An Uber driver says city centre gridlock has seen his takings slashed by forty percent in a year. Mohin Khan, 38, has spoken out after a weekend of jams in town sparked anger amongst residents and businesses.
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.
Work on the final stretch of cycle lane from the junction with Peter Street to near the Beetham Tower, which began in August, is ongoing. That stretch of cycle lane is not yet open but traffic is down to one lane, with temporary lights currently in place at the end of Deansgate.
READ MORE: ‘An absolute joke’: Fury over Deansgate cycle lanes after weekend of gridlock
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.
Residents and local businesses told the Manchester Evening News that the tailbacks have become a daily occurrence. And Mohin, from Longsight, says they are having a noticeable impact on his takings.
“It’s chaos really. This is the worst bit of Manchester,” he said stood next to his private hire car on Deansgate. “You have all these high-rises being built but no extra infrastructure in terms of traffic. All they are doing is taking lanes out rather than putting them in.
“Its not just that, if there’s something on the at the AO Arena for instance, they close the roads around it for an hour before, as people arrive, and an hour after. That’s 20 odd thousand people wanting to be dropped off and picked up and you can’t get near. But this is the worst part, Deansgate, Peter Street, around here.
“From here to the nearest next postcode, which is Hulme, M15, it can take 35 minutes when its only a mile away. 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.
“But it’s really affecting me. As an Uber driver all my trips and my earnings are documented. I’ve looked at them and this year they are 40 per cent down on last year. And the year before that it was even better. And it’s just because of the traffic. It makes no sense. Why do you need that big a cycle lane?”
‘Drivers are saying people don’t want to come into town‘
Meanwhile, a bar manager says it is now ‘near enough impossible’ for staff and customers to quickly get taxis late at night. Isaac Maltby, 39, general manager at the bar and restaurant Electric Shuffle, said: “It’s a safeguarding issue really. 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.
“It’s okay for us as staff, we can wait inside here, but if you’ve been on a night out and you need to go home, you don’t have that option and you’re going to be stuck out in the cold.”
Residents and businesses have said the situation on and around Deansgate is a ‘total mess’ and are questioning the need for the large cycle lane, as they call for action to alleviate the situation. “I don’t think the cycle lane and a one-way system is the answer to the problem,” Isaac said.
“On Oxford Road, that cycle lane has a counter and you can see its really well used and utilised as you having people cycling in and out of university. You don’t see lots of cyclists here. Really the only cyclists you really see are Deliveroo riders. I think they need to look again at it.”
Jane Dowler has owned the Evuna restaurant on Deansgate for the past 21 years and said the changes to the road have caused chaos for customers and for her business.
Jane, 53, said: “A lot of Uber drivers are saying people don’t want to come into town because of the traffic, and saying they won’t pick up or drop off near Deansgate. I wouldn’t mind but the cycle lane, you don’t see any cyclists coming around so I don’t know when they’re all supposed to be coming in.”
In response to concerns over this weekends’ gridlock and the Deansgate cycle lane scheme, Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment and Transport at Manchester City Council, said: “Over the weekend we saw a number of events take place in the city centre which naturally meant it ended up very busy on our road network.
“Ahead of the weekend messages were sent out from the council as well as our partners in TfGM to advise people that if they drove into the city centre, they would face longer than usual delays.
“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.
“The city is changing as we work to improve transport links for people who walk, cycle and use public transport. Naturally, as this takes place on Deansgate there will be unavoidable disruption for road users, however work is progressing and we hope to have the Transforming Deansgate project completed in the near future.”
