4-5 seconds for a 50-80bhp bike.
And what do you think new riders will likely be on?
Some will still be on their 12-14bhp 125s.
Others might go for a 650cc Cruiser, at 40bhp.
There are plenty of bikes people will be on that cannot do insane speeds, or simply don't care to redline it away every single time.
most cars are mundane things that struggle to hit 60mph in under 10 seconds.
Serious??!!
For starters, even many Land and Range Rovers are faster than that - Plenty of them out in commuter traffic!!
However, 99% of the time, at the front of the lights, is a VW polo/fiesta/any other regular car with a drive who's not really paying attention
Maybe in deepest darkest Kent...
Certainly not here, in London, Hertfordshire, Brum, Manc, Bristol or any of the other places I go through regularly.
As for meeting a car that can do 0-60 in 2.8 seconds, not only would I filter alongside it, drooling while gawping at it, I'd encourage the drive to do a full bore start just so I could hear it
And again, you're just making yourself out to be a moron - Encouraging other drivers to act like ***** now, too?
Ride anything over 90-100bhp and you're faster than 99.9% of cars on the road.
That's still a lot of bike, especially for a new rider.
You're also relying on speed alone, which removes all your other options.
The difference is, when filtering, I'm choosing the situation.
No you're not.
You're choosing the higher risk. That is all.
The situation changes at the whim of other drivers and you have virtually no control by comparison.
I'm controlling where I am on the road
You're choosing to sacrifice a full road's width for far less space, while greatly reducing your visibility to other drivers. You can only go where there is sufficient space, which is already limited and can change in fractions of a second.
How is that control?
When sat at the back of a queue of traffic, I'm completely out of control of what could happen to me.
Behind a car you have several avenues of escape (assuming you're not up their backside already) and up to several yards in which to do it.
When filtering, you typically have just brakes and a few inches either side of you.
but I'm in control of this, a good biker can sense and predict these things happening and ride accordingly
You think you can predict what drivers will do, now?
You trust your imaginary Spidey Senses?
"Allow space for other drivers' errors, rather than trying to anticipate what they will do. There is no predicting and no anticipating. That is just guesswork on your part and if you continue, then one day you will guess horribly wrong".
Advice from a Police riding instructor.
but I'll be a hell of a lot safer than sat at the back of queue.
I'm still waiting to hear some sagely advice on what wonderful 'safe' things your type do when you're the only vehicle at the lights and there's a car coming up behind you...
Filtering accidents tend to be slow speed stuff, which you walk away from.
I hear it's pretty hard to walk when your pelvis and legs have been crushed between two cars...
You won't walk away from a car smashing into the back of you at 40mph.
Really?
I got straight up and yelled obscenities at the one who hit me at about 60mph. I even have two forensics officers who witnessed it.
Filtering IS safer, when done with care and defensively, than being sat at the back of a queue.
Which is why so many advanced instructors say it's one of the most
dangerous things a rider can do, but what the hell do THEY know, right!!
You cannot defend your space when there's so little of it and when most drivers won't even have seen you.
Yes, you might sit at the back of a queue 100 times.
And you might filter down the same road 1000 times, but someone can still not see you and sideswipe you into the next vehicle over on the very 1st attempt...
As is, I've sat happily in queues at least 3,500 times and not once been rear-ended, clipped, touched, nudged or had anything untoward from a driver behind me. Nor has any rider I've ever known, including several entire MCs in Kent.
The only time I have been rear-ended was on a slight bend at night with oncoming traffic in a 40 limit and the driver was not paying attention.
Various studies, including DfT, indicate that the vast majority of bike accidents occur in Right Of Way violations (pulling out on or turning into the bike), Filtering & Overtaking, and Losing Control On Bends.
Rear-end shunts were typically into another vehicle and account for 9-11% (depending on study), most commonly with younger and inexperienced riders failing to bring their bikes to a controlled stop in adverse weather as the cause, NOT from another vehicle hitting them due to the drivers' fault.
The bike being hit from behind OR hitting another vehicle from behind have a combined likelihood of 5.6%, compared to 77.1% from the other three mentioned above. Pulling out on the bike is 40% alone.
So despite the overwhelming evidence, you think filtering to the lights is safer because it eliminates one very small concern while exposing you to a far greater one and requires riding like a **** to resolve...
Good luck with that!
