I'm with you on the filtering, EMD. Outside, or down the middle where there are two lanes going in the same direction. I almost never have a problem tucking back in to the flow when the traffic starts moving again (the 'almost' being a WVM who deliberately blocked me off a couple of weeks ago - a totally pointless move). In heavy traffic it's not too difficult, even for an old guy like me, to maintain speed with the traffic until it either slows again, or you can get out of the way as it speeds up. Makes for good interval training, too.