….strikes me as a particularly bad idea!

Just driven past a guy riding on the hard shoulder between junctions 3 and 2 on the M60.  Crackers!  The hard shoulder was just about to turn into an entry slip road too, so god knows how he navigated that.  Hopefully he lived to tell the tale!  I assume that it’s illegal?

Yeah, it is illegal. During the Manchester Commonwealth Games back in the early 2000s one of the teams from one of the developing nations used the M60 for training and the Police had to come and escort them off.

Just driven past a guy riding on the hard shoulder between junctions 3 and 2 on the M60

For some reason that’s a semi-regular occurrence around there. I’ve seen it once myself but it gets reported in Manchester Evening News, often accompanied by comments about road tax, no lights, and how said cyclist was nearly killed and had the selfish **** considered the poor innocent motorist in all of this?!

I suspect that riding on a motorway is far safer than riding on a country lane. When was the last time that someone was killed riding on a motorway?

The hard shoulder of a motorway is a very dangerous place to be for any period of time.

I changed an drivers side tyre on the hard shoulder once , was terrifying

I passed a bloke on a BMX early one dark & wet morning on the hard shoulder (or possibly the narrow concrete strip just to its left) of one of the elevated sections of the M6 through Birmingham a few years ago. He had no lights… bloody cyclists.

Riding the hard shoulder of the freeway is legal in many places in the USA.  Mostly where there is no good alternative at the freeway was built over the old road.  I have done a good few miles on them. Had no close calls unlike normal roads.  You are usually required to exit at junctions and re-enter to avoid crossing slip roads. This one from Texas.

This one where the freeway is on top of old Route 66, California.

We ended up on a motorway in France once. Pre-GPS days, out for an exploratory ride around the area we were staying and we just sort of strayed onto motorway. Got a lot of drivers hooting at us but thankfully it wasn’t far to the next junction and we escaped.

I suspect that riding on a motorway is far safer than riding on a country lane.

Problem is they’re absolutely riddled with debris – you can’t see it when driving past at 70mph but the hard shoulder is covered in gravel, glass, various broken bits of car, litter, shredded lorry tyres…

I rather suspect the lack of deaths of cyclists on motorways, correlates with their absence!

Not heard the story about the commonwealth games, made me chuckle.

To be fair, cycling on the hard shoulder of most of the M60 you’d probably be moving faster than the cars

May bank holiday 2020 some of the Covid restrictions were lifted and I drove to the Surrey hills to ride.

Around J7 of the M25 the gantry signs were saying ” cyclist on carriageway” at J8 a Traffic officer 4×4 was escorting a lycra clad roadie up the long slip road!

I’ve seen another since on the M25 but can’t remember where.

I rather suspect the lack of deaths of cyclists on motorways, correlates with their absence!

I was about to say that, cyclists on motorways get reported promptly, and the big warning signs go on as soon as possible. I have seen the traffic slowed right down for a hazard on the carriageway, which turned out to be a bike lying in the middle of the middle lane, the unfortunate owners were on the hard shoulder about a half mile along the road, waiting for the police or highway patrol to retrieve what was left of it…

I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to hit it…

Easy Strava KOM innit.

When I lived in Kent I used to regularly see a guy riding along the hard shoulder of the 4 lane section of the A2 by Gravesend.  It is a motorway in all but name but because it was an A road it was legal apparently.  Still mental though.

SatNav shenanigans?

Had my GPS trying to send me onto the A34 on Sunday which I try to avoid even when I have the benefits of a crumple zone and airbags, ended up riding much further and going down and utterly destroyed “bridleway” to avoid it.

Easy Strava KOM innit.

I’ve got a couple of KOMs down a local dual carriageway. It was opened a few years ago and before they let the traffic onto it, the road was given a day of being open to walkers and cyclists. I went along it late on that evening when most people had gone home but riders had already created segments down the main carriageway.

By the time the KOM holders got the “uh-oh…” email, the road was opened to cars and they couldn’t go back to try and reclaim it!

I was really tempted to do one junction of the M6 during lockdown. Rode across a bridge over the motorway, looked down on it. Zero traffic. Stunning day, nothing around. Was only a couple of miles between the junctions but common sense prevailed cos it would have made national news. Dickhead breaks lockdown rules, rides along motorway. Wouldn’t have been a good look…

Just driven past a guy riding on the hard shoulder between junctions 3 and 2 on the M60.  Crackers!  The hard shoulder was just about to turn into an entry slip road too, so god knows how he navigated that.  Hopefully he lived to tell the tale!  I assume that it’s illegal?

You’re a driver and you don’t know it’s illegal – that’s just as worrying…

Dunno, there’s no real reason someone who doesn’t ride bikes should particularly know the rules governing their use 🙂

That reminds me of my honeymoon in USA.  We were staying in a house in New Jersey and left early in the morning to get a bus to Port Authority, New York.  It was in the middle of nowhere so we had to walk about 6KMs to the bus stop, after a while we decided to try hitch a lift.  Someone reported us and the local police stopped us, we explained our situation and they kindly dropped us to the bus top.  My one and only time in the back of a police car 🙂

You’re a driver and you don’t know it’s illegal – that’s just as worrying…

I was 99% sure that it was illegal….used the word ‘assume’ just in case I was wrong.  Given that certain posters on here know everything about everything one can never be too careful.

Unless the OP’s a traffic cop its really not that worrying

Because there are pretty big signs telling you what can’t be in the motorway. I don’t drive a pony and trap but know I can’t take one into the motorway.
Concerning if people haven’t noticed the big blue sign.

