Originally Posted by
robertorolfo
I'm not really sure I get the point of the boxes. What are they supposed to accomplish, anyway? It will inevitably cause a jam up when they have to filter back down to the narrower lane, no?
Makes perfect sense for motorcycles - they're usually faster accelerating than cars, not sure about bicycles. Maybe Acidfast can explain it better.
As for bicycles, I often filter all the way to the first car when there's a traffic jam. Filtering to the front is more "traumatic" for the drivers, but starting behind the first car - they get into the intersection first (if anyone's running a "late green", the car gets hit), I use the windshield of the car in front to accelerate easier, the first car controls the pace so I get no horns from the drivers behind - and the cars can easily go past one bicycle since I leave enough room when filtering.
Having said this, local bike associations are trying to enforce a minimum 1m passing distance when overtaking bikes - along with lane changing when overtaking bikes on out of urban areas. I believe this, if enforced, would make filtering with a bicycle a lot less fair towards drivers - making them do just what you said: bothering to take you over later on. It would also cause more jams and tension - especially on twisty, one lane per direction, out of city roads, climbs even more so.