Pontoneer - you sound like one of those people who sits in traffic and fumes at all the other people making them late by also sitting in a tin box on the same bit of road. Sensible filtering is what bikes are all about it is why the police and ambulance etc use them and I think you'll find over taking traffic is perfectly legal.
You can't do it in a car because you can't get back onto your side of the road, a bike can, simple as.
Likewise overtakign slow moving traffic. In the case you highlighted, yes the bike is in the wrong, no doubt the aforementioned Sunday PowerRanger, but how many times have you sat behind a line of traffic following a lorry/caravan/tractor etc and cursed the person at the front for not overtakign when they could but also done nothing yourself because everyone is driving too close together? In that situation I would keep the bike moving everytime whilst watching for indicators. Why should I sit at the back of the line when i can make a perfectly safe and legal overtaking manouvere simply because my "time exposed to danger" i.e. being on the wrong side of the road is a fraction of any car?
In summary these "selfish and agressive" bikers are nothing of the sort. They are not delaying your journey at all. Far from it. They might otherwise be sat in a tiny box in front of you making you another few meters further from your destination.
Simply keep an eye out and let them through. anything else is selfish, spiteful and lets be fair, there are much more serious things to get yourself worked into a rage about.
m.
Martin ,
I can't remember the last time I 'sat and fumed' at other drivers : whilst I like to make progress where safely possible , I know that if there is a hold up ahead , getting worked up about it achieves nothing . I don't feel anger towards other road users , except where crass stupidity and reckless disregard for safety is manifest .
I also have no problem with bikers and others overtaking WHERE SAFE AND APPROPRIATE TO DO SO . I used to drive a bike myself NEVER went down the outside of a queue of traffic approaching a set of lights or a junction .
Progressing slowly and carefully past stationary or stop/start traffic (not at junctions) is a different matter and not the kind I am complaining about . The bikers I am complaining about are the ones who cannot even wait 30 seconds for what is obviously a temporary situation to resolve itself and will literally risk life and limb to get 10 places ahead in a queue .
There is a BIG difference between safe and legal overtaking on a clear stretch of road and 'aggressive and selfish' queue jumping on a busy and congested stretch of road where it is unsafe , and therefore illegal in the event of a collision , to overtake . As a very rough rule of thumb , if the gaps between vehicles ahead are not big enough to pull safely back into without causing another driver to take evasive action ( ie you have no escape route ) then it is not safe to overtake in the first place - THIS WORKS FOR BIKES , CARS AND ALL CLASSES OF VEHICLE .
The bike in my example above could no more get back onto his side of the (narrow) road than a car could have , given the road width available he must have been in the gutter when he overtook me alongside the tractor - there being not much more than a bike's width left between opposing cars on that road . Had he even 'filtered' down alongside traffic at a more reasonable speed , made eye contact with me , and waited , I would probably have let him in front of me as a matter of courtesy - courtesy begets courtesy - sadly , aggression and trying to force your way in begets the opposite response , and in the case I refer to he got what he deserved . I certainly did not 'get into a rage' over the incident and dismissed it from my mind seconds after it had happened ; I only mentioned it here and on another thread in response to another posting .
The majority of bikers are well aware of their own mortality and vulnerability and , for the most part , ride well most of the time .
Re the following of the lorry/caravan/tractor : I really have no problem with the first two who normally maintain reasonable speeds ( have towed caravans myself on occasion and likely will again ) , but do regularly encounter inconsiderate tractor drivers on my daily commute who don't bother to pull in to allow the following queue to pass ; I certainly feel no malice whatsoever towards the following driver who may not have the power or confidence to pass safely .
There is also a big difference between 'ordinary' road users and emergency response drivers - as you may or may not know , I am an emergency response driver with the Fire Service and sometimes we have to do things we would not dream of doing in everyday driving - even then , safety is still paramount and a blue light is no licence to drive in a reckless manner .
I probably see more of the results of 'selfish and aggressive' driving rather more than most others , having regularly to attend fatal crashes - I sometimes end up doing things that are not strictly my job , but we all 'muck in' when a scene has to be cleared and a road has to be reopened , thus I have on occasion found myself helping to lift bodies out of cars , perhaps mangled bodies with fractured bones sticking out of joints , cleaning up brain tissue from the road surface , waving down blind drivers who cannot see four or five sets of blue lights in the road in front of them .
Perhaps , therefore , my perspective of 'lunatic driving' is slightly different from some other people's .