I make you right and as Geoff points out, it's pretty much impossible for a streetside policeman to know every nuance of the law, so why push it? If it's something that could be a grey area, it's not worth the hassle.
Putting my brain in gear, I guess I should've known that anyway... I've seen some pretty impressive stopping by police cars in high speed pursuits, alongside a car stopped at a zebra... i.e. they'll go past everything else in the queue, but they'll do whatever they can to stop at the front... then the poor old pedestrian gets all confused and doesn't know whether to carry on crossing or return to the comparative safety of the pavement!
Having had an accident whilst filtering, I can say that from my experience, the insurance company had no problem with what I was doing, but I did make sure I drew good diagrams, and took pictures.
I was filtering past traffic on a single carriageway (in each direction), when a young gentleman pulled a U-turn in front of me. I was travelling at about 10mph.
No issues with liability, payout, loss of NCD etc.
Pleased I posted this as it'll give more people a true view of whats legal and what is not.
So we've established that travelling against the flow of traffic on the back wheel while straddling a solid white line/hatchings and texting a mate/live streeming the video from your mobile back to YouTube is possably a bit naughty then? lol
When having lessons with my instructor I was advised that even on test filtering is ok
Indeed... and I've had several instructors inform me that it's essential to filter on a test, otherwise you'll get penalised and risk failing your test due to your failure to progress through the traffic. Maybe it's because I'm in the SE of England and we're pretty much at permanent gridlock down here?!
Take a look at this document, (also talks about dabbing vs putting a foot down): http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Documents/practical_test/dt1/dsa_...sa_dt1.pdf
Search for the words filter and dabs to find the relevant sections. I found this when trying to find information about dabbing on the u-turn and noticed the bit on filtering. Informative but my instuctor told me that most examiners will fail for a dab despite what this guidance states - I guess the same would apply for filtering on test too, very subjective.
" A candidate should not be encouraged to make a better pass or to filter along a line of vehicles. However, if a candidate chooses to filter and does so safely, it should not be regarded as a fault"
This would indicate that in 'life' as people have said filtering in a safe manner is quite ok & legal ... however on test as per all things, its down to what the guy marking you considers to be safe or not.