why was I sitting in the traffic and not splitting, I would" in the carpark they call the pacific highway trying to get out of chatswood one friday arvo.

I think it comes down to how they are doing on their quota and where on the natural prick scale they sit. Then you have the ones that are decent and turn a blind eye, luck of the draw it seems.

And I agree with the above, watched a kid trying to split all the way from wahroongah to lindifeld a few months back (I was in the cage) he bounced of I'd say at least twelve cars and nearly went under a few, oh and off course he had his diadora kevlar trackies, nike race slippers, and his adidas kevlar singlet under his cone of invincibility on.

I still do it all the time myself and will pay the fine if I have too. I just do it very carefully and with my eye's wide open waiting for "it" to happen.
 
#20 ·
I "filter" all the time is its mostly just to get at the start if the traffic lights. Is that the same thing?

I also do it if the traffic has moving less than 20km/hr for awhile.

Never pulled up on it yet!

Sent from my iPhone using Motorcycle.com App
 
#21 ·
I "filter" all the time is its mostly just to get at the start if the traffic lights. Is that the same thing?

I also do it if the traffic has moving less than 20km/hr for awhile.

Never pulled up on it yet! *touches wood* :)

Sent from my iPhone using Motorcycle.com App
 
#22 ·
I "filter" all the time is its mostly just to get at the start if the traffic lights. Is that the same thing?

I also do it if the traffic has moving less than 20km/hr for awhile.

Never pulled up on it yet! *touches wood* :)

Sent from my iPhone using Motorcycle.com App
your in canberra, there's no such thing as traffic hahaha.
 
#23 ·
I filter when I need too. I went down past Kiama with 7 other bikes and we all split in this ridiculous grid lock of 12 kms. We passed 2 highway patrols that just waved us as we slowed and asked if they had a problem with it.

just don't ride the shoulder. they don't like that. Plus it is puncture central.
 
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