Can you cycle on any road?

[Arch]

Blue sign?? Someone needs to read their Highway Code! A blue sign with a bicycle on it is giving a positive instruction, i.e. if it is round then it is cycles only, if it rectangular, cycle lane. Road which are prohibited from using will have a round sign with a red border and a black bicycle on white background.

I often wonder if the people who make driving programs for TV actually have driving licences. Most of them seem to have such a poor knowledge of the law regarding driving and the Highway Code that they could not possible pass a driving test...

I think the blue sign referred to is the big one at the beginning of a motorway detailing the restrictions - max speed, prohibited vehicles etc. I haven't seen one for a while, I wonder if they are only at the very beginning of any motorway?

 

[andrew-the-tortoise]

Actually, that's no true at all. Although nearly all of the Parkway is no cycling your assertion that it is clearly marked on all slip roads is factually wrong. The council made several very large oversights on that one.

Furthermore in my opinion the lower bits of the parkway aren't clear cut at all why cyclists should be banned and a slip road ban without going onto the parkway actually disproportionately penalises cyclists in the handsworth area.

Well I have never bimbled onto the parkway as a result of poor sign-age, or been disproportionately penalised in the Hansdworth area.

 

[ufkacbln]

As far as I know you can cycle down any public road unless you see either of these signs:

Just to play "Devil's Advocate" .....

There was an interesting discussion about these:

We have local Police Constable Shaped Objects who are enforcing on this particular sign where it is a clear normal road and the only alternative is a busy roundabout.

They are by definition "Advisory" and if cyclists are forced to dismount then drivers should be forced to turn in and park when they see one of these:

Equally all road users would have to catch a bus when they see this:

...and finally do you have to use a wheelchair when you see one of these:

 

[Arch]

There's this one, looks a bit old:

Some history of it all here:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...ox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&sa=G&um=1

I'm wondering if they put these signs up anymore, the idea was that in the early days drivers had to be reminded of the restriction. Still I'm sure that's what was meant.

 

[marinyork]

Well I have never bimbled onto the parkway as a result of poor sign-age, or been disproportionately penalised in the Hansdworth area.

No, because you live in Rotherham . I'm pointing out to the people who sometimes rant about cyclists or walkers being on the parkway that it's not quite as open and shut case as you'd like to think.

 

[andrew-the-tortoise]

Technically Rotherham - but only a few hundred meters away from the Sheffield border!

 

[ufkacbln]

... and this is one from my YOOF!

It means good music ahead.

 

[Powerhouse]

No, because you live in Rotherham . I'm pointing out to the people who sometimes rant about cyclists or walkers being on the parkway that it's not quite as open and shut case as you'd like to think.

Although to be fair there is quite a nice little footpath/dirt track down the side of it that makes even considering cycling/walking down Parkway a pointless risk.

Also, I am one of those people who fell victim to one of the sliproads with no signs warning you off from it. Scary place to be

 

[User16625]

I find it ironic that you aint allowed to cycle on motorways. They even have a lane dedicated for breaking down on which is generally unused. This makes it useful as a bicycle lane and for this reason makes it considerably safer than a normal dual carriageway as your in a completely different lane to the rest of the traffic. Unfortunately the country is run by something called a "government" and therefore stupid rules are really common.

 

[byegad]

I find it ironic that you aint allowed to cycle on motorways. They even have a lane dedicated for breaking down on which is generally unused. This makes it useful as a bicycle lane and for this reason makes it considerably safer than a normal dual carriageway as your in a completely different lane to the rest of the traffic. Unfortunately the country is run by something called a "government" and therefore stupid rules are really common.

The hard shoulder is one of the most dangerous places in the UK. If they made it legal tomorrow the devil would have been driving to work in a snowplough for millennia before I used one for any purpose other than a means to get a broken down car off the Motorway and onto the grass verge, if there was one. The rescue services instruct you to get out of the car and over the perimeter fence if you call from the roadside phone to report you've broken down. It's that dangerous.

 

[stevetailor125]

I am great believer than being passed by 44 tonnes of LGV going at his/her permitted maximum speed is a 'pleasure' I can do without in this short brutish life we lead... in order to keep it a slightly longer short brutish life....

I cycle dual carriageways every Monday A50, A511 from Coalville to Leicester and back, but boy I wish I had a better route, I lost count after the first 100 hgv's the other day

 

[chillyuk]

The A120 between Stansted Airport and the approaches to Braintree prohibit cycling (although I have once seen a man on a bike towing a camping trailer), as is the A130 between Chelmsford and the outskirts of Southend.

 

[al78]

The hard shoulder is one of the most dangerous places in the UK. If they made it legal tomorrow the devil would have been driving to work in a snowplough for millennia before I used one for any purpose other than a means to get a broken down car off the Motorway and onto the grass verge, if there was one. The rescue services instruct you to get out of the car and over the perimeter fence if you call from the roadside phone to report you've broken down. It's that dangerous.

Any ideas why it is so dangerous? Is it because drivers can mistake cars parked on the hard shoulder for cars moving in lane 1 and thus end up ploughing into the back of them?

 

[leroy]

During the commonwealth games in Manchester a cycling team (Kenya I think) decided to train on the m61.....

 

[Zoiders]

Any ideas why it is so dangerous? Is it because drivers can mistake cars parked on the hard shoulder for cars moving in lane 1 and thus end up ploughing into the back of them?

Dude it's a motorway.

The speeds involved and the lack of attention from drivers are a huge risk as if it goes wrong it happens too fast to stop - the other risk is the other extreme known as target fixation.

People don't expect to see anything on the hard shoulder, they look at it and look at it until they drive right into it.

Drivers on the Paris Dakar rally used to drive into the oil drum route markers - when it was the only object in a 50 mile radius that it was even possible to drive into.