Today I saw a young bloke walking down the hard shoulder of the M5 (southbound J14) thumbing a lift, in the past I’ve seen people walking between the crash barriers down the centre of a Motorway, people cycling on the hard shoulder one person in particular cycling slowly on the hard shoulder and being followed by a police car (presumably giving some protection to the cyclist but it looked like something out of a laurel and Hardy film ) and a car that came down the exit slip lane and onto the hard shoulder of the carriageway facing the wrong way
Seeing this bloke today got me wondering what dumb strange weird or just unusual things other people have seen on the motorways.
When I lived in Dublin, I was driving up the M50 towards the airport. There were 2 guys playing football, under a bridge on the hard shoulder at 0800 in the morning!
bigvern1:
When I lived in Dublin, I was driving up the M50 towards the airport. There were 2 guys playing football, under a bridge on the hard shoulder at 0800 in the morning!
I was coming along the M27 by the services one day, there was a guy, obviously on his stag do, chained to one of the signs completely naked. a cop car had stopped, and the coppers were p*ssing themselves!
I’ve seen all sorts of madness on the motorways. I’ve lost count of the number of cyclists and pedestrians I’ve seen using the hard shoulder, or pedestrians crossing over both carrigeways as a short cut home.
About a year ago I saw a group of young kids playing chicken on the M56 between Warrington and Runcorn junctions. They were stood behind the bridge support in the central reservation running across at the last minute trying to beat traffic. Three months earlier there had been a news report on radio 2 stating that a 12 year old had been hit and killed on the same stretch of motorway doing the exact same thing.
I’ve also seen a guy thumbing a lift walking down the white vibra line of the hard should on the M6 Toll road. It was about 3am and pitch black when I got close I just caught a glimpse of movement in the darkness so I served over into lane two and he actually stepped out into lane one where I was waving his thumb in the air for a lift Just crazy crazy people have no idea.
The nearest I came to getting killed was when I encountered the old chap in the 4x4 Shogun. It was on the slip/link road between the M56 East bound and the M6 South bound. As I came around the bend in lane two he was just finishing his U turn and starting to drive back up toward the M56. I honestly to this day have no idea how I missed him. I was so sure I was going to hit him I had already braced and pushing myself hard back into my seat ready for the impact.
Even now I can still see clearly and in great detail the look of his face, the colour of the cap he was wearing and his clothes. And the look of sheer fright on his wifes face sat in the passenger seat trying to claw her way and climb into the glove box. There was absolutley no expression on his face though, it was as if he had no idea that he was doing anything out of the ordinary.
I managed to get the van over to the hard shoulder and just sat there froze in my seat with hands clamped onto the steering wheel. When I looked in my side mirror to see if he was ok, the fool had not even stopped He just carried on up lane 2 the wrong way to the apex of the slip where the white chevrons split the slip road from the M56 and he casually turned left on the main carrigeway of the M56 and tootled off on his way
I passed a bloke on an invalid scooter trundling along the hard shoulder of the M8.He was a few miles from the slip road so either the police were taking their time or no one had called them.
I was in two minds to follow him on the hard shoulder to give him a bit protection but was on him before I thought of it so called 999 instead.
The one i just can’t forget is the horrible thought of someone popping the passenger door open and “curling” one out on the Kerb about a mile south of a service area
Motorised scooter, people doing u turns, cyclists, stopping to dunk donuts, the world is full of nutters.
And there’s always a bit of “adult” activity going on either some saddo cranking one off to a copy of “nuts” after a nightshift or some bloke who’s got a much more mischevious “lady friend” in the car than i ever seem lucky enough to meet
not long after m1 opened i saw a coachload of asian guys praying to mecca whilst on the hard shoulder . didnt realise what they were doing till a few years later as we learnt their ways
About a year back in a layby on A1(M) just after Huntington, saw a woman getting spit roasted beside a van whilst a bloke was filming them. Turns out they were making a saucy film that’s somewhere on the net.
Last week i saw a drunk fella propping himself up on the crash barrier of the 167M and the same night well about 3am coming southbound on A19 just passed middlesborough two young lads walking in the outside lane with there back to the flow of traffic
) and a car that came down the exit slip lane and onto the hard shoulder of the carriageway facing the wrong way 
