Average speed cameras on the A9

[NickyRannoch]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-23462860

The issue on the A9 isn't speeding per se it is short term speeding and dangerous overtaking. The sooner it is dualled the better.

[Border Reiver]

Agreed 100%. The road should be safe enough, but you cannot account for idiots & dualling is the only way to keep the rest of us safe from them. Getting stuck in a long queue behind a tractor or caravan is sooo frustrating.
I bet most of us have nearly been wiped out by other cars somewhere along the A9. One nearly took the front wing of my car off after trying a near impossible overtake and cutting in way too late.

[NickyRannoch]

Bang on.

I suppose it is true for any road but what sticks in my head about the A9 is that you can drive as safe as you like and still be wiped out by someone coming the other way, and it has been a close shave on more than one occasion with me.

suppose you will need to take a calculator with you to see if hitting 80 mph on the dualled stretch will take you over the average speed when you are sitting at 40mph behind the lorry on the single stretch.

[bootsandpaddles]

How about just sticking to the speed limit and having a bit of patience?

[Backpacker]

I've found over the years that the best way to drive that road is to stick to 65mph and relax (Cruise Control is great)

Unfortunately there are a lot of impatient idiots who think nothing of doing 80-90mph and inconsiderate idiots who will travel at 40mph and pass layby after layby and not give a thought to pull in.

[ouroboros]

Driving a lot and sticking to the speed limit most dangerous overtaking I see on the A9 are impatient speeding cars overtaking me.

Average speed will be very welcome as these folk will have to knuckle down.

suppose you will need to take a calculator with you to see if hitting 80 mph on the dualled stretch will take you over the average speed when you are sitting at 40mph behind the lorry on the single stretch.

I'd presume based on other places that there will be cameras at the beginning and end of dual sections and at regular intervals.

It'll be great when it's dualled - this should calm down some of the eejits meantime.

[NickyRannoch]

I'll probably take stick for this but I bet a fair few other people do this. Maybe it should be under the protective cloak of controversial confessions.

I will break the speed limit on the dualled sections in order to clear lorries and caravans to make sure I can stay up to speed on the single lane sections.

Agreed about idiots on the single lane sections putting oncoming traffic at risk. Im also not one of these nobs who cuts in over the hash marks at the end of the dualled section.

[malky_c]

Might be a good idea - doesn't matter how many slow people you get past on the dualled bits, they will always catch you up again on the single carriageway. So unless you overtake like an idiot the whole way up, getting past the odd person doesn't make any difference to your overall journey time.

I still overtake if it is clear - nice to change speed a bit - but I'm reasonably patient these days. Almost got taken out by a tiny Nissan Micra with 4 fat people in it on Wednesday. How they thought they could get enough speed up to overtake the lorry in front of them I'll never know.

I'm not too fussed about the A9 getting upgraded. Certainly not against it, but compared to down south (thinking specfically the Midlands, but anywhere south of Perth is similar), you can get up the A9 at a reasonable speed. Try doing 100 miles in 2 hours between Birmingham and Sheffield (which is all dual carriageway and motorway) then come back and complain about the A9!

[IainG]

I thought a speed limit was the maximum speed permitted, not the only speed permitted!

As I campervan driver, it's quite entertaining to watch the mad rush to get past slower vehicles before the dual sections end.

I think the A9 is a great road, the problems are the nut jobs who drive far to fast and are determined to pass everything ahead.

What's the rush?

[Red Peak]

How about just sticking to the speed limit and having a bit of patience?

I'm more than happy to stick to the speed limit, but the problem is I sometimes can't get anywhere near it because of some old dodderer in front who insists at doing about 40mph; that's enough to test anyone's patience. This then leads to frustration and looking for a suitable stretch on which to try and overtake.

Don't get me wrong, I have no time for people who try and hit 80+ and pay no heed to the safety of other road users; but dawdling along at 40mph with a long line of traffic stuck behind just causes frustration.

[BobMcBob]

I'm more than happy to stick to the speed limit, but the problem is I sometimes can't get anywhere near it because of some old dodderer in front who insists at doing about 40mph; that's enough to test anyone's patience. This then leads to frustration and looking for a suitable stretch on which to try and overtake.

Don't get me wrong, I have no time for people who try and hit 80+ and pay no heed to the safety of other road users; but dawdling along at 40mph with a long line of traffic stuck behind just causes frustration.

Absolutely. I'm pretty certain that I recall seeing signs on that road telling people to be courteous and let other people pass, so even the Police agree that people going too slowly is a problem. The guy doing 40mph might not be in a hurry, but what about the guy stuck 4 cars behind him who has a delivery schedule to keep to, or the guy who has an appointment to keep in Inverness?

If you dawdle and you don't stop to let people pass you are as selfish as the guy cutting people up to overtake - and he's only doing that because you or someone like you is holding him up.

[bootsandpaddles]

[quote="IainG"]I thought a speed limit was the maximum speed permitted, not the only speed permitted!

As I campervan driver, it's quite entertaining to watch the mad rush to get past slower vehicles before the dual sections end.

I have always had a sneaking suspicion that drivers of large camper vans, caravans and old men in hats driving at 40mph whatever the conditions get some sort of perverse pleasure from holding everybody else up. I think everybody (and that includes the dodderers) should drive with a bit of consideration for everybody else. If you are causing a huge tail back because you can't or won't drive at a reasonable speed you should pull over and let people pass. After all, as you say, what's the rush?

[ouroboros]

If you dawdle and you don't stop to let people pass you are as selfish as the guy cutting people up to overtake - and he's only doing that because you or someone like you is holding him up.

Most of the people I see cutting folk up are speeding and overtaking traffic already at or close to the speed limit.

Happily these muppets will either be chafing at the bit unhappily sticking to 60mph, or losing their licences next year.

[IainG]

I have always had a sneaking suspicion that drivers of large camper vans, caravans and old men in hats driving at 40mph whatever the conditions get some sort of perverse pleasure from holding everybody else up. I think everybody (and that includes the dodderers) should drive with a bit of consideration for everybody else. If you are causing a huge tail back because you can't or won't drive at a reasonable speed you should pull over and let people pass. After all, as you say, what's the rush?

'They' are not holding everyone up, just you!

[Sgurr]

Most of the slow traffic is not old dodderers but large lorries that are forbidden anyway to do more than 50 mph and which can't get up the hills above 40. I have read a reply from one such driver on a forum who says that if he took the advice of pulling over to let others pass, he would be for ever in and out of lay-bys (I think this is true). I go up and down the A9 a lot. Last Sunday was brilliant: we set off early, and it took us 4 hours to get from Dundee to near Ullapool as there was no commercial traffic. This will be a thing of the past once average speed cameras are in place. But I think it will be worth it if it saves lives.


BTW I think it will take for ever to dual. Around 1/4 is currently dualled (I measured it last time I drove it), and when you think how long it took to do that new section near Newtonmore , I will prob be dead before it is finished.