Cars racing in city centres?

Yesterday i was walking down Deansgate in Manchester around midday and saw a BMW M3 convertible and the similar offering from Mercedes racing down the road, side by side! 30mph limit, one of the busiest pedestrian roads in Manc and they were doing way over 50mph (very conservative estimate) and weaving between traffic undertaking and overtaking.

No speed cameras or police in the middle of town though- clearly its not where people have accidents!!!! I see the same thing round the corner from where i live, middle of manc, small road with cars parked either side, nursery school on the left and big BM’s, HUGE X5’s etc come flying down there everyday. Not a camera in sight!

Actually I thought X5’s were bad… X6- what the hell? This is not random incidents, this is everyday. I’ve seen a sports saloon car spinning the backend out coming round a corner by the church hall, into corner…big throttle about halfway round and sliding across two lanes (one way street) Oxford Rd in Manc has signs on every junction stating the number of deaths there has been each year (lots!) It is the busiest student area in the UK and an average of 10 buses a minute pass by.

There is one red light camera designed to catch people stuck in a yellow box after the taxi in front stops to drop people off on double yellows in the middle of a junction. Road surface is like the Somme (yes ive been) from all the heavy buses.

I’m no stranger to speed, I’ve done trackdays and don’t tend to stick too closely to national speed limits but always obey 20, 30 and 40mph limits. However I am genuinely scared shitless by these big, heavy powerful saloons racing around tiny city streets. Anyone walks out without looking wouldn’t stand a chance, even crossing near to some blind corners is dodgy as you have to sprint when a car cuts the corner on the wrong side of the road and races away from his mate behind. Just a matter of time before something goes really bad.

It’s always big money cars and often young drivers (20-30), how they afford it I don’t know but im in the wrong line of work clearly! (I’m only 22 myself).

Bikers tend to go a little over limit on these roads but always on straight clear sections as they are too busy defending their road space (don’t even start me on the amount of bikers ive seen lying on oxford rd! I stopped riding it myself 2 years ago!) Diesel spills aside this is the first thing ive considered contacting the police about. Anyone else experience this too?