I hope you don’t mind this email – I obtained it from www.cyclegm.org.

I am writing to you with concerns regarding a stretch of road running from Manchester Apollo into Hyde Town Centre – the notorious Hyde Road / Manchester Road. As you are probably aware, this is one of the busiest routes into Manchester Town Centre,
I have been commuting to and from work on this route now for 7 months on my bicycle as its quicker to get too and from work than both driving and on the train, and also, being an overweight chap, its also great for my health. During this time, I have been hit by cars 3 times (only 1 of these people stopped) and nearly been killed dozens of times due to peoples blatant disregard for traffic and highway laws. I myself and a cyclist that sticks to the rules of the road (as I am also a driver). I patiently wait at traffic lights, I signal when I wish to turn and I thank patient drivers with a quick thumbs up or a “thanks mate” if their windows are down – something which I hope instills the “MMmm – perhaps not all cyclists are idiots” ethos into their heads.

Unfortunately, not all road users are the same, and as mentioned above, Hyde Road is awful for cyclists. Busy traffic, grids that need repairing every 50ft as the Tarmac around is completely destroyed, grids with the draining holes facing the wrong way, forcing cyclists to swing out into traffic to make sure their wheels don’t get stuck.

There are two parts of my journey where I feel safe, and don’t fear my wife having to tell my daughter than I’m not coming home again – these are the Cycle bridge stretching across the M60 / Denton Roundabout (another issue with the roundabout is red light jumpers, which I blog about every day) and the Bus Lane running down towards Ardwick Green.

I don’t expect that it would be viable to run either a cycle lane or a bus lane from Hyde to Manchester due to one email from one person, but it is something that I feel very strongly about, and know that something needs to be done before there is a serious accident on this road, so it is my intention to request that you consider placing a cycling lane and / or bus lane down the stretch of Hyde Road.

I am sure that there are 100′s if not 1000s of people out there who would like this to be done – and perhaps, with a little bit of hard work on my part and other cyclists part, things will be much safer and brighter for the future.

I am noticing more cycle lanes cropping up around Manchester (I use the new one near the Manchester Apollo / Tesco Garage daily), and this can only be a good thing – so please, keep up the good work and effort you are putting in.