Originally Posted by
BarracksSi
Traffic doesn't suddenly start accelerating all at once, however. There's usually enough advance warning of when the traffic flow is going to pick up pace again that you can get through a gap and off to the side. It's easiest during the transition between the cyclist going faster and the cars getting to a faster speed themselves -- both the cyclist and the cars, for a few seconds, are going at about the same speed.
A line of cars can...and do... accelerate very quickly once they have cleared a choke point. Case in point, I saw a cyclist split lanes on 15th St. in Denver going west. This is on a relatively steep hill and has about a 40 degree two lane turn with a light in the middle of the hill and the guy was filtering to the front of the line between the traffic lanes (not on the right). When he was about 4 cars from the light, the light turned green and everyone went. He was too slow to accelerate with the cars (it is a steep hill) and the road really too narrow for 2 lanes, much less a cyclist splitting those two lanes. He came very close to be squashed between the turning cars and had no escape route. It was a boneheaded maneuver. This road is narrow enough...and steep enough that filtering on the right side between the traffic lane and the parked cars isn't really a good idea.