wigan

A "cycling prohibited" sign taken on the corner of Pottery Road and Eleanor Street. It seems contradictory given there is a cycling lane on the road, however I think it refers to the pavement. A bit big then, isn't it? The building to the left is the First bus garage.

The Saddle end of the Wigan Pier one way system. Pottery end is in the foreground, Wallgate is in the background, with the Seven Stars pub beyond. There are a lot of brown Wigan Pier signs still about, despite the last of the museums closing down in December 2007. Ideally, the museum symbol should be blanked out.

Another one of these "cyclists prohibited" signs, this time mounted on a pole with a "two way traffic" sign. The plate beneath the signs again makes the prohibited sign look contradictory (especially due to its size), but looks to refer to the pavement again. Taken on Wallgate, at the convergence from the one way system.

The bottom end of Wallgate, between the one way system and Saddle Junction. This section of road often gets heavily congested, with queues trailing the full length of the one way system, simply because of the lack of capacity due to the railway bridge. The new A49 link road should hopefully take a lot of the traffic away, but the main problem is football and rugby traffic, as the DW Stadium is off to the right beyond the bridge.

The traffic lights where traffic starts to split for the various directions - the right hand lane moves over to the right for lanes four and five, whilst the second lane splits into two for the A571 and A577. The left lane is solely for the A49 (and for Halfords, which has an access point slightly further on).

The convergence point of the two sets of traffic lanes - here you can see the five lanes for the various destinations.

The two converging lanes approaching from the other side of the roundabout.

The parallel access road to Halfords and McDonalds. Entry to the road is by the little access point behind the traffic signal, the exit is lower down.

Just beyond the road splitting into two - over on the left are the lanes for the A49, A571 and A577, whilst the two in the foreground are the lanes heading around the junction and off towards Robin Park. The bus lane (the red lane behind the pole) also heads off onto the A577, and has a separate traffic signal to give buses priority over other traffic.

A close up of the previous view, showing the A49/A571 and A577 lanes diverging, and the oncoming lanes from both roads.

The start of Robin Park Road, with the roundabout veering off to the right. The vacant space behind the red railings is where a high school once stood. The Robin Park retail complex is behind the traffic light.

The opposite side of the Saddle Junction roundabout, looking towards Wigan. The road on the right is the entrance to a furniture showroom, whilst the road to the left is the rear entrance to Asda. Believe it or not, but a motorway link road was planned to end at this very point! If it had gone ahead, traffic from the M6 north would have entered Wigan here, as the road would have run along the Douglas valley up to Junction 27 at Shevington. The River Douglas itself traverses the roundabout, doing so under the bridge shown in the background.

View looking back down Wallgate from a different angle to previous views. Pottery Road emerges from the left.

The narrowed Wallgate, which was originally two lanes wide until the hatch markings and cycle lane were installed. The bridge passes over the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

Taken from the canal bridge, the road widens back to two lanes, which allows for traffic turning back into Pottery Road to queue (in order to access Swan Meadow Road). A Gatso speed camera can just about be made out in the background.

The Gatso camera on Wallgate has this identification number painted on the road. It is actually quite unusual to see numbers painted on the road next to speed cameras within the Wigan Borough area.

Traffic waiting to turn into Pottery Road. Unusually, at this point, the two lanes are segregated by double white lines.

Looking back down Wallgate, with the turning lane for vehicles wishing to head onto Pottery Road The red slip lane is for traffic wishing to turn right into the industrial estate. The road is often used as a cut through for traffic wishing to reach the northern side of the town centre, without having to pass the busy area around the railway stations.

Advanced direction sign on Wallgate. In reality, the A49 should be horizontal and a little further up the sign, as the road doesn't actually veer off like that.

Something rather common in and around Wigan, advanced direction signs with distances on them. The two signs look large and cumbersome together.

The A49 northbound (well sort of), veers off to the right. Wallgate continues onwards, bewaring left under the bridge - the West Coast Mainline runs over the road here.

