Do you sit at 45-60 on single carriageways then 85-90 on the dual carriageways?

If so, why?

Because they are all bell ends.

when Im in the campervan I much prefer just keeping to a steady 46mph regardless.

Except for climbing the Slochd, then I drop her down to 42.

I hate people like bedmaker, unless of course you pull over regularly. The A9 is chocabloc with morons driving portakabins around at 3mph. At the other end of the spectrum there is some seriously dangerous driving- death defying overtaking and so on that makes me wince and pray that I'm never the unfortunate person going the other way.

I tend to stick at about 70 on the single carriage way and 80 on the dual, but sometimes it creeps up to 90 if I'm in a rush or have been stuck behind something.

One day I'll get a clear run up there.

A9 is a nightmare at the moment and the best approach is to just not be in a hurry (and to know the shortcuts to avoid the Bankfoot roadworks).

All the short dual carriageway sections turn into the Wacky Races as everyone jostles to get past the lorries and caravans as the lanes merge. ****' dangerous…

A82 is possibly even worse – some mental overtaking going on last Friday evening.

Al, travel at night and race the sleeper to Inverness.

One day I'll get a clear run up there.

A wonderful thing, most memorably in an Audi 200 with a friend when we were both about 19, late at night with little regard for the highway code. 😀

A82 daytime in the summer=grim. A82 nightime in the summer=huge fun.
When you get Loch Ness side to yourself and know the road well it is an absolute hoot. Been there many, many times, arriving in Inverness in the wee small hours absolutely buzzing.

I don't actually have a campervan. Wouldn't mind one of the realy, really big ones though.
With a wee car trailing behind.
And a couple of road legal motos tied to the back of the wee car 🙂

I bit of thoughtful signage wouldn't go a miss on the A9. It would be useful to have a countdown to the dual carriageway sections. I'm sick of seeing suicidal overtaking moves when then next dual carriageway is only a few moments away. By the same measure it would be useful to know how long the dual carriageways are going to last, some are pretty long but some are over in the blink of an eye, and either way you only get a 400 yard warning that they are about to end, given the trucks can running nose to tail 400 yds isn't much time to find a space amongst them.

On balance though there's no reward for being in a hurry on that road, passing one vehicle just puts you behind another one around the corner going at the same speed and the effect on your total journey time is negligible. Take the time and enjoy the view.

Its one of the few A roads where I see trucks routinely observe their speed limit on single carriageways, thats why the crawl along at 40 then gun it along the dual carriageways. I wonder whether this observance is the result of truck's getting more attention from the fuzz on that stretch

On balance though there's no reward for being in a hurry on that road, passing one vehicle just puts you behind another one around the corner going at the same speed and the effect on your total journey time is negligible. Take the time and enjoy the view.

Amen to that

could be worth you could be seated in a fiat mutliplat 😉

I hear they making it into 2 lanes in some areas.

I hear they making it into 2 lanes in some areas.

I'm taking the bait…

Been saying that for a lot longer than I've been around. Agreeing with others here, just chill out and let others do the crazy overtakes.

I remember discovering the roadworks at bankfoot at 10 under weekend when I was trying to get to the free dinner in time after work. Argh!

Had to do some seriously hairy driving along the road from Laggan, but it was good fun (wouldn't repeat it though!)

Too many halfwits with more car than ability driving on the A9. Unfortunately they don't just cull themselves.

If you drive it in a relaxed manner, keep to the speed limits, allowing the aforementioned to pass, you'll arrive at MacDonald's in Perth just as they are picking up their order. Scoff your food down quick and you can be on the way before they leave the bogs.

