New York rider bemused by Manchester roads

I was recently visted for 2 weeks by my good friend Chuck Stegmeyer, a keen biker from Brooklyn, New York. This was his first visit to England and we spent some time touring England, but mainly around Greater Manchester where I live. On his return to Brooklyn he wrote me this letter:

Dear Preacherman,

Thanks for the great time we had. I enjoyed riding your Pan. I was intrigued, however, by the weird practices adopted by the men responsible for maintaining your roads. Firstly, they built them with those weird roundabouts that just cause almighty backlogs of traffic. Why didn’t they think of flyovers? And the guys who lay the tarmac; all the stuff they have leftover, why do they stack it up in weird piles across the roads. All this seems to do is slow down traffic and wear out springs and shockers. Although I must admit, some of the workers seem to have had a brainwave and all the excess tarmac they have piled into part humps so that the cars can straddle them with little inconvenience.

And also, on Manchester roads in particular, why do they spend large amounts of money actually narrowing roads and putting weird chicaines in that force traffic into single lanes and impede free movement. This just seems to cause frustration and make drivers go crazy once they have gotten through them.

And all those camera’s. Wow man, they are all over the place. Try installing those things in Brooklyn if you want to witness the outbreak of world war 3. I would have thought that with car and bike road tax more than 4 times that of the USA and more cars per square mile, you could afford the greatest roads in the world. Instead they are so littered with potholes the spring and shocker companies must be thriving.

And I must admit, back at my local bar I had them all falling about when I told them all about your bus lanes. The guys that thought that one up were high on something. At peak periods when the roads are heaving, one lane is reserved exclusively for buses with no people on board, whilst drivers struggle to get to work and are constantly being overtaken by pushbikes and the occasional pedestrian, but as soon as the peak period ends and traffic is reduced both lanes are available. The guys back home just didn’t believe that one.

Anyhow Preacherman, thanks again. Maybe next time I can have the GTR 1400 and you ride the Pan, eh?

Take care, CHUCK.

I suppose thats exactly how it must look to a visitor. Why do we put up with all the garbage slung at us by the “Rule Book” fraternity. What’s ironic is that old Chuck doen’t even know the half of it!!!