Two advanced direction signs that seem to contradict each other. The top sign says traffic for Bolton and Manchester should proceed ahead at the next junction, whilst the lower sign advises all through traffic to turn left! Wallgate ends at the junction, which houses Wigan Wallgate station on the corner. Wigan North Western station is immediately to the right, off the photo.

Apologies for the poorer quality here, folks. A very unusual lane allocation sign. As its yellow, it should be temporary - however it has been stood in this position for quite a while now! A permanent sign should have a white background, with the "Mon-Sat 7-am - 7pm" within a black-bordered rectangle. This is looking back down Wallgate towards the A49 junction.

Advanced direction sign on the A577 heading into Wigan from Hindley.

The same mini-roundabout, just a little closer up.

Darlington Street East (A577), just after the mini-roundabout. There is a short stretch of double white lines here, due to the proximity of the bend to the mini-roundabout.

These rather ornate looking street lights adorn the full length of this stretch of road, and are quite common in other town centres across the borough.

Looking back towards the mini-roundabout is this advanced direction sign, with another of the same street lights behind it.

Darlington Street East again, with the warning arrows to denote the start of the solid white lines.

Zebra crossing on Darlington Street East, complete with anti-skid surfacing on both approaches.

"No vehicles" sign on a small side street. But look, there are three cars parked here!!!

Another side street - this one is designated as a Play Street - most of these side streets are cobbled.

The Play Street sign, with an older style concrete lamp post behind it.

The Play Street sign taken from another angle, to give a better view of the plate.

Hmmm, really? I thought that would be pretty obvious! These signs adorn pretty much every entrance into Wigan town centre.

Another advanced direction sign, this one including details of a prohibited turn and low bridge.

The Darlington Street (East) / Warrington Road junction, where the A577 and A573 meet. The previous picture refers to these lane allocations.

The corresponding advanced direction sign on the opposite side of the junction, this view looking away from the town centre.

Blue bordered signs are pretty rare now in Wigan, but a few still remain, particularly around the town centre. This is a rather unusual sign, instructing drivers on which lane they need for certain car parks.

A rather over-sized flag sign denoting the entrance to a car park. Really, this should be an advanced direction sign, with the flag sign somewhere around the Give Way sign in the distance. The use of flag signs as advanced signs is rather common around these parts!

A general view looking towards the River Way gyratory system. Traffic cannot turn right off River Way in either direction, so drivers have to negotiate the one-way system to do so.

A general shot of the traffic signal heads situated on the gyratory.

A close-up shot of one of the traffic light heads.

An advanced direction sign advising drivers of local facilities and car parks. The arrows are a little too far over, and the top "P" should be to the right of "Grand Arcade," "Shoppers" and "Millgate". Ideally, the ahead directions should all be in a single section, and probably should be in white patches.

On another part of the gyratory is another Advanced Direction Sign, again with misaligned arrows and separate sections for various pieces of information.

Apologies about the slight darkness of this picture - the sun was very bright beyond, and getting very close to the sign was the only way I could picture it without it looking like a dark blob!

Anyway, this is a pair of flags on a single sign, sited on the convergence point on the gyratory where the previous traffic signal pictures were taken. Interestingly, the A577 enters its multiplex with the A49 within about 50 metres of this sign!

An old-style parking sign - the brown background denotes that this car park offers a long-stay facility. Not bad for a pay-and display car park!

You can see here where a sign was once attached to the lamp-post. There was an advanced direction sign attached to the post, but has been removed for some reason (there was a patch of new tarmac where the other pole was meant to be).

A rather old flag sign, with letters either missing or peeling off. That should read Warrington and Skelmersdale! There are not many old signs left in Wigan - most are actually found here.

Flag signs (and an ahead one too) pointing the other way. Both these flags and the one in the last picture are pointing in either direction up or down River Way (the A49).

A wider view showing both sets of signs and also River Way traversing the junction. The pedestrian signal head on the right features next...

