The UKs "Bike Safe" program

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Quite interesting this is, cops assessing your riding skills. Is lane splitting legal in the UK?? it seems so from a portion of this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L180bhYy ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[johnakay]

I watch that on TV here.
and I've been on a ride out assessment and passed with flying colours
he even told me to go faster than the national speed limit
so I did for that day
he said most Cleveland biker cops will give a little lee way if you go over a little.
yes but you will always get one bastard!who doesn't

[Digger]

Yup, Lane Splitting is know as "filtering" here and is widely accepted, although take the piss and you risk having your collar felt for a generic offence such as "driving without due care and attention" or "dangerous driving". Basically, as long as the lanes are moving very slowly you may "filter" to the front of the queue.

In operation, you have to pre-determine that no-one is able to or likely to change lanes on you, particularly when undertaking the manoeuvre at 70mph on a busy motorway

[crash277]

i talked to an OPP bike cop here one day, and he was very arrogent about his riding abilities, i offered to let him put his money where his mouth is and he got on his 8000Lb black and white HD and left lol. i wish there was a program like that here, there is no requirement in ontario to have any training before you get on a motorcycle. $17.50 will pay for a learners permit (called an M1). Then you can walk out of teh transportation office and hop on a bike and hit the road.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

It looks like a great idea to me as far as being assessed in the real world conditions, BUT the person(s) testing have to be highly trained and be very flexible with excellent people skills.
By this I mean there are always going to be a handful of testers who "feel" they know it all and are above approach, definately not what you want.
In North America this system would go a long way for a lot of riders, even motorcycle cops who are on the road a lot, this allows bad habits to slowly sneak in over time.
It would also work for drivers as well who somehow can't see anything other than another car or truck on a road.

I always like to hear that legal phrase "riding/driving without due care and attention", as if its possible to execute an interesting manoeuvre on the road and not know what you're doing, or not have full concentration while doing it.

[johnakay]

the biker cops here have to go through a rigorous test and some do fail!
same goes for squad car cops.
the ordinary cop who drive a round in ordinary cars ,ford focus etc don't.

[crash277]

your right allen lol.

when i got my CBR929 i was tolled to be prepared to get pulled over on a regular basis, its been 2 summers on it and i havnt gotten pulled over yet. i also ride with a motorcycle club full of cruisers and sport tourers, and not the squid crowd. The cops do pay attention to who rides with who. big time guilt by association around here. cops know my bike and leave me alone cause i never do anything stupid (anymore lol)...