Couldn't agree more with you both. The dualling project is becoming a bit of a fairytale which is sucking attention and resources away from badly needed targeted junction improvements which could be delivered much more quickly and cheaply on their own.owen b wrote: ↑Sun Apr 03, 2022 22:06As someone who uses the A9 quite frequently at holiday times I fully agree. Perth to Inverness is a much calmer experience now with the cameras and raised HGV speed limit, and delays are minor. Even in an ideal world of lots of available public money, an unpolluting vehicle fleet and minimal environmental impacts of road building, I think completing the dualling of Perth to Pitlochry, adding GSJs to replace the worst of the flat junctions, and building some sections of alternating S2+1 in the middle of the longer sections between dualled stretches should be sufficient.Bryn666 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 03, 2022 15:34 The biggest problem with any A9 megaplan still remains there is simply not the traffic to make it stack up.
The safety argument falls flat too when the average speed checks and raising of the HGV limit to 50 have done wonders to reduce the number of kamikaze car drivers along the single bits too.
I would rather a targeted programme of dualling the worst bits and improve enforcement on better bits where dualling isn't necessary. The real danger sites are the flat junctions and these need resolving be they single carriageway GSJs like at Newtonmore or just actual roundabouts.
It's hard to remember what the A9 used to be like before average speed cameras - I think I've had one "scary" moment I can remember in all the time I've been driving it since they were introduced versus a more normal rate of once per trip prior to their introduction!
Everyone involved seems to desperate to avoid a re-examination of the safety and business case for the road as they know the case simply wouldn't stack up any more - it was tenuous even before the safety improvements and a very clear example of "a project in search of a justification". If I were a member of a local community, I think I'd have started pushing for a rethink by now though - I reckon the chances of tangible improvements actually happening near the key settlements along the route over the next five years would increase substantially if they move the focus away from giving long distance drivers room to stretch their legs round the Cairngorms and start trying to solve the actually problematic bits.