To feel really frustrated that so many drivers don't know this?

[SharkiraSharkira]

I am a biker (as in motorcycle).

I'm a member of a few biking related pages on fb and recently my feed is inundated with videos and articles about bikers being assaulted by car drivers or run over/knocked off their bikes due to car drivers not looking or seeing them or even intentionally. Some of them have been really shocking!

One thing that seems to be coming up time and time again is drivers bemoaning bikers 'illegally overtaking' or 'pushing in' or 'riding between the lanes'. All of these things are perfectly legal for bikers and it is called filtering - it is used to make progress through traffic and some believe it is actually safer for bikers, being vulnerable road users. And yet 90% of the drivers comments on these videos are basically saying it is the bikers fault they got run over/maimed/attacked because they 'shouldn't have been between the lanes'. We are allowed to be!

Aibu to find it very frustrating that SO many drivers don't seem to know that this is legal?

Obviously there are always idiots that ride unsafely and I'm not referring to these people, rather those who follow the rules and filter legally and safely and still get abuse for it.

Bikers (and cyclists) would help themselves and drivers a lot if they would wear hi vis instead of the eternal black. Black is not easy to see. Should a biker and the bike be separated, the biker may not be seen on the road.

When I'm on Blood Bike duty, I ride a large hi-viz liveried bike, I also wear a hi-viz "Blood" vest and a white helmet. Still cars pull straight out. Hi-viz only works for those who are looking. If drivers don't check their mirrors before changing lanes (you realise you should check your mirrors every 5-10 seconds even if you are not making any special manoeuvres, right?), or if drivers fail to look properly before pulling out of junctions, hi-viz still doesn't work.

Biker here too. Nothing to add to this thread other than to request that we have our own topic.

*Applauds Garlik

Wow, there are some stupid replies on here. And some downright wankerish dangerous ones too!
If your queue is on stop it is perfectly legal for a biker to filter through the gap, the only way that is dangerous is when car wankers decide to change lanes without 1) indicating or 2) checking their blind spot. Yes, this is down to the car driver and if they caused an accident they would be arrested for dangerous driving. Why be so childish about it? So what a bike can get through and you can’t? He/she isn’t heading to your house to steal your last bit of fucking cake!!!
What you class as funny “mwahaha” childishness is dangerous and could cost a life, as happened a few weeks ago near me. The driver took exception to a biker overtaking, swerved across the lane causing the biker to swerve accross into an oncoming car. Mwhahaha. How funny is that now people? That’ll teach that pesky queue jumper!

Oh and if people think that bikers have no awareness of their vulnerability on the road, or that it's funny as a car driver to be a danger to bikers (who obviously don't deserve consideration and respect on the road), or that you have no responsibility to be totally aware of your surroundings whilst in control of a car, please watch this video (WARNING: may be upsetting)

I know this rider (who was within the speed limit for this particular road). The driver didn't even try to prevent this collision as he pulled out of this side road, so please don't try to tell me that bikers bring these things upon themselves and always look twice, you might just save a life.

It’s crazy, as a biker you are taught to be so overly extra observant, head checks at every manoeuvre. Changing road position? Head check, moving off from lights? Head check, overtaking? Head check. We know how vulnerable we are on the road, our lessons teach us how to be observant of cars, junctions, drain covers, diesel spills, leaves. We cannot protect ourselves from idiot thoughtless car drivers though.

Sorry about your friend magrat, that video is harrowing, I hope the driver got sent down for a long time.

It’s legal, yes but you can’t claim everyone who does it is safe about it.

Thank you, nottheduchess.

I didn’t claim that. Some bikers are dangerous but I don’t know them, all I know is that there are a few car drivers on this thread I hope I never have to share a road with.

Of course, some bikers are dangerous. They tend not to live very long.

However, the (many more) car drivers who are dangerous tend to cause others to not live very long. Drivers should be more respectful of the fact that cars are dangerous and making a mistake whilst driving one can easily kill others. They should therefore modify their driving accordingly instead of expecting that everybody else should encase themselves in an equally dangerous large metal box.

Cyclists can't win it seems. On Friday I was cycling along a cycle path which is also a very wide pavement and a man crossed the road and turned right into my path without even looking. Luckily I wasn't going too fast to be able to swerve round him, so I said 'look where you're going' as I went past and he yelled back at me 'get in the road then'.