Cyclist stopped by police after sat nav takes him wrong way up busy motorway

17 October 2023 , 13:25

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The cyclist stopped by police after he rode his bike up the M4 (Image: Wiltshire Specialist Operations SWNS)

A cyclist pulled over by police told them his sat-nav had taken him the wrong way – up a motorway.

The man was seen pedalling along the M4 near Swindon. Police, dismayed at the sight of a cyclist on a 70mph carriageway, escorted the rider to safety and offered him "words of advice". To their astonishment he blamed his sat nav, saying the directional guidance had lead him astray, reports WalesOnline.

A Wiltshire Police spokesperson said: "The M4 might be the quickest way as suggested by a sat nav but please don’t follow directions blindly when using a pedal cycle! RPU safely escorted this rider off the motorway."

The cyclist stopped by police after he rode his bike up the M4 (Wiltshire Specialist Operations SWNS)

Bicycles are banned from the country's motorway network. But he is not the first cyclist to be caught in this way. In June, a cyclist was filmed peddling along the busy M8 in Scotland to the shock and disbelief of motorists.

The man, with a shopping bag hooked over a handlebar, could be seen cycling along the second lane of the motorway in Glasgow.

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Drivers were forced to slow down and cautiously overtake the cyclist who appeared unaware of the shock he was causing or the danger he was putting himself under. He wasn't even wearing a helmet.

In another sat-nav incident, US tourists were forced to abandon their car after it took them down a narrow footpath in a British seaside town. The car got wedged between two Victorian-era walls in the picturesque town of Tenby in Wales for a week. The tourists inside the car were reportedly trying to reach a 19th century military fort, at the foot of the nearby beach. Unfortunately for them, the island, and beach, are not accessible by car.

The incident comes as reports of vehicles driving the wrong way on England’s motorways have risen by 13 per cent.

Some 872 incidents involving “oncoming vehicles” were reported on England’s motorways in the year to June 16, the equivalent of 16 times a week. That is up from 770 during the previous 12 months.

Edmund King, president of the AA, said previously: “The increase in the number of vehicles being driven in the wrong direction on motorways is frightening and can be fatal. Various incidents seem to be clearly down to drunk drivers for which there is absolutely no excuse. These drunk drivers should not be on the roads."

Paul Greaves