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.

Related Content

  • Demolition project for UK car park
    November 5, 2012
    In the UK town of Luton, a contractor has been hard at work demolishing a car park. Situated in the centre of this large town, the car park had to be removed as it had reached the end of its working life. But the tight space of the urban working environment meant that the contractor had to be extremely careful not to damage surrounding buildings or inconvenience business, traffic or commuters. Long reach excavators with demolition attachments were used by the firm.
  • It’s a deadly business for contractors painting road markings
    August 4, 2015
    Animal welfare groups in the Republic of Ireland are angry over the apparent insensitive act by a road making contractor who painted a yellow line over a dead cat on the side of the highway. A report by Irish newspapers quoted one person saying it was “shameful” and “nobody cared enough to move this poor cat who had been killed by a car and the line was painted over it”.
  • PPRS event: Road users’ concerns at the heart of the programme
    December 19, 2014
    Europeans are in two minds about whether their road transport has improved in the past five years, according to the latest European Commission’ Eurobarometer survey and report. According to 38% of respondents, road transport quality had gone up, but 40% said it had dropped, while 18% said there had been no change. Whatever the opinion on quality, 60% of respondents to the report’s survey considered congestion to be the most serious issue facing Europe’s roads. The survey highlighted the dominance o
  • ARTBA announces student video awards
    October 21, 2016
    The winners of the 6th annual Student Transportation Video Contest by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s (ARTBA) have now been announced. High school students from Washington state and Massachusetts, an undergraduate at New York University and a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon were all named as winners. The selections were announced during the recent ARTBA National Convention, held in Tucson, Arizona. The winners will each receive a US$500 cash prize. The association received 3