Another motorway cyclist stopped by police

Mungecrundle wrote:

"According to Highways England, over 100 people are killed or injured on hard shoulders every year" https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/what-is-the-hard-shoul...

Ah, but do they say how many of those were cycling at the time?  I suspect cyclists make up a tiny proportion of that number - possibly none at all.

Thus I conclude that if one has to be on a hard-shoulder, one should make sure one is on a bicycle at the time.  The logic is unassailable.

  Heck, I bet far more people are killed in cars on motorways than while riding bicycles, so cycling on motorways is clearly far safer than driving on them.

(At least, if one uses the same logic that highways authorities use to determine if a bit of road design is unsafe for vulnerable road users)

Tech Noir wrote:

Mnay years ago, I saw someone cycling down the hardshoulder of the M8 in Glasgow. Then, the next time I drove along that bit of road, there was someone walking a dog at exactly the same place I'd seen the cyclist.

As I've pointed out elsewhere, the statistics regarding smashes/deaths on the actual hard shoulder is at odds with how the police make it out to be per mile. Remember, hard shoulder NOT the actual live lane, the difference in that itself is huge. Hard shoulder is safer than a significant portion of 50/60mph roads and indeed a lot of junctions where cyclists are put at risk of death/serious injury every single day.

But crack on with ignorance and believing everything plod tell you!

As a thought, maybe we should reduce the max speeds of the motorway and the National Speed Limit to 50mph, would reduce pollution massively for one as well as lives.

HalfWheeler wrote:

Hope this doesn't come across all UKIP but mighten it be that a lot of these cases are people new to the UK and unaware of the highway code? 

You've still got to be pretty thick not to figure out you're playing Frogger in real life trying to cycle on those roads.

Even if you don't speak the lingo, Google maps has the cycle button when you plan route.

Some people are just stupid chancers who don't give a toss. Sadly 'cyclists' are all the same thing is public eye so the moron on the bso wobbling down the M1 with shopping bags is the same as the guy with full lights and hiviz commuting to work.

brooksby wrote:

Why were motorists in this case advised to reduce their speed to 30 mph, when the powers that be are quite happy for cyclists to normally "share the road" with vehicles travelling up to 60 mph?

not that it really matters, but you can cycle down non-motorway roads that have a 70mph speed limit (i.e., any dual carriageway with a National speed limit sign)

Ric_Stern_RST wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Why were motorists in this case advised to reduce their speed to 30 mph, when the powers that be are quite happy for cyclists to normally "share the road" with vehicles travelling up to 60 mph?

 

not that it really matters, but you can cycle down non-motorway roads that have a 70mph speed limit (i.e., any dual carriageway with a National speed limit sign)

Really? I thought the national speed limit on anything that isn't a motorway was *60*mph?

brooksby wrote:

Ric_Stern_RST wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Why were motorists in this case advised to reduce their speed to 30 mph, when the powers that be are quite happy for cyclists to normally "share the road" with vehicles travelling up to 60 mph?

 

not that it really matters, but you can cycle down non-motorway roads that have a 70mph speed limit (i.e., any dual carriageway with a National speed limit sign)

Really? I thought the national speed limit on anything that isn't a motorway was *60*mph?

You'd have to be pretty crazy to ride along a high speed dual carriageway though. I use a very busy dual carriageway for my motorcycle commute. It does have a hard shoulder but it's in poor condition with quite a bit of debris. I frequently see roadies riding along it and it always makes me wince. Running parallel is the old road which is a lot less busy. Yes, it has traffic lights and isn't as quick from point A to point B but sometimes you have to ask yourself how much of a risk do you really want to take with your cycle commute.

OldRidgeback wrote:

You'd have to be pretty crazy to ride along a high speed dual carriageway though.

But is that true?   Dual carriageways have a lot going for them.  No vehicles turning out of or into side roads, no oncoming traffic, lots of room for vehicles to pass, no blind bends, no parked vehicles,  no pedestrians, generally good road surface with no man-holes or potholes. 

Yes, you could get rear-ended by someone , but that's the same on any road.  At any speed, the results won't be pretty.

. . wrote:

OldRidgeback wrote:

You'd have to be pretty crazy to ride along a high speed dual carriageway though.

But is that true?   Dual carriageways have a lot going for them.  No vehicles turning out of or into side roads, no oncoming traffic, lots of room for vehicles to pass, no blind bends, no parked vehicles,  no pedestrians, generally good road surface with no man-holes or potholes. 

Yes, you could get rear-ended by someone , but that's the same on any road.  At any speed, the results won't be pretty.

Good point actually about parked vehicles, side roads and so on - though I'd still feel very unsafe cycling on a dual carriageway with cars thundering past at 50-70mph. I used to do it but I sometimes wonder how I survived. I think part of the issue would be that motor vehicle drivers would be very surpised to see you there and for the few that are busy with their phones or cups of coffee it'd mean there would be a very high risk of a high speed impact.

I'll stick to riding on the sideroads thanks.

brooksby wrote:

Why were motorists in this case advised to reduce their speed to 30 mph, when the powers that be are quite happy for cyclists to normally "share the road" with vehicles travelling up to 60 mph?

You're looking for rationality in the UKs' approach to road safety and cycling. Do you see where you're going wrong?

Stick to cycling on those single-lane roads with passing 60+mph traffic (often close, to let you know you've been a bad person for daring to take "their" road). Perfectly safe, especially if you wear a helmet.

Cycle on a road with a *guaranteed* 3 metre odd lane dedicated to you... that's madness and the world must stop.

I love my bike wrote:

Why is this seemingly now happnening more often?

Is it through using Google maps?

Is it poor signage?

 

Maybe we just weren't aware of them before the police started using social media.