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news
Crazy Deliveroo cyclist on M6 0-35 screenshot“Crazy Deliveroo cyclist” filmed riding on M6 at Spaghetti Junction
A road.cc reader who was driving on the M6 at Spaghetti Junction contacted police after he passed what he described as a “crazy Deliveroo cyclist” riding on the hard shoulder of the motorway.
Stephen, who posted the footage filmed through his vehicle’s dashcam to YouTube, told us: “I’m not sure this quite classes as a Near Miss of the Day (although I’m sure this would have resulted in plenty)?
“Driving home north along the M6 just passing Junction 6 on Thursday evening I was amazed to see a crazy Deliveroo cyclist with a death wish cycling along the hard shoulder, presumably using his phone’s sat-nav for guidance.
“As a keen cyclist I actively go out my way to avoid fast 60 or 70mph dual carriageways (obviously motorways are illegal), I can only imagine the feeling each time one of those lorries went past.
“Whilst he did have front and rear lights they weren't very bright and he wasn't wearing any high vis, he was pedalling like crazy which I suspect was down to a combination of adrenaline and knowing he'd taken a wrong turn somewhere.
“For his own safety and that of drivers who may end up swerving to avoid him and causing a pile up I contacted the police immediately, haven’t heard if they managed to help him out but I didn't see any reports of fatalities so hopefully all worked out.”
Cyclists are banned from motorways under Highway Code rule 253, which 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.
However, road policing units regularly post on social media about having to escort a cyclist off a motorway, with sat-nav errors, ignoring signage or simply not knowing the law – the latter an excuse but not a defence, of course – factors that can cause a rider to be there in the first place.
In the case of Spaghetti Junction, to those unfamiliar with it there’s also a bewildering array of slip roads, underpasses and flyovers and it’s not hard to imagine how an inexperienced cyclist relying on a sat-nav on a phone that is set for motor vehicles rather than bicycles could end up on a motorway here.
It’s the second time in recent months a food delivery cyclist has been filmed close to the interchange in recent months, with a rider from Deliveroo rival Just Eat filmed riding on the M6 between Junctions 6 and 7 in March this year.
When @JustEatUK cyclist decided to take the M6 north J6 @birmingham_live @CMPG pic.twitter.com/Y2R2i01u7W
— Matthew Bowater (@MBowater) March 6, 2022
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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27 comments
Another one! I'm assuming it's the Midlands again as it's in the Coventry Telegraph.
Cyclist without helmet stopped by undercover cops on M6
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/local-news/cyclist-without-helmet...
Amazing they weren't wearing a helmet as when a 44t HGV mows them down it could save their life. 😂
Wonder why they are always around here, perhaps we're faster/braver cyclists here in the Midlands? Or as BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP might say, maybe we are just desparate to leave the area as quickly as possible? 😉
Ok, controversial but common sense view here:
Ignoring the fact that it's currently illegal - its actually much safer and in many instances, more direct to cycle on a motorway. I don't think there's anything relatively 'crazy' about it.
On a motorway you're riding in a large hard sholder at least 3 meters away from traffic doing 50-60 in the slow lane. But for some reason its fine, safe and legal for you to cycle on an A road with drivers buzzing past at 60, inches from you?
I say for the sake of safety and the economy - make cycling on Motorways legal....
I agree generally, but not in this case as it's a smart motorway and there's no hard shoulder where the cyclist was riding. Also, their lights were not sufficient for anything other than a 30mph road in a well lit city centre.
https://goo.gl/maps/XsbA9BUfK44vpbed9
Blimey, just had a look at the map; it's 4 miles to the next junction, unless they were going to take the restricted turning into the police station! https://goo.gl/maps/fHwtrDfqTZTFK69U6
No option to bail out either, it's all fenced off or elevated.
There are no longer hard shoulders on most motorways these days. And it is not just cyclists banned, farm vehicles, buses, mobility scooters and most other 'slow traffic is because there is a minimum speed they allow compared to if other traffic can do full speed. It was that ruling that allowed them to pull over the protest convoy the other week. (anyone here whether the police have charged the van driver for mobile phone use yet?)
The famous canals of Brum also have a junction under spaghetti junction, it's fabulous down there and weird and full of nature and quite quiet.
I ride that way to work in the morning on the odd occasion I leave early enough and the weather is great. In cold or wet weather the shiny faced bricks they make the bridge paths out of at that junction are lethal on a bike though.
