I have finally read this post from start to finish.
1/ the original poster made comment about the person being reckless. In that particular situation maybe the rider WAS being reckless and needs to pull their head in.
I think we can all agree there are some idiots out there who do give us all a bad name and this might well have been one of those times.
2/ bikes and cars are not the same. thy each have different advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of a bike from my perspective is great acceleration and deceleration. Great frontal visibility ( can see well and uninterrupted). This leads to the bike being able to undertake manuvers that a car should not attempt.
3/ road speed limits and line markings are set for the middle 70% of road users .... tin tops with average driving skills and equipment. This puts pressure on those who are not skilled or are driving vehicles not suited to the speed limit or in marking situation like trucks or learner drivers etc. It also penalises the other percentage who have vehicles that can perform much better than the cars. eg motorbikes.
my personal opinion is that if it is safe to do so there is no problem with overtaking on a solid unbroken line where the vehicle in front is a) driving under the speed limit, b) causing danger by dropping gravel ( from a truck) or spewing stones from the road edge (eg 4wd) or being stuck behind a dirty filthy diesel fume spewing shitbox or other situations where the rider is in a situation that places either harm or major delay.
I have .... and will continue to..... over take vehicles such as above on a solid line. I have been stuck behind a car doing 60 kph near the Gympie speed reduced section. This was so incredibly frustrating that I had cars sitting on MY tail because the dic#wad n the car was doing 20 UNDER the limit. Guess what ..... first opportunity I overtook him. I reckon he was thinking in his mind that I should pull MY head in because I was dangerous. Not saying the original poster was doing this.
I am not saying we should abandon the road rules and let anarchy prevail but there does need to be some understanding that there are times when ....on a bike .... it is safe to break or bend the road rules.
A rule is a statement made by someone telling others what they believe others should do. The rules are not sacrosanct never to be changed but are statements that need to be challenged to ensure they are still valid over time. If the rule is still valid then keep them but if the rules needs to be changed then change them and if there needs (or can be) a variation or separation of elements in a rule that makes life easier then follow that path as well. Take the lane filtering laws ....... not so long ago anyone who lane filtered could and would have been called a law breaker!
*** Hops off soap box and goes and gets a beer****
http://ozstoc.com/Smileys/default/beer.gif