@kramer @simondbarnes

Definitely illegal, and clearly unpleasant but I’d also go with safer than riding on most A roads, which is legal, and once they are dual-ed are indistinguishable from motorways in terms of speed, volume.

And A roads even have (terrible) cycle infra marked on them, which require crossing 70mph multi lane on/off ramps at 90 degrees, and have ‘hard shoulders’ that are often narrower than motorways.  (lots of time trials run on dual carriageways)

A3 https://maps.app.goo.gl/hKqUGyE9ER9pDXnS9

and A11 (can’t find where now)

come to mindMadness.  I’d not ride on them and just shows how badly we’ve provided for cycling in this country.

A 20mph limit on any road that doesn’t have pedestrian pavements (country lanes, country A roads), and 30mph unless it has parallel cycleway would incentivise it getting better quickly.,

Tell me you haven’t read the highway code without telling me…

I have ridden on dual carriageways a fair few times, including the A470 which is a bit scary. But only late at night. And you have to completely give way to everyone on slip roads.  You ride down the slip road, being prepared to stop if necessary and wait for there to be absolutely no-one around before nipping across and resuming.  Not possible unless it’s dead quiet.  The reason for doing it is that it gets you home really really quickly.

Also I did this many years ago when there was much less traffic than there is now.

down the rabbit hole now

https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/community/how-to/how-to-ride-on-dual-carriageways

“Riding along on a dual carriageway is relatively safe.”

really?

more comment

http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2010/06/most-dangerous-cycle-crossing-in-uk.html

When I was younger and more foolish, I rode down the A27 to get to Hayling Island. It’s 4 lanes and when I got to the bit where the left 2 lanes split off to become the A3(M) I figured I’d have to be in the right hand lanes otherwise I’d end up on a motorway! That was interesting 😅

Unless the OP’s a traffic cop its really not that worrying

It is, because the implication is they don’t know which roads would have cyclists to look out for.

There was (yet another) crash on the A19 this week, this time with a car getting hit turning right out of a junction rather than a cyclist.

It’s a dual carriageway, but an A road not an M.  Which means that there’s bikes, tractors, pedestrian crossings, vehicles turning right crossing the carriageway, not all junctions have slip roads, mopeds, learners, no hard shoulder etc.    And the comments were just people outing themselves as not understanding the difference between the A19 and the M1 they would turn off to get onto it.

I changed an drivers side tyre on the hard shoulder once , was terrifying

As someone who worked on motorways for 10 years, I’d rather cycle there than change an offside tyre (and that’s a marginal preference).

Recovery/National Highways/Police every time

I changed an drivers side tyre on the hard shoulder once , was terrifying

As someone who worked on motorways for 10 years, I’d rather cycle there than change an offside tyre (and that’s a marginal preference).

Recovery/National Highways/Police every time

Must be mad to ride on the M60….

It’s full of blimmin pot holes !  Nothing like changing lanes and your car vanishes down the craters between lanes. M56 isn’t any better.

“When I was younger and more foolish, I rode down the A27”

Ditto, except it was on the M2 – at dead of night & only because I thought I’d give it a go & as above probably safer than a lot of dual carriageways with no hard shoulder.

**I changed an drivers side tyre on the hard shoulder once , was terrifying**

Yeah I did that once too – on the hard shoulder of a complex M1 > A1 intersection near Leeds. I had a police car pull up behind me – they didn’t help, but stayed there for the duration of me changing the wheel with their lights on and helped me re-enter the road as, at that point, there are cars going all over the place – bloody terrifying.

Called 999 yesterday to report a cyclist joining the M4 at J5. they take it very seriously. Closing the M4 at rush hour could ruin a lot of people’s day! I have however ridden and raced many dual carriageways. Races take place after thorough traffic assessment and police notification. With signage. You have to be off the A14 Newmarket bypass by about noon on a Sunday, if I recall correctly. The A14 is a very popular TT course and one of the fastest.

A few years ago, being bussed out to the airport in Beijing, we were in four lanes of solid traffic which had another four lanes of solid traffic merging from the right. On the hard shoulder to our right was a bloke riding a sit up and beg bike (with a basket!) at walking pace and he just sailed off into eight lanes of mayhem. Oh, and it was pitch dark….

I changed an drivers side tyre on the hard shoulder once , was terrifying

A family relative was killed doing just that many decades ago….

Are there genuinely people on here that read the Highway Code on a regular basis or have memorised a lot of the content? I read it when preparing for my test but can honestly say I’ve not read it since. Am I the odd one? No, scratch that, on here I definitely am!

Riding a bike on the motorway is idiotic. It’s scary enough on most dual carriageways.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the proportion of people who have read the Highway Code recently is higher on a cycling forum compared to the general public (or car drivers in general) because of the changes to some of the rules affecting cyclists.

Would you rather have traffic passing you at 70 in its own segregated lane, or at 60mph in the same lane as you?

In the 1970s, dual carriageways were often easier – plenty of passing room and often a shoulder.  I remember returning home from an orienteering event using the A40 in Monmouthshire – a wide country lane almost on a Sunday afternoon then.  Not now of course!

Changing tyres – got a drivers side at Hermiston Gait – TRISS wagon turned up immediately with FO big jack. Was off in no time. That service is a life saving legend.  Big van behind you with the flashy arrows!

One of the most life-threatening choices i’ve ever seen was a group of roadies riding in Nairobi. You really are taking your life in your hands there.