The Mancunian Way: Gridlock holiday

It’s a one mile journey, but Uber driver Mohin Khan says a fare from Deansgate to Hulme can take 35 minutes. “It's chaos really,” he says.

“In the time I used to be able to do about 10 drop-offs and pick-ups, I can only do one or two now. It's bad for the environment, you can't turn your engine off when you're in traffic.”

Mohin was speaking after another weekend of traffic jams in town. Particular ire has been directed at the creation of a cycle lane down the length of Deansgate which means traffic can now only travel one way - southbound - from the junction with King Street West all the way down to the crossroads at Liverpool Road.

Drivers reported being stuck in jams for over an hour on and around Deansgate at the weekend with videos circulating online of fights breaking out among motorists. And Isaac Maltby, 39, general manager at Deansgate bar Electric Shuffle says it is now 'near enough impossible' to quickly get taxis late at night.

"It's a safeguarding issue really,” he told Chris Slater. One of our staff who worked on Saturday night was waiting for an hour, at 2am, for the taxi he booked because it was stuck in traffic.”

But, in fairness, town is busy at the best of times. And over Christmas it’s rammed.

And transport bosses did urge people not to drive into the city centre over the weekend, warning that with the Christmas markets, events at both the AO and Co-op Live arenas and the Manchester derby the roads were going to be particularly congested.

In response to the complaints council transport chief, Coun Tracey Rawlins, said: “Christmas is a hugely busy time of year in Manchester, and wherever possible during this period we would encourage people to rely on public transport to get in and out of the city.

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