what do you do in a traffic jam ? thread the needle or ....

[spanner]

So I have been a small town / country rider for many years but have recently moved to Brisbane .... well an hours drive North but I need to commute to and from each day.

When you get stuck in a traffic snarl on a freeway what do you do?

Do you thread the needle up between the two rows of traffic?

Do you go up the breakdown lane in the left side of the roadway or up the right break down lane?

Are these legal or illegal?    

Cheers,

Spanner

[Biggles]

Welcome to the big city.
In Queensland you can be fined for lane splitting and filtering.  It's $40 and 1 point as I recall.
Do a search in this Forum and you'll find plenty of discussion.
If I'm stuck on the freeway with traffic at a standstill, I'll do some judicious filtering.
At traffic lights, I'll sit and swelter 95% of the time.



edit to correct to "filtering" (I knew that and just dashed off the other).

[Pezzz]

In WA, filtering is allowed but lane splitting is not.
"Filtering" is when you move through stationary or very slow moving traffic between vehicles.
"Lane Splitting" is doing the same through vehicles travelling at normal speed.

[Wombat]

Where is pick your nose? Thats why they invented the flip front helmets isn't it

 

[Totgas]

It's $40 and 1 point as I recall

Obviously a while since you have been booked Biggles, (which is a good thing) still 1 point but closer to $160.
A.

[spanner]

Wombat : I ran out of choices but also thought as I can get a gloved finger up my big snozz most others proll dont either.

Biggles : thats a bugger. Ill do a search and see what others have said.

[ST2UP]

As a country lad through and through I have heard of all sorts of Jams.......love them all, but what's this traffic Jam you speak of ???? Never heard off a traffic bush or a traffic tree......



 

[Diesel]

Heading out of BrisVegas the other day to the FarRide at Nambucca on a Friday arvo - on the same road that all the Brizzies use to get the Gold Coast..... This exact thing happened.   

3 or 4 lanes at a ridiculously slow speed or standstill.   

I thought about going down the left shoulder and was about to when I checked my mirror and saw a Police Bike coming up that way. PHEW! That kind of luck NEVER happens to me!   

Turns out is was Adrian from this Club on his gorgeous ST1100 with plenty of fluoro tape! Good on ya Adrian.     

I know which way HE voted in the poll!     

Cheers, Diesel

PS - there is a velocity between stationary and awkwardly slow where you cannot 'ride' the bike, but have to relentlessly depress clutch and brakes and just shimmy along, wiggling all the way. This is the WORST speed a motorbike can do. Stopped is even better than this speed.

[STeveo]

I've seen plenty of signs saying 'Road Plant Ahead' but have never actually seen a road plant. Guess that is where they grow the tar for the roads.
Don't think I would want any jam made from it!



 

[Mitch]

Lane filter on the Kwinana Parking Lot if I have to travel to Perth during the Peak 3 HOURS.   
                                                         

[Brian]

On the Tonkin the past few mornings in the hire car it appears it's everyone for themselves here in the west .... Warp 9 Mr Sulu port starboard or up the middle

[Brock]

Up the middle for me, cant turnaround n go home, cos thats where I am headed. Longest session was just before Xmas on the Kwinana Carpark headed north. Went from Leach Highway to Scarbrough beach road. Traffic was at a standstill due to road works and a broken down truck.

It was hard work in the heat but to wait would have taken 2 hrs to clear a twenty minute section of road. Having a White bike helps too. Ride in the safety lanes, and you will get a ticket.

[Sicman]

We don't have traffic lights or roundabouts so the only jam we get is the oldie on the scooter doing 10kms per hr up the main st

[Yorkie]

We don't have traffic lights or roundabouts so the only jam we get is the oldie on the scooter doing 10kms per hr up the main st

Also goes for me.

[spanner]

I just want to clarify that when I say traffic jam I am talking about a minimum two lane same direction road with no visible end the the line of traffic moving at less than 20 kph MAXIMUM.

On the freeways coming out of Bris on a Thursday and Friday arvo the lines can go for 10 km at a virtual stand still.

Last week there was a truck roll over on the freeway near Aussie world and the jam went back to cabulture which must have been 20km or so and a friend was coughs in his tintop and took him an extra 2 hours to get home compared to my extra 35 minutes by carefully riding up the left side where the space is between 2 to 4 meters wide. At no stage did I go over 60 kph in that lane and most times I was around the 40 kph.

[Totgas]

At no stage did I go over 60 kph in that lane and most times I was around the 40 kph

My tactic exactly, however it is illegal and you will be fined if caught.

