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Cyclist filmed riding on M60 in ManchesterMotorway Sign.jpg

Cyclist filmed riding on M60 in Manchester

“He looked like he was just going about his daily business," says driver who recorded dashcam footage of rider...
by Simon_MacMichael
Sun, Nov 05, 2017 16:13
12

A Manchester delivery driver has spleen of his shock at spotting a cyclist riding along the hard shoulder of a bridge on the M60 motorway close to the Trafford Centre.

Peter Waterworth supplied the Manchester Evening News with footage recorded on his dashcam of the man riding on the motorway’s Barton High Level Bridge on the afternoon of 12 October.

He told the newspaper: “I didn’t quite see him until I was up close. I just said to my friend I think there is a man cycling on the hard shoulder.

“He didn’t believe me at first and I don’t blame him. It is definitely something you don’t expect to see every day.

“I had to do a double take in my wing mirrors as I couldn’t tell if I had actually witnessed someone cycling up Barton Bridge.

“I remember that my first though was that he had a bit of a mission trying to get up that incline.

“It’s a quite a long stretch until the next junction too so he would have been cycling for a while,”

He continued. “He looked like he was just going about his daily business.

“He was cycling pretty quickly, maybe he had realised what he had done and was trying to get off the motorway.

“He was completely unfazed at the fact that there were cars and lorries speeding past him at 50mph.

“No one was really beeping at him, but I think that was probably because other drivers were in shock.

“Just one strong breeze could have been fatal. I use that motorway a lot and it can get really busy,” he added.

Despite cycling being banned on Britain’s motorways and signs typically placed on slip roads to highlight vehicles that are prohibited, riders do regularly stray onto them.

Just last month we reported on a cyclist who had ended up on the M25 and was given a lift off the motorway by a driver who was concerned about his safety.

> Sat-nav leads cyclist onto M25... driver takes him off it

M60
motorway
Simon MacMichael

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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12 comments

Avatar
nniff | 7 years ago
8 likes

"He was completely unfazed at the fact that there were cars and lorries speeding past him at 50mph."

 

That would be the benefit of the aclimatisation training he'd done on a normal 30mph road where cars and lorries sped past him at 50mph.

Avatar
brooksby replied to nniff | 7 years ago
2 likes

nniff wrote:

"He was completely unfazed at the fact that there were cars and lorries speeding past him at 50mph."

 

That would be the benefit of the aclimatisation training he'd done on a normal 30mph road where cars and lorries sped past him at 50mph.

This; very much this. 

Avatar
BarryBianchi | 7 years ago
2 likes

"He looked like he was just going about his daily business."

Blimey - that's knocked Paula Ratcliffe into a cocked hat...

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
3 likes

A Manchester delivery driver has spleen of his shock

 

What does this even mean?

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
4 likes

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

A Manchester delivery driver has spleen of his shock

 

What does this even mean?

It means that articles are written with autocorrect switched on and no one can be arsed proof reading.

I refer you to "headache" instead of "headcam" -gate.

Avatar
ConcordeCX replied to Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
2 likes

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

A Manchester delivery driver has spleen of his shock

 

What does this even mean?

Someone's been reading too much Baudelaire. 

Certainly appropriate for Manchester.

 

Quand le ciel bas et lourd pèse comme un couvercle
Sur l'esprit gémissant en proie aux longs ennuis,
Et que de l'horizon embrassant tout le cercle
II nous verse un jour noir plus triste que les nuits;

Quand la terre est changée en un cachot humide,
Où l'Espérance, comme une chauve-souris,
S'en va battant les murs de son aile timide
Et se cognant la tête à des plafonds pourris;

Quand la pluie étalant ses immenses traînées
D'une vaste prison imite les barreaux,
Et qu'un peuple muet d'infâmes araignées
Vient tendre ses filets au fond de nos cerveaux,

Des cloches tout à coup sautent avec furie
Et lancent vers le ciel un affreux hurlement,
Ainsi que des esprits errants et sans patrie
Qui se mettent à geindre opiniâtrement.

— Et de longs corbillards, sans tambours ni musique,
Défilent lentement dans mon âme; l'Espoir,
Vaincu, pleure, et l'Angoisse atroce, despotique,
Sur mon crâne incliné plante son drapeau noir.

Avatar
don simon fbpe | 7 years ago
1 like

Dear Manchester Evening News,

Based on the general poor standards of driving throughout Manchester and Greater Manchester, is this really the most noteworthy piece of motorway news that you could find?

I bet it's not, not if you look hard. not even if you step out of your offices for a few seconds. I also ask you to explain why this van driver was contacting you. That stretch of motorway is so congested that a cyclist would probably get through quicker, and most certainly more safely, than using the local A roads. Just as a heads up, the driver doesn't know that much about cycling if he thinks that the Barton Bridge is an incline of any merit, but I do applaud him for recognising that cyclists can be buffeted by the wind and that he respects the, safe, 1.5m passing distance ( I somehow think the latter isn't on his radar though).

Much appreciate your support of the cycling community.

regards,

don simon

PS: I obvioulsy have never lived in either Greater Manchester or Manchester, I have never ridden a bicycle either. And finally I have no experience of driving in and around Manchester, the North West, the North East, Scotland or even the Midlands.

Avatar
Accessibility f... | 7 years ago
4 likes

What an idiot, I mean, fancy cycling on the hard shoulder of a 50mph section of motorway when you can have the entire first lane of a three-lane 70mph dual carriageway (with no hard shoulder) all to yourself.

https://goo.gl/maps/spaq5zrw1H62

Don't you just love cycling provision in the UK?

Avatar
dodpeters | 7 years ago
5 likes

If you follow road signs to anywhere you’ll find yourself directed onto the motorway...

Avatar
mike the bike | 7 years ago
2 likes

 

Makes a change from the A27 where our highly skilled drivers often honk and shout even though the motorway doesn't start for another mile.

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HLaB | 7 years ago
3 likes

Come on mate, when we get the jibe 'get on the cycle path' we want to retort 'get on the motorway'; you're weakening the retort 

Avatar
Leviathan | 7 years ago
4 likes

“He was completely unfazed at the fact that there were cars and lorries speeding past him at 50mph." - how is that any different from any other road; he probably has more room on the motorway.

He probably got  lost at Trafford Centre and had to style it out. Tends to be the way.

I have to admit I've always fancied a quick blast along the last junction of the M602 hard shoulder, but never dared. 

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