Yet another cyclist has been escorted off a motorway by police. Not in Surrey this time, but on the M60 in Manchester where the unnamed man followed his satnav on to the huge Barton Bridge across the Manchester Ship Canal.
Riding along the hard shoulder, the man reached the apex of the bridge, which rises to about 100ft above the water, then took his feet off the pedals and freewheeled the down the other side.
The Manchester Evening News’s Alex Hibbert reports that the rider was tracked on CCTV by Mike Duggan, a supervisor at North West Motorway Police control room
Mr Duggan said: “As soon as we got the call we started tracking him on CCTV.
“We were watching as he got to the top of the bridge, took his feet off the pedals and free wheeled down.
“He also veered across lanes and the slip road a couple of times. He managed to get all the way down to Junction 12, so he got quite far.
“When the patrol caught up with him he told officers it was his sat nav which had directed him on to the motorway. We’re not sure exactly what sort of sat-nav device he was using.”
The patrol spoke to the rider and then took him and his bike off the motorway. Mr Duggan added: “Hopefully we won’t see him again but you never know.
“My advice to people would be to not ride a push bike over the Barton Bridge, and also that if your sat-nav is telling you to do something dangerous, don’t do it.”
The Barton Bridge section of the M60 is notorious for traffic hold-ups, though in this case the confused rider seems to have caused no problems. During last month’s high winds, the bridge was closed after a collision between a lorry and a car, causing widespread traffic disruption.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
22 thoughts on “Lost cyclist follows sat-nav over Manchester’s huge M60 Barton Bridge”
That’s a solid piece of
That’s a solid piece of advice, that.
Am jealous, to be honest.
Am jealous, to be honest.
Joselito wrote:Am jealous, to
I’m with you, I’d love to blast over Barton Bridge on a bike.
I’d also like to do the rope swing those kids rigged up there too.
I have dodged traffic on the bridge trying to pick up rugby shirts that had blown out the back of the car after we’d set off and drunkenly forgot to close the boot.
You do have to wonder about
You do have to wonder about some people 8}
This also highlights the need for better Cycle sat-nav sites/apps. Google’s is not brilliant. When planing routes I use either Cycle Streets or British Cycling’s route planner. Both will route you down dual carriageways which I believe to be stupid and poor design. I know cyclists aren’t banned from dual carriageways but when you consider most drivers treat them like motorways why would anyone want to cycle along a dual carriageway.
I don’t think this fella was
I don’t think this fella was that lost, I think he’s just gone for it, the fact he’s taken his feet off the pedals to freewheel is suggesting to me that it was fixed.
Bet you nobody touches his Strava KOM for that.
farrell wrote:I don’t think
I doubt there are any Strava segments on motorways.
earth wrote:farrell wrote:I
I doubt there are any Strava segments on motorways.— farrell
There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio…
This is the rope swing I mentioned earlier under the Barton Bridge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9bj5Rh-9tE
farrell wrote:earth
I doubt there are any Strava segments on motorways.— earth
There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio…
This is the rope swing I mentioned earlier under the Barton Bridge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9bj5Rh-9tE— farrell
That is spectacular but I couldn’t do it myself.
Was it a Garmin?
These sat
Was it a Garmin?
These sat navs that are supposed to be used on bikes should have the motorways removed from their maps.
Shouldn’t the headline be
Shouldn’t the headline be ‘idiot on bike’ rather than ‘lost cyclist’?
Still not sure why a cyclist
Still not sure why a cyclist on the hard shoulder would cause ‘traffic problems’. After all, he has a good 3m separating him from the vehicle traffic, so even the worst drivers (even those with dying parrots 8} ) have room to get past!
(Also can’t see why cycling on a hard shoulder is actually any more dangerous than cycling with traffic on a dual carriageway, but there you go….).
JeevesBath wrote:Still not
It wouldn’t, it’s just your run of the mill average dumb motorist types having their whinges backed by the bib condoning said whinging and attempting to keep the status quo going.
I know we should be all
I know we should be all po-faced and critical but…I bet everyone of us is just a teensy bit jealous. The descent would have been epic. You would aero yourself to the max and for weeks afterwards you would get the giggles every time you remembered.
Please say he filmed it!
Farrell, top sharing.
Farrell, top sharing.
That’s my local motorway
That’s my local motorway junction (junction 10). I’m sorry but I don’t buy any suggestion he didn’t know he was joining a motorway, bearing in mind that bridge looms ahead of you all the way up and you are already climbing towards it as soon as you join the slip road.
If it was a genuine mistake, I can’t see what prevented him from stopping and turning round on the hard shoulder and scooting back down.
The police say he rode/freewheeled down as far as junction 12 (the M60/M62/M602 interchange), which meant he decided to ignore the Irlam exit (junction 11) just after the bridge. He will also have had to come off the hard shoulder and join the motorway traffic at the on and off slip roads for junction 11.
And if he was trying to continue through the Junction 12 interchange when the police caught up with him, where there are daily bottlenecks and RTAs as cars filter onto the M60, he’s lucky still to be alive.
C*ck.
So, you’re an idiot for
So, you’re an idiot for cycling on a motorway, in your own dedicated 3 metre, separate from the 70 mph traffic. Instead, you’re supposed to cycle on A-roads *mixing* with 60 mph to 70 mph.
Strange, bizarre attitudes to cycling safety in this country.
Paul J wrote:So, you’re an
Which bit of crossing over two slip roads doesn’t involve mixing directly with traffic?
Timbo13 wrote:
Which bit of
It is not just motorways which have slip roads. Many (legal to ride) dual carriageways have them. A procedure for crossing them at right angles and then rejoining the main carriageway (or vice versa) has been established. I have seen white lines on the road marking out this route.
Yes, if you ride onto a
Yes, if you ride onto a motorway as an adult then you are an idiot, or a complete retard even.
As a road user you should know the rules and laws.
Who is the
Who is the idiot?
http://beyondthekerb.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/idiots/
”if your sat-nav is telling
”if your sat-nav is telling you to do something dangerous, don’t do it”
so next time you hear ‘At the next turn, run with scissors’ you know what to do folks.
Baa Baa.
Baa Baa.