Video: Police fine cyclist found pedalling to Heathrow on M25

Pretty certain I posted the same last time someone doing this made the news.  Ignoring for a moment the 'smart motorways' with no permanent hard shoulder, it's a 4 metre wide lane with nothing in it, running very directly between main destinations.  

The main risks are the draft from passing vehicles/trucks, the risk of being involved in a collision at potentially higher speed, and the difficulty of crossing sliproads.  Well - I'd rather be 4 metres away from a truck at 56mph or a car at 70 - OK, 80mph, than one metre away from anything at 60mph on an A road.  Collisions: you take your chances on any road.  And sliproads: simply mandate that cyclists must go up the sliproad, cross the junction at the top/bottom, and rejoin using the 'on' slip.  Voila.

Yeah ok technically it's illegal but in the wider context that we all recognise it's hard to reasonably argue against it. Why?

• CCTV everywhere 
• Lane to yourself
• No oncoming suicide overtakes
• Immediate medical availability
• Better maintained road surface

Instead we're forced to infer that this public resource is more dangerous than the sub 30mph death zones in suburbia, rural racetracks with cavernous potholes plagued by delivery vans, late salespeople in Vauxhalls and Carlos Sainz wannabes in DIY racecars puckered with blind bends and ample opportunity to hit and run.

So. If the police were pressed to explain why a motorway is dangerous to cycle on in comparison to the food blender we are forced to ride within what would their official response be?

Would they equally advocate young women cut through dark wasteland instead of the well lit CCTV covered street purely because the law stated young women can't use the street 'as it's dangerous?' 

The above posts seem to have some sympathy for the guy by implying what he is doing is no more dangerous than some legal riding options but to be clear he is a bloody idiot.

He was going from J11 to J13 so he's got to get past J12 - the M25/M3 junction. No option to get off and on again - he has to jump the slip roads where traffic is hammering it and rightly expects no cyclists.

He then gets told to stop because it is illegal and dangerous and STILL carries on. 

But to top things off we're told he is a local from Feltham. He must surely know that going through Chertsey/Staines would be a SHORTER route to Heathrow from J11 area than M25.

How dense can he be?!

I think this covers the issue quite well

http://beyondthekerb.org.uk/2014/02/25/idiots/

and like all of the posts on the site is well argued.

Probably safer than the A38 going towards Plymouth, which is three lanes and 70mph with no hard shoulder.  I did this a few years back when touring (on a battered Pashley workbike), mainly because the parallel national cycle route was so badly signposted I'd got sick of stopping to check the map.  People really don't give you the appropriate amount of space for the speed they pass you at, especially tall vehicles.

https://goo.gl/maps/NRySaGL4jHS2

Not a popular route choice, if Strava is a good measure of such things:

https://www.strava.com/segments/9238223

I've cycled along the A1 in Ireland, up in the wee north. Going from Belfast south. The A1 is effectively a motorway for a good, initial bit - so hard shoulder, and long fast slip roads. It then turns into a more standard dual-carriageway - no hard shoulder anymore, shorter slip roads. 70+ mph traffic all along.

I can tell you it was a _lot_ more pleasant cycling along the "effectively a motorway" bit than the dual-carriageway bit. Ok, the slip roads needed some care to cross, but if there was too much traffic I had the option of just going up the slip road and down the other side to rejoin.

I had a whole *lane* to myself, it was bliss!

When it became dual-carriageway standard, with the hard shoulder disappearing, that road became *terrifying*. No longer did I have a lane to myself. Instead I just never knew when I was going the next close and very fast pass. It was horrible. I felt exposed. The risk of a horrible accident was palpably higher. I got off it as soon as I could, and instead went down a maze of country lanes - much longer and hillier, but at least I didn't feel like death could be ploughing into the back of me at any moment.

In short, if I'm faced with choosing between a motorway and a dual-carriageway to get to my destination with my bicycle, I'd *much* rather use the motorway if the choice was open to me.

That a cyclist could be escorted off a road where they have their own lane, onto single or dual-carriageway roads with *no dedicated lane* where the traffic is *just as fast*, for "safety" shows how fucked up the UK's attitudes to cyclist safety are.

A couple of hours later in the day and presumably he would have been moving faster than most traffic on the M25?

" given guidance for an appropriate route."

I would love to see the comparison of the two routes.

Felixcat's put it very well

The A3 - a few junctions away round the M25 is a motorway in all but name. I *have* seen the occasional cyclist on there..maybe 3 in 25 yrs ?

At the A3/M25 junction there are signs to show howthe sliproads off/on should be negotiated...not that I suspect that helps much with some of the muppets that think the sliproad's a race track.

TBH, judging by the speeds on the M25 much of the time - whether due to variable speed limits or it becoming almost carpark-like, the M25's probably a bloody sight safer than riding on the A3...

Not that i would ever do it but an earlier post was right about space compared to generally cycling along other roads.

But until you stand by the side of motorways and feel the draft as big wagons and cars go past then you can understand the dangers of being by the side of motorways.

Bez, in his Beyond the Kerb blog has wittily attacked this, and other nonsenses.

http://beyondthekerb.org.uk/2014/09/22/cut-the-crap/

Riding on the pavement is dangerous, unless there is white paint to make it safe.

Don't ride on the motorway, but there are cycle paths alongside dual carriageways which are narrower and have slip roads. There are painted lines to help you cross these!

Don't ride up beside traffic at lights on the nearside, but there are a cycle lanes there leading to the advanced stop line.

Don't ride in the gutter, but there are cyclelanes there.

Don't ride in the door zone, but cycle lanes are painted there.

The idiocies of cycle paths are well publicised by the Warrington Cycle Campaign.

I think safety is unlikely to be the biggest issue here. Nevertheless, having been caught doing the same thing twice, he can hardly complain if they take his trouser clips away for a few months..

You're joking right? At times cars may have been further away but they could be doing over 70mph! Plus, what about when he crosses a slip road? Think of the rate of closure for a car taking the slip road fast.  It makes me shiver.

But...I must admit, when I was in my 20s I rode all the way from London to Brighton on A roads and Motorways.  I must have been f*****g mad.   No CCTV then.

Its silly, really, when you consider that - even cycling on the hard shoulder (which I know is illegal!) - he was further away from the moving motor traffic than most of us are when we're commuting to work...

Last year during transcontinental i may have found myself on a couple of motorways by accident.

Around Verona at 11pm it was pretty quiet but I got the whole 'get the hell of the road' vibe quite quickly!