City Centre Loop

Some clear signage (at last) - the blanked text is "Pick up/set down point", which is closed for some construction work. For once, it's very clear which way to go - though to be very picky, that's a non-standard "no entry" sign.

A view of the junction, with the Leonardo Building behind it. The Cathedral, a much smaller building than its name suggests, is to our right; the Loop goes across the view from left to right here.

J6 pretends that road numbers and motorways don't exist, but actually a left turn here will give you access to either direction on the Inner Ring Road. It's also the start of the A660. Lies, I tell you!

The lanes are handily marked "LOOP" though, which is a nice touch. The gantry-mounted traffic light above us is newer than the Loop - before, it ws suspended American-style on wires between the buildings on either side. It was taken down because, well, it looked awful.

Merrion Junction is well named, being on Merrion Street outside the Merrion Centre. This junction is unique in being a dual carriageway terminating on the Loop at a give way sign. Its signs are mounted very high up.

The junction itself - nothing special, really, as Wade Lane isn't very busy. The observant will see we're back up to three lanes on Merrion Street.

Well, what can I say? This sign speaks for itself (it speaks too much, really) - except that J8 comprises only the set of traffic lights where we must turn left - all else that you see is part of J9. A notorious Leeds specialty, the "A660T", rears its head here.

I think we're seeing a pattern. The concept of a loop of city streets is a sound one, but the biggest problem it will face is designing direction signs to help everyone keep on the darn thing.

Just around the corner from the last sign, we have this elaborate delight. There's much too much information to take in here - and the least conspicuous of all is "All Loop Traffic", the only one not to be highlighted in some way. We now have mixed-case junction names too.

Here's the junction itself - actually the North Street junction on the Inner Ring Road. Early plans directed the Loop onto the motorway itself here.

The Loop then follows this one-way street alongside the IRR down to Regent Street. Note the special City Centre Loop streetlights that accompany every inch of the route - this road has branding.