16 July 2008

Oriental rickshaws

I wish I'd had my camera with me.

This morning, as I got to the junction of Portland St and Princess St, my eye was caught by two yellow rickshaws, gleaming new in the morning sun and neatly parked outside a building that had been under renovation for a while. Well, both rickshaws belong to a new boutique hotel, the Ying Sang Oriental.

The hotel isn't open yet, and I wonder what role the rickshaws will play. Will they be part of a gimmick, to cycle aimlessly around town so people hear about yet another hotel, after so many have sprung up in the last 10 years? Will they ferry guests to restaurants, shops and other attractions in the city centre? Can they carry me and my luggage to Piccadilly?

Watch, as they say, this space. Let us.

14 July 2008

More reasons...

Work on the new Whitefield Morrison's is now very advanced - and this week the road works around it seem to have been completed. It's not too bad - on the main road, Southbound towards the city centre, a new left-turn lane has been added - that'll be something to watch out for, as the cycle lane now sits between two lanes of traffic.

Of course, the proof of the pudding will be when the shop opens and the traffic these roadworks are a preparation for reveals itself in its full glory.

08 July 2008

Everyone who ever doubts that there is sense in cycling to work should have a look at this piece of research by fellow Bury cyclist and blogger:

http://holmesinho.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D65843A01B2C9DB7!945.entry

and then give it a go - why not?

A motorcade

Yesterday I heard the siren of an emergency vehicle. Because I was going down a bus lane on Bury New Rd and the 'normal' lane was jammed with cars, I assumed (correctly) that the emergency people would need to go down my lane - so, I stopped and stood on the side.

It was not one vehicle, but a whole host of them: six motorbike outriders, three police Zafiras and, in the middle, a little black car with someone presumably important inside (now idea who).

The funny thing was, one of the outriders got to where I was, ahead of the others, and stopped, then stared at me. Then it clicked: my stopping and waiting, which I thought a good and sensible civic deed, in the eyes of this chap had turned me into a threat - perhaps he thought my water bottle may conceal some explosives or something? Anyway, it all lasted mere seconds, as the motorcade sped up past me and lost themselves into the distance.