Driving through Manchester City centre... never again

[Deleted User]

What a nightmare for ordinary motorists. How are you supposed to keep up with where you're allowed to drive? Most roads are only for busses and taxis so you need to make sure you're in the right lanes with monitoring cameras everywhere. No wonder the shops are struggling with footfalls. Motorists are too scared to venture into city centres for fear of fines because you accidentally drove onto a bus lane. By contrast Liverpool city centre is a joy to drive through since they allowed everyone to use bus lanes and parking seems to be cheaper. Liverpool is better haha.
Rant over.

Aylesbury_Duck

Deleted_User wrote: »

What a nightmare for ordinary motorists. How are you supposed to keep up with where you're allowed to drive? Most roads are only for busses and taxis so you need to make sure you're in the right lanes with monitoring cameras everywhere. No wonder the shops are struggling with footfalls. Motorists are too scared to venture into city centres for fear of fines because you accidentally drove onto a bus lane. By contrast Liverpool city centre is a joy to drive through since they allowed everyone to use bus lanes and parking seems to be cheaper. Liverpool is better haha.
Rant over.

Shock horror! Drivers expected to heed road signs!

The shops aren't struggling for footfall. Manchester has seen a huge increase in visitor numbers and shoppers in recent years. They actually have quite a good public transport infrastructure which is probably designed to deter drivers taking cars into the city centre. It makes it safer, less congested and less polluting. Judging from your rant, it's working.

Eric_the_half_a_bee

Deleted_User wrote: »

Liverpool is better haha.

I'm glad that Liverpool is better at something.

EssexExile

Deleted_User wrote: »

By contrast Liverpool city centre is a joy to drive through since they allowed everyone to use bus lanes

A bit pointless then!

neilmcl

Deleted_User wrote: »

What a nightmare for ordinary motorists. How are you supposed to keep up with where you're allowed to drive? Most roads are only for busses and taxis so you need to make sure you're in the right lanes with monitoring cameras everywhere. No wonder the shops are struggling with footfalls. Motorists are too scared to venture into city centres for fear of fines because you accidentally drove onto a bus lane. By contrast Liverpool city centre is a joy to drive through since they allowed everyone to use bus lanes and parking seems to be cheaper. Liverpool is better haha.
Rant over.

There's nothing wrong in reducing the number of cars in city centre as long as public transport is good and afaik Manchester City transport is very good so you don't really need a car that much. And your evidence that footfall in Manchester city shopping is effected is where?

Sounds to me that this more of a case of you being more familiar with say driving in Liverpool city centre than you are with Manchester and are unable to plan your journeys/routes very well.

andrewf75

Sounds like Manchester is doing the right thing. Other cities should follow the lead and move with the times to deter motorists. This is not the 1970s, use public transport to get into city centres and stop clogging up the roads unnecessarily.

silverwhistle

I went to Manchester last year to watch my footie team away. I stayed on the outskirts and got the tram in. After the game I was walking away from the ground faster than the traffic. Why would you want to drive in the centre anyway?

IanMSpencer

The scary thing about Manchester was the use of right turn green light filters before the main green unlike the rest of the country. Always a recipe for disaster when you don't spot it blink out or the waiting cars are over-enthusiastic.

Haven't been there for a while - still used?

motorguy

Deleted_User wrote: »

What a nightmare for ordinary motorists. How are you supposed to keep up with where you're allowed to drive? Most roads are only for busses and taxis so you need to make sure you're in the right lanes with monitoring cameras everywhere. No wonder the shops are struggling with footfalls. Motorists are too scared to venture into city centres for fear of fines because you accidentally drove onto a bus lane. By contrast Liverpool city centre is a joy to drive through since they allowed everyone to use bus lanes and parking seems to be cheaper. Liverpool is better haha.
Rant over.

No they're not. Manchester is thriving. I work in Manchester City Centre and have done this past year odd. Its a great city that has invested a lot in its infrastructure.

Theres a decent public transport system which is how most sensible people get about (myself included).

motorguy

silverwhistle wrote: »

I went to Manchester last year to watch my footie team away. I stayed on the outskirts and got the tram in. After the game I was walking away from the ground faster than the traffic. Why would you want to drive in the centre anyway?

Thats exactly it. Great tram system and lots of buses too.

droopsnoot

I used to drive into Manchester, but I'd park under GMex or next door so never really ventured into the city centre in the car, except for occasional work trips. These days I go on the train, which never works out more expensive and usually works out less. Every time I go - which is not as often as it used to be - the shops seem to be incredibly busy.

I think the days when city centre shop usage was governed by whether you could park outside the shop probably went several decades ago. My local town, on the other hand, could do with re-thinking the parking costs if nothing else. The only free parking is now on the out-of-town (a bit) retail park, with the result that a lot of shops in the town centre are empty.

Recently a small fairly cheap car park was closed so the new swimming pool could be build on it, which had the double effect of bringing more people in, but giving them fewer places to park. We don't have a park and ride, and the bus service in general is poor and getting worse. It's fine to not have much parking if you have a simple, cheap, reliable alternative, which is something a lot of towns and cities deal with well. Just not near here.