A96 must be dualled

HAVING read Patricia Fort’s response (Letters, November 22) to Doug Marr’s article

(“Dualling is essential to end A9 and A96 carnage”, The Herald, November 21), I can only conclude that she does not drive the A96 regularly.

Aberdeen and Inverness are more than 100 miles apart by road. They are two of Scotland’s most important cities and the road is busy. Yet, the A96 remains completely inadequate for the traffic. This would be so even if we were all the perfect drivers she discusses but which, sadly, we aren’t. The road should be designed with this in mind.

It is difficult to maintain an average speed of even close to 40mph. I allow three hours for the journey. Drivers often use secondary Don and Deeside routes, hardly main arteries, in order to avoid the A96. Although even slower, they are at least pleasurable to drive. They do, however, take one out on to that other problem road, the A9. Of the two the A9 is better.

There are no bypasses of three of the reasonably sized towns on the route and a further, at Forres, is fairly half-hearted. Apart from the low average this obviously leads to local traffic and environmental issues. Lorries find it hard to maintain a good speed on the many hills. There are numerous side and farm roads and tractors abound, as do tourists. All amongst purposeful white van and business traffic. The overtaking lanes are infrequent and woefully short, leading to considerable anxiety. Overtaking away from these lanes is only possible when traffic is quiet and is near impossible when busy. Nevertheless, a lot of overtaking in potentially dangerous situations does go on.

The dualling project does appear to have ground to a halt, no doubt due to political pressure. Meantime, the accidents mount up. I completely agree with Doug Marr.

Angus Maceachran, Aberdeen.

▮ THERE’S been some debate this week about trying to reduce the number of deaths on Scottish roads. It reminds me of a time back in the early 1990s when I signed a petition that was circulating in my workplace demanding the Government “dual” the A1 from Edinburgh to the Border, to reduce the number of road deaths. Thirty years later this still hasn’t been achieved, although admittedly there has been extensive dualling work completed in that period. Along many stretches of the A1 and A68 there were, for many years, road signs highlighting the number of fatalities on these roads as a stark warning to drivers.

Your caption beside the photo of the A9 asks “is dualling the A9 really essential to reduce the number of accidents there?” (Letters, November 22). I think it would (as with the A1) certainly reduce the number of accidents caused by drivers taking unnecessary risks on single-lane parts of the route. However, it’s not a silver bullet and encouraging drivers to drive safely and legally (through warning signs, publicity, and appropriate punishments for offences) would undoubtedly also greatly help.

Brian Watt, Edinburgh.