Traffic frustration boils over into on-street row

A video of drivers having a row in the middle of a busy road has shown how "people's tempers are boiling over" due to city-centre traffic "chaos", an onlooker said.

Mark Garner filmed the argument between the two men in Deansgate, Manchester and said worsening congestion in the area had left motorists "enraged" by delays.

The altercation has been watched more than a million times on X, with some complaining roadworks, a one-way system and new cycle lanes had exacerbated traffic along the busy thoroughfare.

Manchester City councillor Tracey Rawlins said Christmas was a "hugely busy" period, adding work around Deansgate "naturally" had led to "unavoidable disruption".

Drivers had been warned to expect long queues in Manchester city centre in recent weeks due to the Christmas markets, festive shopping, high-profile concerts and football matches.

But Mr Garner, a North West lifestyle website publisher, said traffic had become "worse and worse" in the 22 years his business had been based on nearby Lloyd Street.

He said he filmed the row on Deansgate after a traffic jam that he claimed "culminated in those two nearly coming to a fist fight".

Mr Garner is one of a number of people who told BBC Radio Manchester they were thinking of relocating businesses as a result.

Joe Devereux-Kelly, who runs a children's sleepwear business from a warehouse on Liverpool Road, said the regular delays in traffic were "massively frustrating".

"I sit down and think how much time is it costing people and how much money is that costing in terms of economic input and output?" he said.

Roadworks in Deansgate began August, with new cycle-lanes and a one-way system introduced in a project that has yet to be finished.

Mr Devereux-Kelly said he was moving his business out of the centre in the next six months as a result, adding he felt entry and exits routes into the city had to be reviewed for traffic to flow freely.

Mr Garner said Deansgate should be returned to a one-way system as adjacent streets had turned into a "rat run", while emergency services were also caught in queues.

Ms Rawlins said the city was changing as the council worked to "improve transport links for people who walk, cycle and use public transport".

She said this included Deansgate, which would be "completed in the near future".

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