Stafford Traffic.

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Google Maps actually shows it as One Way, but it isn't - the odd person will take advantage of the eastward direction, but it's not for the fainthearted. The people who do do it even have the benefit of an illuminated sign, especially for them.

I don't think I've seen anybody going in that direction this century - possibly not since the 80s.
Saw one the other week exercising his right. The bloke in the Lexus behind me was very unhappy that I gave way to someone going the wrong way and made his displeasure felt with a very loud horn and gestures.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Saw one the other week exercising his right. The bloke in the Lexus behind me was very unhappy that I gave way to someone going the wrong way and made his displeasure felt with a very loud horn and gestures.
I'll add that his displeasure continued for some time after the car had gone as I temporarily forgot how to engage drive and accidentally forced him to remain stationary for a minute or so...
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Yep. I had people flash their lights and wave their hands at me when driving down there. It's not a one way street, just has a no-entry sign down one end.
It's No Entry from Weston Road and a No Right Turn into it from Hatherton Street, but you can turn eastwards from the Gate/Metropolitan Bar car park, and you could 'turn in the road', to park facing east, as in the Street View above.

But, you need to be ready for the 99% of drivers who don't understand that. Including those turning out of Dartmouth Street and St Thomas Street, who generally won't look for traffic, with right of way, from that direction.
 

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
Wow, I always thought it was one way from the Met bar to Dartmouth street but you are correct.

Several years ago I got into quite a heated argument with a driver coming the "wrong" way up the Tixall Road and nearly hitting me as I exited Dartmouth street so apologies if it was anyone on here.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Yes, nothing new there.
I don't know how we're meant to find out these things out as I can't find a list of local Traffic Regulation Orders on the internet.
If it was a One Way street, you should have signs, a white arrow on a blue background,

But, even apart from the absent clues, there are present clues there on the ground.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Yes, nothing new there.
I don't know how we're meant to find out these things out as I can't find a list of local Traffic Regulation Orders on the internet.
Don't be too hard on yourself. You've really got to look hard on site to see how things work round there. It really isn't logical at all. It's as if Highways don't want us to get it right.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I'm not sure when the No Entry arrangement started, probably about 1980ish, when the queues back from the new lights, that replaced the Pennycrofts roundabout, started to block outbound traffic turning in from Weston Road.

But, for a good few years after that, most people knew and it all ticked along OK. Then, more on-street parking started and new, non-local people, who thought they saw a one way street, started to become the vast majority and it all got a bit fraught.

And 'they' have just left it as it is...


It is the bizarreness of the illuminated sign that might alert most people, without a 'rogue vehicle' to prompt them - and it's a sign that few drivers would bother about anyway. There is a further sign after that, non-illuminated, preventing a left turn into St Thomas Street, also. But, you wouldn't observe these signs, as a driver, unless you had already guessed that you could travel in that direction.

I have a vague recollection of The Gate having a smaller, front car park back then and, for a time, you could sneak through that to circumvent the No Entry, to make use of the lack of a One Way restriction, but it didn't last long, and may only have been doable on a motorbike - there was also (probably) a Weston Road access into the rear car park, again disabled a long time ago.

@BobClay might have a clearer memory of the evolution of The Gate's facilities - or he might not have any clear memories of Gate-related events...
 
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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Plus there would be no need to have a dotted white line down the middle of the road if it was one way.
You can have lane markings in real One Way streets, as in Malt Mill Lane, to separate the left and right turn situations at the end, etc., but that wouldn't be necessary on Tixall Road now, as there's only Hatherton Road and Weston Road available, both as left turns.

The double-sided parking adds to the illusion of the One Way arrangement being there.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
I'm not sure when the No Entry arrangement started, probably about 1980ish, when the queues back from the new lights, that replaced the Pennycrofts roundabout, started to block outbound traffic turning in from Weston Road.

But, for a good few years after that, most people knew and it all ticked along OK. Then, more on-street parking started and new, non-local people, who thought they saw a one way street, started to become the vast majority and it all got a bit fraught.

And 'they' have just left it as it is...


It is the bizarreness of the illuminated sign that might alert most people, without a 'rogue vehicle' to prompt them - and it's a sign that few drivers would bother about anyway. There is a further sign after that, non-illuminated, preventing a left turn into St Thomas Street, also. But, you wouldn't observe these signs, as a driver, unless you had already guessed that you could travel in that direction.

I have a vague recollection of The Gate having a smaller, front car park back then and, for a time, you could sneak through that to circumvent the No Entry, to make use of the lack of a One Way restriction, but it didn't last long, and may only have been doable on a motorbike - there was also (probably) a Weston Road access into the rear car park, again disabled a long time ago.

@BobClay might have a clearer memory of the evolution of The Gate's facilities - or he might not have any clear memories of Gate-related events...
I only moved not far away in 1992 but I don't doubt any of that.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
If it was a One Way street, you should have signs, a white arrow on a blue background,

But, even apart from the absent clues, there are present clues there on the ground.
"you should have signs, a white arrow on a blue background" - yes, but the absence of a sign doesn't mean it's no so.
There's no triangular "Give Way" sign at the end of our cul-de-sac, and indeed no white triangle painted on the road, but that doesn't mean we don't have to Give Way on leaving
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
"you should have signs, a white arrow on a blue background" - yes, but the absence of a sign doesn't mean it's no so.
There's no triangular "Give Way" sign at the end of our cul-de-sac, and indeed no white triangle painted on the road, but that doesn't mean we don't have to Give Way on leaving
If right of way is not defined by signs, road markings or anything else, then the traffic approaching from your right has priority over you and vice versa. This caused huge confusion at the exit from the Hough car park, for years, and the markings were rearranged when the resurfacing was done, to give people a better chance of guessing correctly.

All these things exist, but so few people observe them now that it's usually best to give in and go along with the general confusion.
 

Mudgie

Well-Known Forumite
If right of way is not defined by signs, road markings or anything else, then the traffic approaching from your right has priority over you and vice versa. This caused huge confusion at the exit from the Hough car park, for years, and the markings were rearranged when the resurfacing was done, to give people a better chance of guessing correctly.

All these things exist, but so few people observe them now that it's usually best to give in and go along with the general confusion.
Well yes, and that just makes me realise that if ALL of us properly knew the Highway Code and respected all other road users there would be no need for any road marking let alone road signs !
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
All the major map providers (Google, Bing, TomTom, Apple etc) need to update their map then, because they have it marked as one way.
It is, essentially, a technicality and treating it as a One Way is probably a safer bet, for the general user.

Their algorithms may just assume that every No Entry results in a One Way, to avoid mistakenly not showing one with the 'safer error'.

Who knows?

There aren't very many of these about, as far as I know - and you are probably safer just going with the (one way) flow.
 
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