French rickshaw driver looking for the Channel escorted off dual carriageway in East Sussex

Police were called to escort a confused French rickshaw driver off a dual carriageway this week after he took a wrong turn.

The rider, who was trying to get back to his home country from Britain, was near Lewes in East Sussex when he, dressed in a straw hat, rode onto the A27.

"Police helping a lost French man... on his way to Paris on his Rickshaw," local police tweeted.

@Lewes_Police Passed him on the A275 heading south just South of S Chailey. pic.twitter.com/qj5wc6FsHf

 

The cyclist was escorted the end of the dual carriageway, joined a cycle path to continue his journey via the port of Newhaven. 

A police spokesman told The Local: “At 1.45pm on Thursday July 10th a motorist told police that a man had been seen on the eastbound Lewes bypass, just east of the Kingston roundabout, pedalling a three-wheel trike.

"Local officers quickly found the man who was a French national seeking to return home via Newhaven.

“They advised him that it was dangerous to be on that stretch of road, especially during heavy rain, and escorted him safely to the other end of the bypass where he was able to take a safe cycle path connecting with the A26 to Newhaven and went on his way."

Last year we reported how a Chinese man who was aiming to ride his rickshaw from London to Rio de Janeiro to “promote the Olympic spirit” ahead of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games was advised by police in Cambridgeshire to get off the A14 dual carriageway, which has a 70mph speed limit, after traffic built up behind him.

Chen Guan Ming, a 58-year-old farmer from Xuzhou, first decided to get pedalling to promote the Olympic spirit” – as a flag on his rickshaw exclaims – while sitting inside the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Games and saw Mayor of London Boris Johnson waving the Olympic flag as it passed to the British capital.

He rode his rickshaw from Beijing to London ahead of the previous Olympics, and with the help of a free flight donated by an flew into London to begin his trip to the next host city.

Cycling is not illegal on A-road dual carriageways in the UK - as generations of time triallists know - unless the section of road has been given an M designation, such as the A1(M) - meaning that motorway regulations apply,