A Manchester Uber driver has described how the creation of cycle lanes and pedestrianised areas is having a devastating impact on his income.
Mohin Khan, 38, has spoken out after a weekend of city centre gridlock sparked anger amongst residents and businesses, with social media footage showing fights breaking out between motorists in the Deansgate area.
Particular ire has been directed at the creation of a cycle lane down the length of the popular Deansgate which means traffic can now only travel one way. Ongoing work in the area and the subsequent travel chaos from it has seen drivers reporting being stuck in jams for over an hour.
Mr Khan said: “It’s chaos really. 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.”
The traffic is having a bigger impact than merely wasting people’s time, with Mr Khan reporting that it is having a significant impact on his earnings.
He said: “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% 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?”
The introduction of cycle lanes and road closures is having an impact on a variety of businesses, with a local bar manager telling the Manchester Evening News of the safety concerns he has for staff as a result.
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.”
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.
The 53-year-old business owner 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.”