A wonky-looking green man on a pedestrian signal head. This has been like this for a good few years, but the likelihood of it being rectified is next to nil as the signals are due for replacement.

The section of River Way that dissects through the middle of the gyratory. Looking north from the end of Darlington Street.

Looking back down Darlington Street heading away from the town centre.

Another view of River Way, looking north.

Another of the old signs on the corner of King Street and River Way, on the opposite side of the dual carriageway to the previous pictures.

Another view of the same sign.

A view up King Street, looking away from River Way. King Street is the heart of Wigan's nightlife, with most of the bars and clubs located up this street.

A series of flag signs on the corner of King Street and Rodney Street. Rodney Street forms the opposite half of the gyratory. This sign shows how Leigh is rather badly signed (or prioritised) in many parts of the town; despite being the borough's second town - and a primary town too - it only seems to appear on secondary destination signs - such as this blue bordered example. There is also an error on here - the A58 should be in brackets as that road doesn't pass through Wigan - you have to take the A577 down to Hindley to reach it!

A "Motor Vehicles Prohibited" sign on the entrance to the restricted part of King Street. Traffic is banned due to the volume of people congregating on this road - in some cases now, people queue into the road itself in order to gain entry into some clubs.

Close up view of the traffic signals on Rodney Street, as seen in the previous example. The "No Entry" sign refers to Library Street, which directs traffic away from the town centre.

Lane allocation (and advanced direction, in this case) sign on Rodney Street. The left lane bears onto a side street just before the traffic lights.

Rodney Street at the River Way junction, with that local side street bearing off to the left in the middle of the picture.

Another view of Rodney Street, heading into the River Way junction.

A close up of the bunch of signs. Leigh's lack of prominence is highlighted again here, and is directed the long way round (ideally it should be signed in the same direction as Golborne at this point).

What? This sign effectively means "Priority over oncoming vehicles prohibited", yet on the other side of the gate (which this proudly stands in front of) is a give way sign! Is this sign legal?

Apologies for the darkness on this one - I had to take this without the flash, as the flash made it darker due to the sunlight.

Scholes, in all it's glory! And its very short one way section! Scholes is one of three one-word named roads on the B5238 in Wigan, the others are Whelley (further up from here) and Poolstock. All three are named after the suburban villages the road passes through.

The A49, looking south from the gyratory underneath the railway bridge. River Way becomes Chapel Lane at this point. This entire stretch of dual carriageway has a 30 mph speed limit.

This sign is on the northbound approach to the gyratory, sited on Chapel Lane itself. Interesting how A49 appears twice at the top of the sign. The Grand Arcade car park is signposted twice here, as it appears on the flag sign behind it too.

Unusual grouping of signs, especially the appearance of a "No Stopping" sign on the central reservation. This has been done because of the weird layout of the superstore car park opposite.

View of Chapel Lane looking northbound towards the gyratory. The West Coast Mainline passes overhead.

A traffic signal on Chapel Lane at the A49 TOTSO, where the primary route emerges from the left - for now.

The advanced direction sign on Queen Street, offering fewer destinations for the right turn. Slightly bashed too.

Chapel Lane, where the southbound half of the A49 TOTSOs to the right, down Caroline Street and off towards Wigan Pier.

A close up of the flag signs seen in the previous photograph. There are not many signs that display "JJB Stadium" (since changed to "DW Stadium"), but locals know to follow Robin Park anyway.

Chapel Lane, now part of the B5238. This section of road has recently been heavily refurbished as part of the new Westwood Park link route. This should become the A49 once the new link route has been completed.

Another view of the same stretch of Chapel Lane.

Tactile paving on the segregated pavement on Chapel Lane. I find this interesting, yet unusual, as if cyclists use the pedestrian part of the pavement, they get a bit of a nasty shock! The only problem, it's not very good if you have a sleeping baby in their pram! These have started to crop up in other parts of the borough, particularly in Hindley following a major set of roadway reconstruction works carried out there.

