Manchester City Centre labelled "no drive zone" by taxi drivers due to congestion
Compared to this time last year - traffic volume in and around the city centre is up 3%
Taxi drivers across Greater Manchester are labelling Manchester City Centre as a "no drive zone" due to congestion levels.
At this time of year, traffic volumes on routes in and around the city centre are 12% above typical. However, they are 3% above the equivalent day last year. This is equivalent to an extra 80,000 vehicle movements to, from and through the regional centre over a weekend.
Taxi drivers near to Piccadilly train station said: "They ought to do something about this. we are loosing loads of work to this traffic.
"You can't get anywhere, can you? If you've got a passenger in, the metres ticking, it's embarrassing. A lot of the time they just get out and say they will just walk it.
"It's so congested, it takes a good twenty minutes and then the fare is going up and people are walking out of the cabs.
"I can't drive because they've blocked it off on one side, left is blocked going to the Mancunian, you can't go anywhere.
"It's pointless working around town when it's that busy. I just try to stay far as possible.
"You cannot drive on the road, a 5 minute job takes half an hour, there's no work for anyone."
Transport for Greater Manchester said: "As one of the major retail destinations in the North West, with world famous Christmas markets and 100s of events and two world class football teams some level of seasonal congestion around the city centre is inevitable."
Maggie Carter manages their control room: "Our colleagues in our transport and traffic department have been working with the City Council to try and minimise the roadworks that are out there, unfortunately no matter how much planning and preparation we do, there will always be emergency roadworks if something happens
"We have some traffic management tools that push all the information about traffic and transport out to peoples journey planners and sat navs so that you can see the routes that are congested. It really is a matter of trying to plan your journey as best as you can and looking at the times you are travelling to just think about that journey ahead."
A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said: "As we all know, the run up to the Christmas period can bring exceptionally high levels of traffic and footfall to the city centre. On top of people going about their daily business, festive events such as the Christmas Markets and parade, as well as festive sporting fixtures can make it harder to get around via car in the city centre.
"We work closely with our partners to encourage as many people to use public transport as possible, to try and avoid the road network becoming too congested through this period.
But of course, there can always be events or incidents which are beyond our control which may cause disruption to the road network. In these cases we'd ask people to view them for what they are, one off incidents which do not paint a general picture of the road network in Manchester."