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The main cause of A9 frustration is the legislation that demands HGVs do no more than 40mph on single carriage ways. This causes the pulsing effect to all road users which in turn is excaserbated by the impatient numpties who think they can dodge oncoming traffic. Witness it every time I'm south of Inverness. Time to upgrade the rail lines to take more goods too. ASC's are a waste of time
So sometime in the near future I have driven the A9 a couple of times and am aware of the location of the ASC's. I have just passed a camera and am now behind some traffic that is travelling at 40mph and continue in this situation for 10 minutes when I see the opportunity to do some overtaking and before you know it I am doing 80mph. A quick mental calculation says I can continue at this speed for 10 minutes if I wish and not be picked up by the system. So what has it achieved?
I wonder how many people will now overtake a lorry at 59/60 mph instead 60+ to now lengthen the time spent on the other side of the road due to them being worried about being caught speeding!
Money used to install these would have been better spent on the long overdue duelling or improving road surface. Absolute farce!
they are nothing to do with safety they are a TAX POINT
The A9 as it currently stands is entirely unfit for purpose. ASC's are not the answer and in fact are likely to add to the frustration felt by drivers. It is a scandal that this road has not been duelled already and to keep us waiting for another eleven years is simply unacceptable.
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There was a widely publicised statistic released by Transport Scotland a few months ago that the number of speeding drivers has fallen to 1 in 10 since appearance of the Average Speed Cameras (ASC) between Perth and Pitlochry. This will be an extremely useful statistic to quote back at Transport Scotland when the inevitable increase in serious accidents resulting from poorly judged overtakes catalysed by driver frustration at being stuck in a 40mph wagon train appears (essentially proving the initial point of the Anti ASC campaign which all regular A9 users know, that speeding is NOT the route cause of accidents on this particular stretch of road and a £2.5M scheme to install ASC is an inexcusable misuse of public funds). Until the road is dualled, which we all appreciate will take time, a visible police presence and driver education to improve driving attitudes and standards would likely prove more beneficial in improving road safety. Finally, please spare some sympathy for the HGV drivers. They are the lifeblood of the Highland Economy but are now enforced to travel at 40mph on the main trunk road north! Let's hope the promised raise of HGV limit to 50mph is brought in and sooner rather than later.
Having driven the A9 many hundreds of times over the past 40 years, average speed cameras are definitely not the answer. Speeding is not the principal problem on the A9. While there are still a few stupidly rash drivers who drive well over the speed limit, the main cause of accidents is not speed but frustration caused by long tailbacks and too few overtaking opportunities on an increasingly busy road. Lorries driving between 40 and 55 mph quickly stack up, often leaving little or no room to overtake, resulting in long tailbacks of increasingly frustrated drivers some of whom then take appalling risks in overtaking. Average speed cameras will cause many of these lorry drivers to drive even slower, thus exacerbating the problem.
Putting in average speed cameras will only serve to cause even more slow moving traffic. Having driven the A9 8 times in the past 3 weeks, I can confirm that the very presence of average speed cameras is causing many drivers to immediately slow, even though their speed is often already well below the legal speed limit (and this despite there being signs up indicating that the cameras are not currently operational). All of this points to ever slower moving traffic on the A9, and even longer tailbacks, resulting in an even worse death trap.
Add to that the regular switching between 2 lane, 3 lane (or overtaking lane) and dual carriageway sections, and confusion reigns! Many of the fatalities on the A9 in recent years have happened near the changes in lane arrangements.
The ONLY solution to the mayhem on this crucial artery between the central belt and the north is dualling the A9. Average speed cameras will exacerbate, not solve, the problem.
I have recently returned from a trip to Northern Ireland where the roads were excellent. Motorways were in abundance and many new ones under construction. Their B roads were better than our A9!! On arriving ack in Scotland I had to drive north on the A9 which was very busy and where most of the time I was in a long tailback going at 40 mph due to several lorries in front going very slowly and not allowing overtaking. This is before the cameras are inaction so I dread to think what it will be like after October! The roads in N. Ireland nada lot less traffic, yet they have great motorways. Why are the main routes to the north of Scotland treated as inferior? It seems because the population in the Highlands is smaller, we are treated as inferior citizens. Dual carriageway is a must for the A9 and the A96.