You will find few cycling lanes, (as in unbroken white lines) on routes into Warrington. Broken white lines are more common, but do have a habit of appearing and disappearing. A couple of the major routes do have bus lanes for some of their lengths, but if you are crossing the town centre, you will find they too disappear. IIRC, for a couple of mile circle around IKEA, they are mainly shared with pedestrians, but if you wanted to ride the roads they are well lit.
Personally I'd avoid commuting the A49 from the South in darkness. I think the A49 is lit from Warrington at least up to the M56 junction.
If you are coming in from the Altrincham side, the most direct route will be via Dunham then onto the A57, which until you get closer to the town IIRC, does not have any cycle lanes. But although the roads around Dunham are quieter than the main roads, they can be busy at peak times and are unlit.
From the Lymm side, if you travel via Appleton/Grappenhall,you will have to cross a busy motorway junction, or take a more circuitous, (depending upon where you live), route via Thelwall, then Latchford, or to the A57 at Warburton.
From the West, there are better cycle lanes, but these tend to be after you have turned off to IKEA, if you have travelled in from the West.
From the North, Burtonwood to the motorway junction does not have a cycle lane, but once you cross the motorway you are on shared use paths. Further East, around Croft, you can use side roads (broken white line and erratic appearance/disappearance cycle lanes) to get you to the A49 and once crossed, you are on shared use paths, or you can mix it with the traffic on the A49, which up there, IME isn't too bad, mainly because at peak times, gridlock is common.