The access road to the new Wigan Investment Centre. The maintenance van belongs to Peek, whose engineer was working on some of the signal heads around this junction.

Road markings on the southbound carriageway of Chapel Lane. A49 appears here, because the B5238 terminates at the primary route. This road is generally used as a short-cut from the A49 at Marus Bridge (near the M6 J25) up to the town centre, without having to pass through the Saddle Junction - hence why the A49 Link Road is being built, as the B5238 simply cannot cope.

Advanced direction sign advising of the B5238's impending TOTSO. The dead end road simply leads into a skip yard, whilst the Westwood Business Park route is what should eventually become the new route of the A49.

Filter lane leading off Poolstock onto Chapel Lane - prior to the new road being built and the existing road being remodelled, the B5238 simply narrowed and followed the course of the filter lane around the corner.

Chapel Lane at the Poolstock junction. At the moment, traffic can use both lanes to turn right, as that's where most of the traffic currently heads off to.

A view from the junction back up Chapel Lane. Not bad for a B Road!!

The Chapel Lane / Poolstock junction, complete with yellow box.

Another view of Poolstock, with the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to the left of the photo.

The new bridge carrying the new Westwood Road over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Westwood Road, heading over that same canal bridge.

The cycle lane on the bridge, plus the erased markings indicating that the cycle lane was originally on the left - or perhaps they were painted there in error?

Nice shiny new sign, indicating the segregated pavement arrangement. Perhaps those markings were in the wrong place, after all?

An example of the street lighting that appears on the new Westwood Road - this type of light is unusual in Wigan.

View of Westwood Road, looking north over the bridge towards the Poolstock junction.

This is what is hidden behind the earth mound! This is an extension to the Westwood Road, and should have provided the main route into the centre of Wigan from the proposed A5225 Wigan Gateway. That is, until the Gateway project was cancelled! It will now form part of the planned A49 Link Road, which once built will relieve Poolstock of its masses of traffic.

A view of Westwood Road, looking north. Taken from the middle of the roundabout! There are actually no signs on the island itself.

A close up of a puffin crossing control box. There are a lot of crossings in Wigan which have bicycles on them, despite them being in places where bicycles shouldn't be on the pavement. Hmmm.

Back on Chapel Lane, and a view of flag signs on the filter lane for traffic turning into Caroline Street. But there are two of them, pretty much telling drivers the same thing!

Caroline Street, looking down towards Wallgate.

Close up shot of second of those flag sign seen in the earlier picture. A number of new signs have been fixed onto old posts - you can tell here because the brackets at the top show that lamps were attached to them,

A close up shot of what is typically used in the Wigan borough area. The weather was really good for a winter day, it looks more like a July heat-wave than the second weekend in February!

An older style lantern that is no longer common in Wigan.

Another direction sign, this one is back on Chapel Lane. I only noticed this one heading back up towards the town centre. What caught my eye was the darker patching next to the arrow - what is hiding under there is "Police Station", however that moved to opposite Robin Park in 2007.

Chapel lane - one road, five different types of lantern!

Back onto River Way now - what's the point of this exit road, if its going to have concrete bollards stuck in it?!?!

Is parking allowed or not? Effectively, as this is in a red-bordered circle, it states "no parking is prohibited." So, I'll just park some cars here then.

View looking north on River Way, with the Grand Arcade to the left.

A close-up view of the advanced direction sign as seen in the last picture. Again, A49 appears twice.

A filtered green light, due to the proximity of the crossing this guards compared with the junction it stands close to.

River Way, looking up to the Powell Street junction. The A49 makes another TOTSO here, turning right at the traffic lights.

Make sure you choose the right hospital now! Wigan Infirmary is the one with an A&E department, the Whelley Day Hospital is the one without.

Double-headed traffic lights on Powell Street - the start of Central Park Way is ahead, with River Way to the right.

See, I told you so!

Interesting but incorrect use of the Motorway font on this sign. Looks very odd, especially as its the only sign in the whole of central Wigan to feature that font!