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news
M58 cyclist (via Lancashire Police)Motorway cyclist fined after van driver crashed trying to avoid him
A cyclist who strayed onto the M58 motorway in Lancashire due to a sat-nav error has been fined after a van driver crashed while trying to avoid him.
The incident happened between junctions 4 and 5 near Skelmersdale last Monday 4 May, said Lancashire Constabulary.
Police said that the rider, dressed in a t-shirt and casual shorts, had ended up on the motorway because he had not switched the sat-nav app on his mobile phone to the cycling setting.
A spokesman for the force said: “He moved out in to Lane 1, causing a car in Lane 1 to swerve to Lane 2 into the path of a van.
“The van couldn't move to Lane 3 as another vehicle was there, so had to swerve to the left and went in between the cyclist and the car, colliding with the car in the process.”
No-one was reported to have been injured in the incident, which police described as “surreal,” adding that it was very fortunate that the cyclist himself hadn’t been “wiped out.”
Officers escorted him off the motorway, but somehow he ended up back on it, and had to be escorted off again by a police patrol.
Highway Code rule 253 states:
Prohibited vehicles. Motorways MUST NOT be used by pedestrians, holders of provisional motorcycle or car licences, riders of motorcycles under 50 cc, cyclists, horse riders, certain slow-moving vehicles and those carrying oversized loads (except by special permission), agricultural vehicles, and powered wheelchairs/powered mobility scooters.
The man is not the first to have strayed onto a motorway during the current lockdown.
At the end of March, we reported how police told a cyclist who was found on the M60 near Cheadle, Cheshire, that “this does not constitute your daily exercise” and issued him with a fine.
> “This does not constitute your daily exercise,” police tell cyclist stopped on M60
And in early April, police in Leicestershire stopped and fined a cyclist on the M69 between Leicester and Hinckley.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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40 comments
I totally agree with this, he shouldn't be on the bloody motorway!!!
Struggling to make out the lettering on the bonnet of the car. Surely the police cars aren't marked "COPS", yet that it what it seems to be!
its "Tac Ops"...not that it makes any more sense to have plastered on a police car
Tactical Operations.
Clearly not Tact Operations.
It makes plenty of sense - it's short for 'tactical operations'. It's there to distinguish them from all the other police who are just running around like headless chickens, or doing whatever they feel like.
FTFY
“He moved out in to Lane 1, causing a car in Lane 1 to swerve to Lane 2 into the path of a van.
So even after straying on to the motorway, he then decides to ride in Lane 1 rather than the hard shoulder?
Lucky he wasn't a BMW or Audi driver when not on the bike... he would have been straight into lane 3!
normally across all three lanes from the slip road before the solid line ends
...with front fog lights ablaze...
Yes, it turns out the cyclist was not the only person to mistake the hard shoulder for a cycle lane. Some motorist made the same mistake so they parked in it, hence the hapless cyclist's forced manoeuvre into lane 1.
You can be given points on your driving licence for offences committed on a bike. Even points to go on a future licence if you don't yet have one.
Generally I don't agree with that but in this case he should be given the maximum points. If possible I'd ban him from driving on the spot. If this is the level of fuck-wittery he manages on a bike imagine how dreadful his driving is!
Which country is this?
In Australia you can, in the UK, no. You can be disqualified from driving for a cycling offence (e.g. wanton and furious cycling) but there's no mechanism to apply points sanctions to a driving licence for a cycling offence.
what the f*%k has what he was wearing got to do with it?
To prove not all cyclists wear lycra.
Not only did he go on the motorway, but he was one of these scruffy casual types.
Cycling today is going to hell in a handcart, they'll let anybody in!
Does not the big blue sign saying MOTORWAY - No Cycling No Mopeds etc not give it away.
These are at every entrance to the motorway that I have seen.
Interesting. What species of animals can read to know they don't belong on the motorway?
Clearly the rider just wasn't fast enough. I remember a blog post from years ago, may have been from velomobile maker Trisled, about them testing a back to back tandem velo in the Burnley freeway tunnel. Of course bicycles aren't allowed, but all they got was a speeding ticket from memory. Mind you, they did manage over 70mph…
I've never seen one of those signs before! Is it only a NI thing?
Apparently the signs were removed at some point but your general point is still valid
We've all done it...
No, we haven't.
If bikes could speak, his would be beating him across the head with a 9-iron.
This is actually an issue with Apple phone sat Nav - there is no "cycling" setting, and it tries to guess what you are doing based on your speed, as soon as you tip over a certain speed it assumes you are in a car and tries to make you use the motorway if you are going any distance at all. So even if you pick the "walking" setting, it automatically doesn't beleive you if you go "too fast" and tries to dump you on the motorway.
This is potentially much less of a case of "user error" and more of a case of "user trust in technology not designed for cyclists."
No it's an issue with the user's brain and observations.
Agreed. There is something called 'common sense' lacking.
It's a case of "Bloody fool refuses to trust his own eyes when faced with a three-lane motorway and instead believes a telephone."
Sat Nav error? No.
I've strayed on to dual carriageways following a sat nav and potentially could have on to a motorway but as Vlad posts the latter are pretty obvious and I've turned around. Even with the near zero traffic of a few weeks ago with the crazy speeds and drivers not expecting bike why would anybody in their right mind make a decision to cycle on a motorway
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