I have to laugh at some of the suggestions. While it seems logical. to say if traffic is moving at X then you can filter at Y. So how does your speed get measured? Cops can't stand in traffic waiting for a bike to filter along to radar him. If the rider is exceeding the Y factor how do the cops ticket him? Unless they too are on a bike. Not saying it wasn't a good idea, just the logistics of it weren't thought all the way through.
Now we KNOW there will be those who will abuse it. Look at the youtube videos of that guy in Brazil filtering at well over 100. There will be those here who THINK they are a good enough rider to do it. I don't want to sit for another 4 hours on the 401 while they scrape the broken body off the highway.
I agree there are too many aggressive and unsafe drivers here to make it a viable option. Think of those who pull into the on ramp of the highways from the right lane so they can jump the line. Then think of how many times you have seen people from the right lane swerve in front of them trying to "police" the lanes themselves. These are the same people who would "police" filtering bikes.
I chuckle when I see all this talk of how filtering will avoid rear end collisions. Not sure how or where you guys all ride, but in my 35 years of riding and almost 40 of driving I have only been rear ended once, (in my cage), by a woman who was on prescription drugs while driving. Now do bikers get rear ended? Sure but it isn't going to stop once filtering is permitted.
While he wasn't filtering think of the guy on Yonge a few weeks ago who couldn't be seen by the SUV, and got clipped. If filtering was permitted we would likely see a spike in collisions. If filtering were legalized tomorrow and education program for cagers would be needed. Now form those old enough how long did it take when seatbelts became mandatory for the public "education" to catch on and the majority to do it??? Decades. How long have we been "educating" drivers of the risks of drinking and driving yet many people still do it. Lastly, look at cell phone use it has been a few years, and TONS of education yet MOST still do it.
I think it will be years if not decades before attitudes changed enough to permit me to filter, and think it was remotely safer.
One poster spoke of his experiece and how you should be going slow enough to avoid a cager that opens their door, but is concerned about being rear ended. Well news flash if the traffic is going that slow then a rear end collision would be VERY minor, (I am talking of stop and go traffic).
