Manchester Fining Hellhole.

[Minnierose11]

We recently visited Manchester from Devon for a birthday break, never been before and wanted to sample the city's shopping and eateries.

I'll never visit again - the whole place feels like a scamming hellhole.
One morning walking to our car (parked in a car park) at £21.95 for 8 hours and over when a EHO stopped us and tried to fine us £200 on the spot for supposedly spotting us drop fag butts on the floor ... WE DONT EVEN SMOKE!!
My husband refused to give our details and we walked off to which he claimed to call the police and followed us all the way back to our hotel where we sat in our room for 40 minutes feeling rather panicked!!

Now back at home, we've just received a fine for driving through a 'bus gate', of which being from Devon never even knew was a thing!! I know of bus lanes, clearly marked on the road but a bus gate??
No vehicle access between the hours of 6am and 9pm... and a sign which supposedly indicates that which I've never seen before in my life. Not even in the Highway Code..
and I know fear we may have another one or two on the way, because we were none the wiser! Just blindly following the sat nav around a city we'd never visited before.

Never again!

Bud gates are not exclusive to Manchester!!!

You need to get out ( of Devon) more!

*bus

Go to Liverpool next time. Much better city.

bus gates are common. That is a very common sign which means whatever is pictured inside is not allowed through, and is most definitely in the Highway Code. Sorry but only your fault

Manchester is God’s own kingdom.

I agree! Much smaller and lots to do on foot !

Sadly a lot of people who do not live in cities are not familiar with the "flying motorcycle sign" or "No motor vehicle" sign. It commonly catches people out

Which satnav? Clearly it's not being updated. Tell them

Bristol is much the same. £60 fine for bus gates and if you've a non-approved car and enter Clean Air Zone you need to pay £9 fee or your fine will start at £120 and keep on rising. Tax on the poor mainly and tourists.

Parking and riding with Merseyrail is far less expensive than what the OP paid too (though she could have used Metrolink)

Yes to this, from someone who lives in Manchester ☝🏻

Manchester is a great city! Don’t blame the city, like london it’s not somewhere you want to be driving around really better to explore on foot.

I meant to quote, I mean Liverpool is way better.

Manchester is a bloody nightmare to drive around

I've never seen that sign in my city 😯

Does it mean no cars left or right, only straight on?

Can I just show some solidarity to the Mancunians here? ✊

It's just that I'm a Londoner and it's usually us getting it in the neck 😂😂

It's a golden rule....never drive in Manchester. It's on a list somewhere of "most stressful life experiences". I refuse to do it ever again and as the trains are so crap I don't bother going any more

Manchester is best explored by tram and foot as are many cities nowadays. This country isn't what it was, sadly.

Ignorance isn’t an excuse.

I've been to Manchester twice. The second time I was hopeful that the first time had been some sort of hideous hallucination, brought on by too many barmcakes or whatever the fuck they call bread rolls up there. Unfortunately it was even worse. You couldn't pay me to go there these days.

Are you really complaining that parking and driving is bad in a city centre?

That'd be like me going to Devon and being surprised that I can't get an Uber or that there's no night buses!

Of course parking will be expensive in a city. That sign - no cars or motorcycles - is very much in the highway code. Cities should be discouraging car use and prioritising public transport.

That road sign is in the Highway Code and as it is a circle with a red outline states no vehicles and shows the vehicles that are prohibited
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/road-signs-giving-orders.html

Yes.

Oxford Road out of bounds and loads of cycle lanes.

Regularly go to Manchester but you've got to be really careful with the route you take.

Have to get to the hospitals so have the route firmly etched in my brain.

Yanbu.

4 days in that place last year for work and I was amazed at how seemingly simple dishes could be absolutely ruined by literally everyone

there was a WAG of some Manchester player complaining about the food and it being one of the many reasons why she was delighted to leave the city, I thought she was being precious

she wasn’t. She was bang on.

It must be a revelation to the people who live there how much flavour there is in food NOT made in Manchester

I'd catch the train next time. Most cities are best enjoyed on foot. I live near Manchester but always catch the tram in. Just as I'd never drive to London etc

DS lives in Manchester City centre, when we meet up with him he catches a train to the outskirts and we pick him up from there to go out. We once ran the gauntlet of the Manchester bus gates and lanes and other things and never again unless an absolute emergency. How we avoided a fine, I do not know. Sympathies OP