Skip to main content

VIDEO: Freeway cycling is not for the faint hearted

Road designers and local authorities are getting much better at integrating roads for vehicles and cycle paths, tracks and lanes. But sometimes cyclist must take their chances on riding on a road with no designated cycle ways. Caution is essential for both cyclists and vehicle drivers, but in the end it will be the cyclist who is most likely to come off the worst in any crash. So why tempt fate, as the following news story and videos show.
August 27, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Road designers and local authorities are getting much better at integrating roads for vehicles and cycle paths, tracks and lanes. But sometimes cyclist must take their chances on riding on a road with no designated cycle ways.

Caution is essential for both cyclists and vehicle drivers, but in the end it will be the cyclist who is most likely to come off the worst in any crash. So why tempt fate, as the following news story and videos show.

Police interrupted a training ride by Brazil’s national cycling team in July.  For safety, the nine-man team was escorted off a busy highway - Don Valley Parkway - in Toronto, Canada, where the Pan American Games were being held, reported the Globe & Mail newspaper.

Detective Sergeant Devin Kealey of the Toronto Police said they were looking for a one-hour ride and just happened to come up on the busy road. The cyclists were riding on the hard shoulder and were not fined the usual US$80.

In 2002, a pair of cyclists from Kenya who were in Manchester City, UK, for the Commonwealth Games were escorted by police off the M61 motorway. They were on the hard shoulder, but also riding in the opposite direction to traffic.

Having a bicycle in your car can sometimes save you time on your trip, as the accompanying video from the United States shows. At around 45 seconds into this video, one US commuter stuck in a freeway traffic jam, decides to abandon his four-wheel vehicle for his two-wheel variety.
But the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal following video Watch Trailer Truck knocks cyclist video false https://youtu.be/1hVXhg8zvkI false false%> proves just how dangerous it can be, even if a cyclist is in the correct lane and signalling, although his should check to see if anything was coming does not appear to be sufficient. Note the articulated truck that apparently decides against turning off the freeway and instead barrels straight ahead, down the road’s shoulder, past the cyclist who assumes nothing is coming up on his right.

boombox1
boombox2