THE Beatles’ Long and Winding Road was on the radio which I thought was very apt as my car crawled into work.

I was heading for town from Penketh. Taking my granddaughter to school some mornings is giving me a new perspective on the other half of town – and I can confirm that the traffic is no better than driving in from south Warrington.

Last Tuesday it took 20 minutes to get to the lights by David Lloyd.

Sitting in a traffic jam does however give you time to look around at your fellow man and your surroundings.

What I did notice on Sankey Way was the matrix sign which is supposed to tell you what parking spaces are available at the Market, Cockhedge, Golden Square and Time Square car parks. It wasn’t working – so should I have wanted a space in a certain car park – it was useless.

Further along the road, there is another car park sign – this time it was working but simply said all car parks were ‘Open’.

I’m fairly certain the idea of these signs is to display how many spaces there are available – but flashing ‘open’ is distinctly unhelpful.

It seems that many of these matrix traffic signs are not being used for any worthwhile purpose.

The traffic information sign along that route said: ‘Seat belts save lives, wear yours’ – which is a bit like saying, ‘Petrol makes your car go, fill up your tank’. Completely absurd.

Either most law-abiding people will be wearing their seatbelt or if they aren’t, will that sign make them think twice? Unlikely.

Another worthless road sign which I spotted along London Road in Appleton said: ‘Police enforcement area – severe penalties for drink-driving’ – as if drink driving is acceptable elsewhere apart from that stretch of road – it’s nonsense and distracting.

And on the motorways the ‘warning’ signs can be equally obtuse.

‘Tiredness kills, take a break’ or ‘Avoid M6 floods’ – but it doesn’t tell you where the flood is. Or ‘Queue ahead’ – but often it’s cleared by the time you’ve got there. ‘Animals in the road, slow down’ is another and I’ve yet to see as much as a squirrel scurrying across the carriageway.

I wonder if there’s someone sitting in an office somewhere justifying their existence by dreaming up irrelevant things to say.

The information that many of these motorway signs display is inaccurate or simply meaningless so that many drivers no longer trust them.

A study carried out by YouGov on behalf of the website Motors.co.uk found that the vast majority of motorists largely ignore the signs, because they don’t provide them with any useful information.

Since the Guardian launched its ‘Swing off peak’ campaign there has been talk about using the matrix signs to warn people of a ship approaching and a bridge going off, which would at least be an improvement on what we have now.

But it’s where the signs will be positioned that will be key.

They need to be well in advance of any of the bridges so that commuters have the chance to take an alternative route before they find themselves stuck in a long queue.