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!

There's a lot of people who shouldn't be driving. One of the local farmers has recently been complaining about people who apparently can't reverse. They expect him (not to mention the queue cars behind) to reverse his trailer long distances even though there's a passing space right behind them

They run trains to Manchester. In fact for many flows from the SW it's cheaper to go via Newport and Hereford than it is to use XC.

I live in a small town in a rural area, not a city, and I learned to drive in the 1970s.
I still know that that sign means no cars or motorbikes, and so should anyone eles with a driving licence.

I've never heard of that sort of arrangement being called a "bus gate" though.

I live in a big city and have never seen a 'bus gate' sign before.

Lived there for three quarters of my life...

Never drive into/around the centre of manchester. Don't do it, use the buses and trams and your legs.

Top tip, next time you go somewhere far far away from Devon - do a smidgen of research first. A very quick google would have shown you that Manchester is not somewhere you drive around.

As for the carpark twat - sorry, they're everywhere all around the country, not specific to Manchester, more, specific to carparks.

A friend and I got stuck in a carpark in Nottingham for ages, both disabled, both wheelchair users... the bell-end in the barrier control box wanted us to get out to show them the blue badge. He couldn't grasp that we were BOTH chair users and could not exit the vehicle, in the queue (steep kerbs guiding cars to the gate, no room to get out, no way to get a chair to his box anyway). He needed to get out and come and look at our badge, and refused.

Eventually someone in a vehicle behind us got out and kindly took our badge to show him so we could all bloody leave!

Then it's not much fucking use if I'm not flowing from the south west.

I do remember being confused about why the sign didn't have a line through it, as I thought it should do - I remember looking it up in a highway code book. However, the time I remember that from is from when I was 10 and doing my cycling proficiency - so I am fairly sure it's neither a new invention nor a rare sign.

Clearly I'm in minority on here but I've asked several family, friends and work colleagues over the past day or so if they've ever heard of a bus gate, the answer was a resounding no. Bus lanes, yes with clear road markings. Bus gates, no...
I've travelled around the UK a lot, including central London etc by car for work purposes, always been able to clearly see bus lanes marked and never in my 15 years of driving been hit with a fine. So the remarks saying 'you shouldn't be driving' are unwarranted. Clearly you've never driven somewhere completely new, relying on a sat nav to get you to the right destination before or ever made a driving error.

From what I've read online, this 'bus gate' isn't just an issue for people visiting but for people who reside in Manchester, as the council have managed to rake in over £10mil in fines since implementing it. It's a money grabbing scheme and seems completely unnecessary, The road signs are not clearly signposted and if travelling behind a bus wouldn't be visible! Which i believe is probably exactly what happened!

There is no way to get off the road if you happen to accidentally enter it without doing a u turn.

Without this, the EHO trying to fine us for something that never happened put us off returning, never in my life, anywhere in the world has something like that happened to us whilst innocently walking down a street. (And I'm well travelled) Again, a money grabbing scam by the council. The next day when returning to our car in the same parked car park we counted 4 different EHO's surrounding that area! Insane.. like flys around shit.

The council should try using some of that money they're scamming out of people to home and rehabilitate the homeless in Manchester, it was the worst I've seen. People drunk and High all over the place mid day. Very intimidating.

The Trafford centre was the highlight of the trip, and if I was to ever to return to Manchester it'd be for that reason only and I'd certainly stay out of the city centre to do so.

Are you always so potty-mouthed? The OP is from Devon. Even if she wasn't, it can be used as a P+R option.

Did you show them a picture of the flying motorcycle sign and ask them what it meant?

Ahhh lovely thread with lots of people slagging off a city they’ve visited once or twice
.
I live on the outskirts a few miles out the centre. We never drive in. Bus/tram/train/taxi much easier ways. The streets are crap for driving in the centre. A bit of research tells you that as it does for parking/costs etc.

Many of the issues noted by the op could be applicable to many cities across the country tbh.

@DdraigGoch we did look at the train option as would of been preferable, but at the cost of £180pp return, it was a no.

gosh! Where is the bus gate in Barnstaple?!

Clearly I'm in minority on here but I've asked several family, friends and work colleagues over the past day or so if they've ever heard of a bus gate, the answer was a resounding no.

how many of them don't know what the sign you posted means? I've never heard of a bus gate but I do know what the "prohibited" sign means.

@LadyofLansallos

www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/camera-crackdown-thousands-flout-devon-8660157.amp

None of which are findable offences and the first offence (if cameras are implemented) would be a warning. Not a fine.

Crying out loud, I thought the bus lanes in Manchester were bad enough, I didn't realise that probably the reason we got fined for driving a short distance down Oxford Road when we were trying to find somewhere to park for a graduation ceremony was this thing I've heard of for the first time on here, a bus gate. What the heck?

@Inyournightgarden I have reported your post. Appalling comment about a lovely city with a lower crime rate than Manchester

@Jaichangecentfoisdenom if you were invited to a graduation ceremony, the university makes it very clear in all their correspondence that driving to the university is not advisable as the uni is not set up with parking (with the exception for those with blue badges)

If anyone remembers what Oxford road was like before the bus gate, it is far improved. It used to be a deathtrap, especially for cyclists and for pedestrians trying to cross. It really isn't that hard to avoid if you plan your route, and there are plenty of signs, paint on the floor, and the obvious hint that the very wide road ahead is strangely quiet and doesn't appear to have any cars on it!

I managed to find the one in Leicester too and got a ticket for going into it - for 5 seconds to allow an ambulance past 😩

I can't remember the details but it'll tell you if you Google it.

FGS, OP, it doesn't matter that you've never heard of a "bus gate". The signs don't say "bus gate".

What the signs do say is "no motor vehicles", using a well known pictogram that's been in use for sixty-odd years. Here's one such sign on Oxford Road, Manchester.

As you approach this location there are advance warning signs, like this one.

If you approach from Grafton Street, where the photo in your OP seems to have been taken, you pass no fewer than three other advance warning signs like this one.

They don't exactly keep it secret, do they?

Yes, our city is great!

I must admit I don’t know what a bus gate is- I don’t think we have any here!