ASL Crackdown

[martint235]

If you're not already in the traffic (perhaps because you're a slow or unconfident cyclist riding in the gutter/cycle lane) and you wish to turn right at the junction, or to go straight on without being left-hooked, the ASL reservoir in principle provides a safe place to correct your error of positioning without being intimidated by WVM or Tony the Taxi.

In principle perhaps but even as a confident rider who is used to commuting in London, I would rather have WVM in front of me where I can see him rather than accelerating away from the lights regardless of whether or not I've moved off yet.

 

[gentlegreen]

Speaking as someone who rode motorcycles from 50 to 750CC for 10 years, before seeing the light 25 years ago, I have mixed feelings.
I'm in my 50s and enjoy my twice-daily 5 mile commutes, but if I had to do twice that, I might well be nudged in the direction of electrical assistance at least. Perhaps they should allow in motorcycles up to 125cc so long as they behave themselves.
And as others have said, such facilities do tend to encourage ill-advised filtering.

 

[summerdays]

One junction on my route the ASL is very useful to me (well more than one but just talking about one particular one). I'm going straight across each time, and in the morning lots of traffic is turning right out of the same side as me - the filter lane to the ASL allows me to pass the traffic stuck behind the car at the front holding up the rest of the queue. On the way home I actually use the ASL part more - I have found that if I wait at the back of the queue, you sometimes get stuck behind the traffic waiting to turn, but my main problem is that the car making the right turn from the other direction either doesn't see me behind the car infront of me or doesn't care (happens a lot at this particular junction), with the result that when the car in front goes, I'm left either braking hard or accelerating hard to avoid getting hit by the on-coming car making the turn when it isn't clear. If I get to the ASL then I'm not hidden in the first place and I'm across the junction before anything starts to happen.

 

[donnydave]

[QUOTE 2486646, member: 30090"]
If I can get through the lights in the first phase then usually I'll take up position behind the last vehicle in the queue. Other than this I'll filter and use the ASL. [/quote]

I do this too at one particular junction on my commute. If traffic is light then I just go with it as the time saving is minimal if non existent as I would make it through the next green anyway if I'm not too far back.

If traffic is heavy and backed up I filter on the right and stuff it in the ASL at the front, often saving 3 or 4 full phases of the lights. I see it as a reward for being narrow. One other circumstance when I won't use the ASL is perhaps if to get into the ASL I have to re-pass a bus or a lorry that I know from the road ahead would have difficulty re-passing me.