Victoria Police will add small dirt bikes to their fleet to allow officers to lane filtering through traffic while patrolling for speeding motorists.

A VicPol release says the 2015 KTM 500 EXC Special Access Motorcycles combine the manoeuvrability of a trail bike with the speed-detection capabilities of traditional road bikes such as their BMW R 1200 models.

Road Policing Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer says the bikes will be used in areas with high volumes of traffic where they will be able to filter through slow and stationary vehicles.

“Our highway police have traditionally used the larger BMWs during patrols,” he says. “These new additions to the fleet are much lighter, more nimble and well suited to policing the inner city roads.

“The special access bikes can go almost anywhere and provide greater flexibility in urban areas. These motorcycles are particularly effective in enabling police to safely filter through congested areas and detect offences that pose risks to the safety of road-users.

“We are continually looking for opportunities to improve our approach to addressing metropolitan road enforcement and this is just an example of that.”

The lane-filtering police bikes come into service as Victoria on Monday (November 2) joins Queensland, NSW and the ASCT in allowing motorcycle riders to filter through traffic.

Before taking to the traffic on Monday, Victorian riders should read the complete list of regulations.

The Victorian regulations indicate that signs will show riders where lane filtering is not allowed, presumably where the lanes are too narrow.

They are indicated with a lane filtering depiction and a big red line through it, Ghostbusters style. The end to the banned lane filtering zone is indicated by the same sign but with a black line, instead of red, the word “END”.

As if we need more signs!