Motorbikes, filtering and ASLs - opinions please!

the_hundredth_idiot

The Chingford Skinhead wrote:

while I appreciate that p2ws are vulnerable road users too, I do have a problem with them going into ASLs, sitting on the right and then turning left across me. This seems to happen quite a lot on my commute through east and central London. I've even had occassions where I've told the powered rider that I'm turning right and asked him what he was doiing (I'm usually in the left / middle having filtered up using the cycle lane. I can't sit on the right becuase he is there). Generally I'm ignored or get a grunt. I then pull away slowly as I know what is always going to happen - tw@ is going to cut right across me!

+1

I turn right from Tooley St onto Tower Bridge Road every evening. I filter to the ASL at the front and sit broadly in the middle of the right hand lane so I can feel in control turning right without getting too much in the way of any cars also turning right. Almost every night some numpty on a motor bike pulls up alongside me in the ASL and goes straight on as the lights turn green. I'm expecting it so it's not dangerous. But it's f***ing annoying all the same.

Rockbuddy

OK, not an ASL issue but last night a motorbike over took me way too close (scared the crap out of me). There was no need, I wasn't in primary (well over to the left) and the road was quite wide, I think he just didn't want to change his line too much :x Logically I will, from now on, hate all motor bikes no matter how courtious

snooks

Sorry, I get narked off with motorbikes using cycle lanes, not bus lanes, cycle lanes on the road.

Not just that, but (to generalise greatly to prove my point ) they stop on the inside of an ASL so as a cyclist, I'm left being battered around the head by their exhaust (espesh the popping exhausts that are angled up towards my head) and not able to enter the ASL cos it's full of blooming motor bikes.

Sorry, but I'm one for sticking by the rules, I don't jump reds, I don't ride on the pavement. Therefore I'd like other road users to afford me the same courtesy: by keeping their motor vehicle out of cycle lanes at the times they are in force, motor bikes overtaking cars on the right (not on the left in a cycle lane), keeping motorbikes out of ASL etc etc etc

I'm also pi$$ed of with being passed at about 50mph with just a few inches to spare, if I'm lucky.

In the same way a ped sees a cyclist running a red or riding on a pavement, gets pi$$ed off with all cyclists, motorbikes sitting in ASL and using cycle lanes pi$$es me off as a cyclist, and so the chain goes on...

At least I'm doing my bit to break it

ps I'm not usually this ranty, I'm just having a bad day,,,but I feel a little better now

patchy

i'd rather have a motorbike (especially if its a delivery moped or a courier) next to me or in front of me than steaming up behind me as i pull away. hence, get in the ASL, and we'll work it out together

snooks

patchy wrote:

i'd rather have a motorbike (especially if its a delivery moped or a courier) next to me or in front of me than steaming up behind me as i pull away. hence, get in the ASL, and we'll work it out together

Problem I find is that the tail enders from the last set of lights are in the ASL, while the fast boys from the lights behind have just steamed up and filtered through. As the lights go green the slower bikes get away and about 0.0025m/s later there's a rush of all the fast boys as they push their way through, be you moped, rice burner or lowly bicycle, they'll squeeze through gaps that aren't there.

crosstowncommuter

The whole "bikers in ASL's" thing didn't seem to be an issue until just recently when the bus lanes were opened up, or is it my imagination :?:

I've been commuting for a couple of years now and this problem has only really become an issue I've noticed since the beginning of this year. Not sure if there are more bikers, or its just that the ones that are there now assume that because they can use the bus lanes the ASL's and cycle lanes are now fair game too..

Anyway like others here I'm getting fed up with having to sit behind 'em in the ASL choking down their exhaust fumes, whilst wondering if the WVM / bus / HGV / mobile phone toting cager just behind my rear wheel is going to cream me when the lights go green :evil:

I'm currently toying with the idea of trying to find a longer route into work that uses the backstreets as much as possible (strange though that may sound). One of the prime reasons is to reduce the number of times I find myself in ASL purgatory :roll:

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