navigating a motorway junction

[chqshaitan]

Hi Guys,

Wonder what your thoughts are on part of my route to work. In the morning i am required to go around a large roundabout which is a junction off the m62 near birchwood.

In off peak times this would not be an issue at peak times in the morning when i am travelling to work i am bit nervous about going all the way around it , to enter the bridleway when i am heading up the a road init

Silver lane is the road off the motorway -- >http://binged.it/XHfPac


I have checked the off road routes but there in a terrible state(near rockingham close), so only way to use them would be walk and get covered in mud. In the summer though they are an option.

What about me pulling up shorly before the roundabout, crossing the road to the other side and walking the bike till i get to the turn in?

any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

[gaz]

Sounds like a perfect excuse to find a longer route and get some more cycling done. There looks to be two ways to get across the motorway in close vasinity which doesn't involve and motorway roundabout.
Would it be possible to use one of those?

 

[chqshaitan]

Hi Gaz,

Thanks for the quick reply bud.

I will be cycling up birchwood way towards the junction and need to come back on myself (this map should show it clearer - http://binged.it/ZkKq46). I dont mind taking a longer route but want to build up to it , is my thoughts

The only other option i have is to go via a very busy but narrow b road, where cars do not have enough space to over take without going into on coming traffic.. choices choices

 

[400bhp]

I'm confused (what with the other thread). Where exactly are you going to if you are going up Birchwood Way towatds the roundabout?

 

[chqshaitan]

I'm confused (what with the other thread). Where exactly are you going to if you are going up Birchwood Way towatds the roundabout?

i am trying to get from locking stumps (in birchwood ) to cadishead/irlam. I can take a different route along major a roads and roundabouts but confidence is not up to that point yet, ideally i wanna take things a step at time.

 

[Twilkes]

Can't quite work out which roads you're taking from the map, but I used to have to cross over a roundabout over the M54:

http://goo.gl/maps/PZ9D6

I'd go from Whitchurch Drive to Lawley Drive, and as long as I could get across the path of traffic that was crossing in front of me heading for the M54 eastbound, I would just stick to the left around the roundabout and go straight on, plenty of space. I sometimes had to wait 30 seconds or so, but always managed to get a comfortable gap in traffic. If there was more traffic, I'd have either got off and pushed my bike quickly across the slip road (actually, probably not, reading it again), or more likely found a different route.

 

[Glow worm]

Shame that bridge over the motorway just to the east is not shown as for public use. If its part of a farm track, as it appears, might be worth asking the landowner (Frank - of Frank's Farm?!) if they mind you using it as it looks pretty easy to get to. Perhaps then you could cut back either to the B5212 or to Culcheth on paths or the old railway track which looks (From Google Earth) to be being used as a right of way?

 

[chqshaitan]

Thanks Guys, I have been studying the maps and found a path that can get me from the adjacent housing estate to silver lane. Its a foot path so i should'nt really be on a bike but it should very quiet and if i dont drive like a nutter it shouldnt be a problem.

 

[Sara_H]

Thanks Guys, I have been studying the maps and found a path that can get me from the adjacent housing estate to silver lane. Its a foot path so i should'nt really be on a bike but it should very quiet and if i dont drive like a nutter it shouldnt be a problem.

Exactly the conditions Paul Boeteng was referring to whenhe made the point that fixed penalty notices for cyclists on pavements were not meant for those forced there by dangerous traffic. (cant remember the exact words)

 

[chqshaitan]

Yea, list most things, if you use a healthy dose of common sense, all things being equal I should'nt have a problem.

 

[Crankarm]

Just keep in the fast lane, spinning like mad, when you are almost at the slip road of the junction you need to leave the motorway stick your left arm out and pull across three lanes of traffic, being careful not to ride over the chevrons, onto the slip road before it passes by and you would have to back up the hard shoulder.

 

[davefb]

Just keep in the fast lane, spinning like mad, when you are almost at the slip road of the junction you need to leave the motorway stick your left arm out and pull across three lanes of traffic, being careful not to ride over the chevrons, onto the slip road before it passes by and you would have to back up the hard shoulder.

you laugh... but......
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/funny_old_game/2151150.stm


or
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/arch...e/5956315.Games_cyclists_train_______on_M61_/

 

[byegad]

I cross the A1(M) in County Durham on several of my regular routes and used to cross it on my peak time commutes when I worked. The trick was to take a strong secondary position, sitting in the wheel tracks of the left side of vehicles or slightly to the right of that. Then go at a fair old clip, so the delay to following drivers was not so much that they'd try to bully their way past me. By and large this worked well and in nearly seven years of doing this I can remember no instances that put my life at risk.

 

[MossCommuter]

I do the opposite commute to the OP, I go over The Moss from Irlam to Birchwood in the morning and back again at night. I cut through to Rockingham Close at the end at the 90 degree turn when School Lane becomes Silver Lane. The path is very muddy as you say but it's only a hundred yards or so. It's not a footpath - it is designed with bicycle friendly stiles at each end but anyway, because of the mud, I get off and push.

The alternative is through Culcheth and then B5212. It's further but faster. You can cut across the Moss again using Woolden Road from the B5212 to come out in Cadishead. If you're not that confident yet, though, the B5212 might be a bit daunting (I don't like to use it in the dark and/or wet).

Good luck

(fat bloke on a Scott if you want to say hello)

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Thanks Guys, I have been studying the maps and found a path that can get me from the adjacent housing estate to silver lane. Its a foot path so i should'nt really be on a bike but it should very quiet and if i dont drive like a nutter it shouldnt be a problem.

it is not illegal to walk your bike down a foot path, only illegal to cycle it. dont' know how long said footpath is but bare it in mind.
as for motorways junctions - hiviz and plenty of care. if you are not happy with it, don't do it.
your fitness is worth nothing if you are dead.

Also having gone to look at a couple of houses in that area (on the estate) I know that there is a network of footpaths & cycleways that connect various roads up. If you take Ordnance Avenue to the very end, follow it round to the left up moss gate, take the first right into Gorse covert Road, right at the split (this road seems to have 3 avenues to it) and then Rockingham close you will see that on the corner where School Lane is closest, there is actually a path through (tarmac'ed path) to which leads to School Lane (few 10's of meters) and School Lane takes you to Irlam thus avoiding both Birchwood way and the motorway junction...