[2Triky]

 
At the last Perth Motorcycle show, a display had the legislation (road traffic act) posted up regarding "lane filtering".  From memory, it is ok to filter if the traffic is at a stand still.  However, it appears to be illegal if the traffic is moving.  Obviously this is up the middle stuff.  The left & right emergency stopping lanes are definitely a NO NO.  Yep, I do filter and have been stuck in long lines when the temp is in the high 30s like Brock, so standing still burning your feet on the road was definitely to be avoided.  There are idiots seen filtering at ridiculous high speeds, suicidal, and recently there has been some serious consequences as a result.  I myself, set a maximum speed of 40Kph while filtering, with both brakes firmly covered.  I figure I can almost stop on a dime if I have to, which hopefully wont hurt.  If the traffic is moving at a reasonable pace, I will generally drop back in line.  Its yet another aspect of motorcycling, assess the risk and manage the risk accordingly.
cheers,
Mick

[Gadget]

Spanner,


I live at Kallangur and go down the Gateway to get to work.  I've been riding that road for the last 7 years and I initially tried following other bikes leads down the the Left-hand safety lane and finished up with punctures too many times. The rubbish on that falls from trucks and builders and plumbers utes tends to make its way to the Safety lanes. I also observed too many other riders being  booked by either  Cars or  Bikes parked at judicious points in the left lane.


I will ride the "Metal Canyon" when they've stopped but only at 30 km/h or less to allow myself ample stopping room for the occasionally nutter, who upon seeing your approach swerves over to close the available space.  Most motorists appear to be bike aware and will make a little more room if they think the gap is a little tight.  Get the occasional Tosser who thinks it's clever to shout at you as you ride past.   (the Air-horn appears to make them pull their heads in  )


Touch wood, I haven't been booked in the 7 years I've been doing it.

A work colleague was given a stern warning by a motorcycle cop for following the motorcycle cop whilst the Motorcycle Cop was threading the needle on the Centenary Highway. (Which they blitz quite a bit from what I've been told).


A favourite spot of theirs on the Gateway appears to be just after the north-bound merge of the southern Cross Motorway with the Gateway and before the Shell Service Centre at Nudgee. Another Northbound favourite is just after the Gateway Flyover Merge with Gympie Road just before the Pine River Bridge.  Southbound it is just at the merge of Deagan Deviation with the Gateway at the bottom of the Flyover.


Riding up the middle you will be surprised how many people you spot using their mobile phones whilst driving. Blatantly holding it up to their ears or texting with it on the steering wheel of even better in their lap where they have to completely look down and take their peripheral vision off the road ahead. 


I'm not recommending you do any of this, because it takes quite some time to be able to read the "body language" of the vehicles around you.  City drivers do drive quite a bit different to Country drivers.


By the way, Welcome to Bris Vegas from another country boy. (Northern Rivers NSW)

[Totgas]

Interesting comment about the phones, riding a white ST I have seen cagers throw their mobile phones onto the back set when they spot me.
Although of late I would say that I'm seeing less and less people using their phones up to their ears. There is however a disturbing number of the younger generation texting with the phone on their lap, which means taking their eyes off the road completely.
A.

[spanner]

Gadget,

Last Thursday and Friday I started doing the " metal canyon " as you call it .....  Funily enough I felt safer and felt more in control going up the middle ..... Maybe because it really forced me to ride slower but I also  noticed a lot more acceptance from drivers .

Funny the copper berated someone for doing what he was doing . If he had been under lights and sirens then I could under stand but when they blatantly do something wrong and then get cross at the public who follow their lead.

Phones drive me insane!!!!

[Grumpy]

I'm with ST2UP, the closest we get to traffic out here is if you see more than two cars at once on the same 100m of road   

[TAZZIEBAZ]

The last time I got caught up in any sort of traffic jam was over 6 years ago when I lived in Brisbane, I might occasionally get caught behind a slow moving motorhome, or perhaps an asian tourist driving a rental, but that's about it................. after driving every day for 40 years in Brisbane city traffic  I hope I never see another traffic jam again!

[RubenCan]

I must be the most boring rider as until last December I had not threaded any needles nor cruised the breakdown lane. Last December the wife was driving the cage whilst I rode the beast on our way to our holiday house at Callala Beach, a normal 2 hour ride. On this occasion we were up to 3 hours of travel and had only just arrived at the Kiama  bends(roughly just past the half way point) when the wife phoned and told me to go though. I felt very naughty and I did put about 5k's between her and me when I stupidly overtook an unmarked a police car that immediately impersonated a disco club of noise and lights when he saw me fly past at about 10 k's an hour. He gave me some choice words whilst I impersonated Marcell Marceu due to the shock of being pulled over during a double demerits revenue raising period. Lucky me, no fine. It did teach me a lesson to go back to my old ways of just twiddling my thumbs in traffic from now on.

[alans1100]

I must be the most boring rider

Your not alone.

For the last seven years we've been living in country areas and only ride to the city every couple months so I'm no longer used to city traffic so filtering is not on.