Is there anything to say that riding down the outside of queuing traffic is illegal?

I can’t imagine there is and can’t see anything in the highway code to say it is but just wondered after a spot of verbal abuse on the commute this morning.

As any experienced cyclist knows, it’s much safer than trying to sneak up the inside where people turn left without looking, also there’s a lot more space to overtake.

Surely it can’t be illegal?

No it is fine. It come sunder the remit of ‘filtering’, its up to any traffic ‘filtering’ to do so safely.

It’s both legal and the preferable method in most situations.

Ok, i thought it must be ok.

Presumably the same goes for riding between lanes of traffic going in the same direction – e.g. coming up to lights with a left/right turn lane.

No not illegal.

I wouldn’t take verbal abuse from another road user as an indication of the law. Most people that have had a go at me while commuting around London do not seem to have even a basic understanding of the law.

I even had a bus driver telling me I should have given way at a roundabout when I was coming from his right – why, because he was diving a bus 🙄

I suspected the guy was talking bo**ocks and have been riding like this for a long time. Looks like i am ‘in the right’ then.

Ask yourself whether all those people in cars who overtake you are driving illegally? Its the same thing, just that sometimes a cyclist goes faster than a motorist.

no, you’re fine.

It’s both legal and the preferable method in most situations.

I do it a lot on certain roads on my commute – like you say, much safer than filtering up the inside. Drivers (some/many), ime, seem to forget that they have nearside mirrors that they check before turning left.

I even had a bus driver telling me I should have given way at a roundabout when I was coming from his right – why, because he was diving a bus

“Report me to the police then!” would have been my answer.

Yeah, how many drivers check any mirror before turning ? Very few. Both sides just as dodgy I reckon, only on the left you don’t have opposing traffic to worry about.

I even had a bus driver telling me I should have given way at a roundabout when I was coming from his right – why, because he was diving a bus

That might just be good advice in London 😉

I ride up the outside all the time. I ride a motorbike as well, so it’s second nature to me. I just can’t bear to be sat in traffic on 2 wheels: Does.Not.Compute. DOES.NOT.COMPUTE! 8)

Until fairly recently I always filtered on the inside. But recently I’ve started to use the outside, there is more room, you can see oncoming traffic a long way off and filter back in appropriately. I’ve also noticed some cars moving a little to the left to give me room as I pass them on the right something that never happens when I filter up the inside.

Perfectly legal. Not sure which I prefer – there’s pros and cons of both:

Left:
Cars kind of expect you to be there generally, if there’s going to be a cyclist he’s probably going to be on the left.
Left means you don’t have to escape once the traffic is ready to move off.

Right:
You’re meant to be on the right when “overtaking” but most drivers don’t expect people filtering past on the right.
When the traffic starts to move you have to filter through the lane of traffic back to the left – this can be hard.

I go left / right /middle depending on the road layout and where there is more room -generally slowly and looking way ahead to see where the gaps / side turnings are and when the traffic will start to move again

I’ve also noticed some cars moving a little to the left to give me room as I pass them on the right something that never happens when I filter up the inside.

+1