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!

Yup some of the bus gates in the very centre of Manchester used to have these. Along with red and green lights and warning signs. Does it stop people trying to nip in behind a bus as the post rises up and destroys their car.

OP and many metrolink passengers should be thankful they didn't ignore the signs not to drive into the tram tracks. At one stage it felt like a car was being stuck on the tracks every day somewhere as people focussed on Sat Nav and not the road/signage/great big yellow tram approaching

I live in a town in Somerset and we have bus gates so they’re definitely not just confined to cities.

I also agree with others though that you don’t need to know what a bus gate is, the sign is clear that cars aren’t allowed down those roads for any reason.

You have my sympathy OP. I no longer go to or through Manchester as so many roads have traps in them. All my original routes down Oxford Road or down Deansgate past the cathedral are unnavigable now so I've given up.

Like @DustyLee123 and @RonniePickering said Liverpool is nicer now plus IMO easier to drive into and park.

Oh dear

regardless of bus gates or not, that’s a basic road sign that any driver should know

driving in big cities is generally a bad idea for various reasons, unless you know them well. Did you think to research about park and ride options, or at the very least pre booked long stay options? Or stay in a hotel on the tram line/easy access to the motorway that has hotel parking?

perhaps with ten mins research this would all have been avoided

I love all the ‘just get the train’ comments. They are on strike half the time and when they are not they are dirty and full of drunk/high people.

Manchester is one of the lousiest, most fetid cities in UK and Europe imo. My parents are from there and my sister lives there. Hideous. I don’t know what you were thinking going there to be honest. Lesson learnt.

Northerner here who lived happily in the west country for over fifteen years and made the mistake of thinking it would be a good idea to move to Greater Manchester a year ago. Oh how wrong was I. It's been an absolute disaster (I also lived here previously briefly and thought it might have improved. Er, no. Currently desperately working on escape tunnel.)

Liverpool is much nicer with generally friendlier and less stuck up people.

Loved the comments about the trains though - Transpennine and Northern are two of the worst companies in Britain. When they turn up at all that is.

The reason we had to drive into Manchester City centre was because of the train strikes, we had to pick up DS to take him somewhere else to catch a coach because there were no trains. He had originally planned to get a train so wouldn't have involved us at all, it was very stressful and I wasn't driving just sitting in passenger seat yelling busgate or bus lane to poor DH, I probably made it worse.

On the contrary. I'm from Leeds and even I can see that it can be a nice place for a weekend break. I go there myself every so often for the day so I can try things on in Uniqlo, wander around a different city and have lunch.

It has parks, museums, galleries, concerts, outdoor green spaces like the National Trust viaduct garden which is fun and good shopping and places to eat.

Wow I’m sorry you went through this OP but tbh you have done me a favour as I would not have known what that signed meant either.

All of the signs that I’ve seen that don’t allow cars or motorcycles etc have a red line through them, not just around them.

I too would have been caught out by this and I’ve driven in Manchester a few times, just obviously not in this area.

I live in Cornwall and we obviously have a lot of signs that tourists aren’t familiar with and so they often get caught out or are inexperienced with driving through small lanes and being able to reverse properly etc.

I find driving in cities and some popular areas like Cornwall are too much hassle and parking is extortionate, so I always try and look for a park and ride or a bus from a car park to take the stress out of it all.

Manchester is a fantastic place and I hope this hasn’t put you off.

At least it wasn't the one with the rising bollards that used to impale cars.

I'm originally from Manchester but would never drive into the city.

Bus gates are becoming more common and usually have the word bus gate written in massive letters on the road as well.

The are PLENTY of bus gates in Devon!

you should contact the daily mail about these mysterious Mancunian road signs 🤣🤣

Edit to say this was in reply to @Allywill
I would hazard a guess that there were other signs before this one. Where we are, the road will be marked as no through, only left turn at end etc BEFORE you enter it, so a sign like that is just a reminder that only buses may proceed.

Never been to Manchester, it's one of the two major UK cities (with Nottingham) that I don't know at all.

And I can't say the comments on this thread are encouraging a visit.

I don't live in Manchester, drove for a weekend away there last year, followed the road signs as directed and had a great time.

I have also had weekends away in Devon where I was confronted with cows blocking the road, extortionate prices for a cup of tea and a scone, Bank Holiday traffic and sunburn. And had a great time.

You sound a bit naive to go to a big city and not expect it to be like a big city.

Come to Nottingham! It's great. There's a bus gate.

And I can't say the comments on this thread are encouraging a visit.

Ignore them! Manchester is great!

Nottingham is OK as you can visit without venturing too far into the city by parking in the very large railway station carpark which is reasonably easy to get to, we always use that if we go to Nottingham arena for gigs

All of the signs that I’ve seen that don’t allow cars or motorcycles etc have a red line through them, not just around them

@Chippy4me

Seriously????

It's one of the most commonly used signs and one that is almost always asked about on driving tests. I strongly suggest you read the Highway Code if you don't know that.

Manchester is not a beginner's city. But Liverpool - no!
Stay in the south.

I disagree with PP who said the food in Manchester is crap. Loads of amazing restaurants. My favourites are Hawksmoor, Sanskruti, Dishoom, Yes Lah, Bar San Juan. Sam’s Chop House. The Edinburgh Castle. The Black Friar

Manchester is a shithole. My parked car was put on bricks and a back wheel stolen in Manchester.
Go to Liverpool. Much nicer city.

And there’s a reason it’s nickname is Gunchester!!

If it had been Birmingham it would have been the whole front end...