Army-Navy Drive losing a bit of the bike lane?

[Judd]

@Steve O 166242 wrote:

“Fare” can mean both “be safe” or “be more convenient.” My not filtering makes me slower, so I fare worse in the second sense of the word.

To be “fair”, “fare” (homonym party) in this sense means “get run over less” and not “gets to places slightly faster.”

Though filtering may be legal, my view is that it tends to put one in more situations where a motorist isn’t expecting you and also in situations where the traffic situation changes during the filtering process. I feel like I don’t have much moral high ground when cars don’t pass with three feet if I insert myself into situations where a car can’t pass with three feet.

[Steve O]

@Judd 166251 wrote:

Though filtering may be legal, my view is that it tends to put one in more situations where a motorist isn’t expecting you and also in situations where the traffic situation changes during the filtering process. I feel like I don’t have much moral high ground when cars don’t pass with three feet if I insert myself into situations where a car can’t pass with three feet.

My beef is with your statement: @Judd 166230 wrote:

You shouldn’t filter.

directed, presumably, at everyone. If you want to say, “I prefer not to filter for ABC reasons,” then I have no beef with that.

[Judd]

@Steve O 166252 wrote:

My beef is with your statement: directed, presumably, at everyone. If you want to say, “I prefer not to filter for ABC reasons,” then I have no beef with that.

You should not filter, Steve O and if I see you doing it again, I’m installing bollards, angled ones that are painted pavement colored and also filled with ill tempered venomous snakes that escape if you touch them. And also Jeanne should not filter. I actually intended it as a direct response to Jeanne, because she was asking and everyone else has already made up their mind.

[Crickey7]

I’m both a safety weenie and a rules weenie, and I filter in certain circumstances. First, only when traffic is stopped or nearly so. And second, I’ll usually not filter if I’m only a few cars back from the light, or if the light is about to change, especially in both instances if the road ahead is sufficiently clear that I would expect to me passed pretty quickly. I will readily confess these are my own guidelines, and I judge no one for other choices as long as they’re not egregiously dangerous or illegal.

[AFHokie]

I’ve been in CA the past few weeks where lane splitting is legal for motorcycles; I’m glad that isn’t a thing back east

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

[bobco85]

I’ve been reading this thread, and I have 2 questions for the group:

1. Is there a difference between filtering and lane-splitting?
2. Would filtering be considered lane-splitting through stopped traffic?

Also, this should be added: lane-splitting is not technically illegal in DC, but it is illegal in both VA and MD. Interesting note: lane-splitting is legal for motorcycles in California, and people there (even with their, ahem, limited driving abilities in general) seem to have no issue with it (same goes for the zipper merge).

I think that filtering can be a useful tool of every cyclist’s skillset to safely bypass stopped traffic, but it is not to be done without much thought. It should be done in specific situations where one can reasonably predict what traffic is going to do, and even then, one must be vigilant and understand that drivers and their passengers are not expecting a cyclist between cars.

My positive experiences using filtering: most commonly when waiting behind a line of cars at a red light when I need to turn right, I will filter to make my turn or even hop onto the sidewalk to bypass everyone. It’s also great when you’re stuck behind right-turning drivers who are blocking the bike lane since you can get around them and back into the bike lane going forward.

My negative experiences using filtering: attempting to pass a line of cars stopped in traffic on M Street in Georgetown, the passenger in one of the cars decided that NOW was the time they wanted to disembark, and I nearly got doored as a result. Be very careful about filtering to the right when there’s a driveway or right turn lane approaching, as cars will move to the right in anticipation of said turns.

[secstate]

@bobco85 166263 wrote:

My negative experiences using filtering: attempting to pass a line of cars stopped in traffic on M Street in Georgetown, the passenger in one of the cars decided that NOW was the time they wanted to disembark, and I nearly got doored as a result.

I got doored precisely this way.

[Judd]

@AFHokie 166262 wrote:

I’ve been in CA the past few weeks where lane splitting is legal for motorcycles

Don’t lane split on a motorcycle, Jeanne.

[lordofthemark]

https://youtu.be/0ISX9mW78Dw

[Vicegrip]

I filter once a day every weekday in my ride home.
Haycock road and Great falls road intersection on Haycock heading East. The stop light where there a shared straight and Left turn lane and a Right turn lane. It is one lane almost to the light with a right turn lane that can hold perhaps 3 cars. In the afternoon the cars back up 50 deep on this uphill section of road. I filter between the cars and curb right to the front of the line. The green light is an all green and I am gone with only have one or two cars that catch up to me well down the road as they get stuck behind anyone that is turning Left. If I VC I will also block many cars once the right turn cars clear up and I am now huffing uphill from a stop with a long string of cars behind me? Would it be better that I VC in the road starting and stopping up hill 20 times and the cars inch along?

Does filtering help the cars, the cyclist, both or nether in this case?

[dasgeh]

@bobco85 166263 wrote:

My negative experiences using filtering: attempting to pass a line of cars stopped in traffic on M Street in Georgetown, the passenger in one of the cars decided that NOW was the time they wanted to disembark, and I nearly got doored as a result. Be very careful about filtering to the right when there’s a driveway or right turn lane approaching, as cars will move to the right in anticipation of said turns.

I try to filter in between the right lane and the center lane in Gtown. If that’s not an option, I go for between the center lane and left lane. At least you can’t say that drivers aren’t expecting bikes to filter in Gtown, because it’s a filter fest in the afternoon.

[Judd]

@Vicegrip 166275 wrote:

Does filtering help the cars, the cyclist, both or nether in this case?

This wouldn’t be a problem if you would just get a Class 3 e-bike.

[DismalScientist]

I would like to point out that I used the word “shoal,” not filter. I filter, but do not move to the font of the line when I am likely to be immediately passed (or not because of insufficient lane width).
My example would be southbound 15th at Maine.

As an aside, I have no idea of how this thread got into a discussion of lane width. Currently on Veitch, Fairfax, and Army Navy, I ride in the bike lane and can easily be passed in the general traffic lane(s) by cars. Elimination of the conventional bike lane is my problem.

[Steve O]

@bobco85 166263 wrote:

I’ve been reading this thread, and I have 2 questions for the group:

1. Is there a difference between filtering and lane-splitting?
2. Would filtering be considered lane-splitting through stopped traffic?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the way I think about them are:

Filtering – riding on the right of the rightmost travel lane while traffic is stopped, either against the curb or between the travel lane and parked cars.
Filtering – riding between cars in two travel lanes in which one of the lanes is a turn only. For instance, if there is a right-turn only lane, I can filter between it and the next lane over. This is the recommended way of filtering (if you choose to filter) when there is a right-turn only lane.
Lane splitting – Riding between cars in two lanes that are going in the same direction (straight, for instance). I believe this is illegal in these here parts.

That said, for the years I PM commuted westbound on Eye St NW in DC from 14th to 19th, I was a total urban-guerilla cyclist, lane splitting and filtering at every opportunity to gain every inch of advantage.

[dasgeh]

@bobco85 166263 wrote:

I’ve been reading this thread, and I have 2 questions for the group:

1. Is there a difference between filtering and lane-splitting?
2. Would filtering be considered lane-splitting through stopped traffic?

I’ve always understood:
Filtering : riding beside/between stopped cars to the front of the line (cars are the big rocks, bikes are the water filtering through them)
Lane-splitting: riding in a lane with a car that is also moving
Shoaling: Pulling ahead of stopped bikes into the crosswalk/intersection, creating a shoal.

I.e. you can’t shoal a car.

[Author]

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