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!

We've just returned from an impromptu trip to Liverpool and driving there wasn't bad at all.

Didn't really love it, unfortunately. Docks pretty and we accidentally stumbled on an epic retro gaming place that will be the one and only thing we ever return for but, well, it wasn't a pleasant experience, really.

So many drunk/drugged up people staggering around, day and night, people pissing in public in broad daylight, fighting and shouting.

Wasn't for me.

Have you also reported all the posts being nasty about Manchester?

Hear hear. Such a lazy outdated prejudice.
I love Liverpool, Manchester, London and Devon.

Me either! Come to Liverpool, there are no busgates and no bus lanes in the city centre.

I’ve been going to Manchester for 20 years and have never been accosted by someone wanting money for ‘littering’ so I think you were unlucky with that op. Also I’ve never been mugged or attacked in a car park, it’s not compulsory.

I drive in Manchester all the time, it’s fine, there’s two other roads you can drive down that are parallel to Oxford road. If you think the bus gate has got a load of people, don’t read about the smart motorway that starts on the m62 😁

There are a lot of homeless people sadly, that’s 15 years of Tory government plus the gentrification of all the city centre squats for you.

Funny, not. Try harder.

Because we don't have them here, I'd never heard of them until this thread.

It does seem like there are bus gates in Devon...

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

And there was one in Liverpool until just last month. It was only there for a year though.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-city-centre-bus-gate-27515623.amp

Well, you learn something new every day! I never knew that was a bus gate! Always just thought cars aren't allowed down there! Shows how much I know.😂

I wasn’t joking, vile people vile city

Thank you!!

None of which are monitored by cameras or a finable offence, they are querying introducing cameras but even then, the first instance will be a warning. Not an instant penalty, probably because our council aren't trying to con everyone.. Manchester have literally sent a squad out on the streets to accuse people of littering when in fact they have not and don't even smoke to try and fine them £200! And then follow and Intimidate them with police action and following them! I wonder how many people they get everyday, ontop of the 10million + they've made out of these 'bus gates'.

Incorrect - NO markings on the road and in-fact there are two vehicles in front of us travelling the exact same road pictured in our CCTV photo. Who presumably have also been hit with a fine (not taxis) and in front of them a bus.

Granted, we missed the road sign, admittedly through our own fault by focusing of the sat nav to figure out where the heck we were going.
If the road had been marked with BUS LANE like several other roads in Manchester which were very obvious and easily avoidable, they wouldn't be making £10+mill out of people would they...

You should have been paying attention to the road and street signs.

It's about £30 cheaper if you take the slower route via Hereford. Anyway, the main point was that you can use trains or trams to park on the outskirts.

Yeah, that's basically what it is. Calling them "bus gates" is confusing, when I first heard about the Oxford ones I was imagining an actual gate. No, it's a busway.

@Minnierose11
If by the photo you mean Grafton st, there's multiple road signs along it to warn you that it's effectively a dead end for cars. Turning onto Oxford road, granted there isn't paint on the road to say buses only, but the road surface changes, and it changes colour (to pink) and there are more signs to say buses only/no other motor vehicles once you're on Oxford road itself.

It won't be marked bus lane, because it's not a bloody bus lane! If theres a bus lane there's a separate lane for cars, and here there isn't. Genuinely not sure what else you'd need?

I do sympathise that if you accidentally turn into one it'd be hard to work out where to go next, but there really is a LOT of signage for it. Would you have the same complaint if you accidently drove down a one way street, or into a pedestrianised street?

And how do you know I'm vile? Or where I live is vile? Have you ever walked down my street or met me in person? Would you say the same thing about any other place on the planet?

I'm very disappointed that MNHQ have let those posts stand tbh.

Surely I can't be the only one who reported?

I think the littering issue is indefensible. If I was in your shoes I would be very tempted to report them.

But it's concerning that you are driving, while you a) don't know a road sign that has been in the highway code for longer than I've been driving and b) claim that you don't know that bus gates exist because you live in Devon - when they do exist there, you just weren't aware of them.

It might be an idea to try some mock driving theory tests, just to highlight any areas you might want to revisit?

I wasn’t joking, vile people vile city

Shocking comment.

Me, my family and friends are all very lovely thank you very much!

I’m afraid my experience of liverpool and its people is summed up by vile. Car crime, mrs being harassed by men, no interest in helping someone with clearly not a local accent.

total opposite to Manchester where everyone was genuine

Everyone is genuine in Manchester?
PAHAHAHA

We had lived abroad for 25 years at that point, hence never having heard of a bus gate. Our living abroad was also the reason we received no information from the university about parking for graduation ceremonies. The graduand involved warned us about driving on Oxford Road but we were trying to get as close to the venue as possible because I have trouble walking very far and we took a risk because it was pelting with rain and we were stupid.
Apart from that, we love Manchester and are going back on a visit soon, though will be avoiding Oxford Road by car!