Ugh. It's a dump. The motorway is probably the most redeeming feature - because you can drive over and away from Birmingham. The toll road is even better - because then you don't even have to see it
Yes that seemingly 45 degree drop into the 90 degree turn is awful which ever way you approach it. I've had the back wheel spin going up (with no chance of using speed pre climb) or lock and not do anything to slow going down. And if another person is on there.....
Agreed it's scary. I locked the front wheel near the bottom and only the tiny barrier and my long legs stopped me getting wet. That was the last time I used it in bad weather.
Three canals and two rivers converge. However on the other side of the loop you can do of the main canal, there is a canal bridged by another canal, bridged by a railway with all bridged by a motorway. Strava segment here.
Another idiot riding a bike helps give all cyclists a bad name.
Anecdotally I see far too many food delivery people in Leamington cycling, frankly, at best terribly, and at worst dangerously, they often have no lights to top it off. It's more annoying because I live 200 meters out of the delivery zone
No it doesn't
It gives the motons more ammo to use against us, that's my gripe here, that and the fact I can't get a burger delivered.
So they've got more fake ammo to use alongside their existing pile of fake ammo and when they run out, they just make up more fake ammo.
The amount of fake ammo isn't really the issue here, but the idiots going around firing it off in all directions with lots of noise but never hits its target.
They have enough ammo already. Road Tax, for example. You're unwittingly playing their game.
One idiot who happens to be riding a bike is no more representative of everyone else on a bike than, say, a pissed-up bigmouth in a pub is of all the other people who go there to relax and enjoy an evening with friends.
And I'd have thought that living outside the delivery zone is a good thing. I would prefer to fetch my own takeway, not have it sweat on the counter before being jigged and lurched across town by a deliveroo flunky.
Are these companies not subject to H&S laws? Any utility/ contractors worling on the highway have to ensure suitable lighting and appropriate high Viz to meet clearly defined legal standards. Why are they allowed to endanger their workers whether direct employees or self employed?
They should be, I agree. The creaking-at the-seams defence these companies use is that they're just 'technology platforms', allowing food vendors and independent food delivery people to connect in a mutually profitable way, and that therefore this means that they have no responsibility as to the welfare of the workers.
What do you mean? They have no idea what their delivery staff are wearing or doing half the time and how would they?
I'd say that if anyone knows what their staff are doing, it's Deliveroo, Uber, et al.
Don't know how easy it is to make this mistake in Bormingham, but there have been several reports of cyclists crossing the Clyde on the M8 over the Kingston Bridge in Glasgow.
I suspect this junction is the problem (though there are LOTS of problematic junctions on the M8 in Glasgow including slip-roads on the right). Both lanes merge onto the M8, if you miss the exit on the left up ahead there's not much you can do.
https://bit.ly/3J5Lxh3
How about this one where the bus/cycle lane becomes bus only after the traffic lights and non motoray traffic needs to use the right hand lane.
I'd forgotten about that one; lovely segregated bike lane on the right that suddenly becomes a shared pavement with a beg button to cross the road if you want to get on to the bridge to nowhere. I tend to switch to the ASL at those lights and use the bus lane (didn't realise it was bus only) to get to the bridge.
Pretty much exactly the same area as the daylight one. Although it looks "bewildering", there is only two places the cyclist would have come from. The island bottom right (R C Williams) or the Expressway on the left. The latter is also banned for cyclists and is just multi lanes of traffic with no central reservation as they traffic control it via signs above each lane with variable lanes assigned in each direction.
I'm surprised he was having to pedal. Most Deliveroos in the area use banned e-bikes where pedaling only happens when they want to stretch the other leg.
I agree he must have come down the Expressway, easily done if you follow the A38 through the city (if you're not paying attention obviously). If he's used to using the under and overpasses on the A34 it would seem very similar.
I ride around the roundabout under Spaghetti Junction every day and every other cyclist I've seen uses the underpass.
Those food delivery bikes have an amazing horn that's as loud as a car.
I do that island and up Gravelly Hill when I want to do extra miles home. Don't bother with the underpass as it is usually an innertubes graveyard.
I was wrong about my "every other cyclist" comment as you've reminded me I was left for dead away from the lights one evening by another cyclist. I looked at him thinking "look at that guy in lycra, I'll beat him away from the lights with my e-bike" and as he disappeared into the distance I imagined him thinking "look at that guy in his work uniform and hi-viz, his e-bike is slow" 😊