Lane Filtering Qld Style

750se

750se

Just a heads up for my Queensland commuting counterparts.
In case any of you are wondering what you legally can and can’t do with regards to lane filtering.
I have a pdf with the extracts from the Qld Traffic Act which I'll try to upload here.
In a nutshell
You must have an Open licence
Be traveling below 30kmh
Not be in a School Zone
Be travelling in the same direction as the vehicles you are passing IE not down the centre of the road
Do it in a “Safe” manner (Police Officers discretion for definition of safe)
Around town (Roads Below 90Kmh zone)
You can filter between stationary and slowly moving cars on their left or right, cross solid and broken lines, use "bicycle storage areas", you are not required to use indicators.
Open Road (Roads 90Kmh and above)
As above if the traffic is going slowly, but you can also use emergency stopping lanes and both shoulders of the road including crossing solid edge lines
Still limited to travelling less than 30kmh
Not allowed on “unsealed section of road”
 
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My understanding is that you can't use actual bicycle lanes, you can use the bit at the front of the lights that's called a Bicycle Storage area (or something to that effect).
 
I love these new filtering laws, make my commute so much easier!! I have had mixed reactions from drivers, the majority of which is positive, moving slightly left/right to make extra room for example. I have had the odd driver accelerate from a traffic light before it's green because they didn't want me filtering in front of them, but that's a rare exception.

I have filtered past one police car so far, I'm hopeful that will open driver's eyes to the fact it's legal.

The new laws weren't exactly publicised so the average driver is not going to be aware that there's been a change and that it's now officially legal rather than a grey area.

Oh, and two things about other motorcyclists that bug me when filtering...

The rider on the modern sportsbike who insists on filtering past *you* after you have filtered to the front, and then proceeds to crawl away or worse yet has put his bike in neutral and has to hit it into first before moving off...

The P plater on the under powered 300cc single cylinder who does the above or as happened to me on Thursday morning, is sitting on the right side of the front of the traffic and then proceeds to turn left without indicating when you naturally have ended up to his left...
 
Yep you're right Ben, only down the centre around town. I think that's to keep us away from the cyclists, and personally I find that a good thing! Of course normal exceptions occur such as when you're turning left etc.

As a general rule I don't like the shoulders anyway as that's where all the crap ends up including screws/nails/etc.
 
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