Hmmm. I drive the A9 a lot. I love it which I suspect might put me in the crazy category mentioned above. The trouble with waiting till the duals to overtake is that Mr Muppet on his hols with a car full of scenery admirers overtakes at 72 miles per hour and takes the whole dual to do so. I'll generally go at 75 on single and 90 on the duals. Gone are the days when we used to sit at 95 for the length of it on the way back from leave or a weekend down south. During the summer hols, particularly the overlap time with England, if you drive during 9am-7pm then you'll have no choice but to sit at 50 for most of it. That won't be me then, at least not very often. It's still better than just about every road in Wales and most of the English motorways. The first thing I notice when on a trip down south is the traffic jams and the time spent to drive anywhere.

devs – Member
…I drive the A9 a lot. …I'll generally go at 75 on single and 90 on the duals…

Just curious – I'm sure you're trying to drive safely – but why so fast? What do you gain?

I love the A9 too. Coming home from NPS races in deepest Englandshire I'd grab a Redbull and Mars bar at Perth services and cruise up the road on the sugarrush! 2 am speeds after 8 hrs on road just got higher and higher as I got nearer home, I've seen no vehicles for miles on end but watch the deer! A wee birdy tells me current record is sub 1 hr Perth – Inverness on a Yamaha R1!
Anyway must go gotta hit the A9 before the truckers wake up!

We get the same kind of dodderers on the A470 in Wales, obviously in no rush judging by the speed they're travelling at, so pulling over for 20secs wouldn't be a problem but they rarely do.
As above, not much point overtaking as you'll get another pretty soon, but so frustrating on a drivers road, more so for people in a hurry.
Oh,was also half expecting to find a post about some new Audi I hadn't heard of.

aviemoron – Member

I………… A wee birdy tells me current record is sub 1 hr Perth – Inverness on a Yamaha R1!
………….

I am sure that is possible – "a friend" did Edinburgh / Inverness /Edinburgh in under 4 hrs obeying the urban speed limits.

The SNP, think tanks etc are al saying that the A9 should be dualled from Perth to Inverness as a stimulus to the economy. It will happen some timebut don't hold your breath in the current economic climate.

Just curious – I'm sure you're trying to drive safely – but why so fast? What do you gain?

Moray to Edinburgh/Glasgow in 3 hours instead of 4-5? No brainer to me. Enjoying the road and journey rather than sitting bored behind muppets who have nothing better to do than admire the scenery? I mean it's great scenery and I do take it for granted when I'm not walking or riding in it. If I've been working away and there is a shag and beer waiting for me at the other end then admiring the Monadhliath mountains again is further down my priorities list!

We get the same kind of dodderers on the A470 in Wales

Tell me about it. I honestly think I would give up mountain biking if I lived in Wales for long. That road does my head in. I am a late moring person but found myself getting up at 6 to go riding to avoid the traffic on the A470. You still get it on the way home though. On my last trip back from CyB to Aberaeron I had to stop 3 times to avoid head ons. I started to believe that they were out to get me!

Never have a problem making good time up the A9 – the best way to do it is to stick to the speed that the trucks are limited to.

I am an A9 regular. Very rarely overtake on the single carriageway to avoid banzai moments, just the dual sections unless two trucks/caravans are travelling at 0.5mph different speeds. As for speed, if its single, same as everyone else, on duals, I try to make progress….

a work colleague drives up to Elgin regular to see his folks. He told me that on the single carraigeway he drives as fast as the person in front and on the dual carraigeway he drives as fast as his car will go!

Scary!

Had a xen-like experience last November, heading home for some testing riding around Loch Maree; Thursday night, around 5.30pm, darkness falling, saw no other traffic between Bruar – Carrbridge, north or southbound… Surreal yet strangely enjoyable. Steady 75, enjoy the moment (it wont happen again)

The sooner it's dualled the better – about the only SNP policy I support

Don't generally bother overtaking on single carriageway bits any more. Would rather be 3 or 4 back in a queue doing 50-55 than out on my own doing 65-70 – far safer.

Used to drive it quicker than I do now but a speeding ticket (76 in 60 which is apparently not far off a court summons), a very near miss with deer on the road at dusk and far too many banzai overtakers who seem to think it's OK for them to do 80 but assume all oncoming traffic is doing 50 just makes it too dangerous. Let's just say I know the carriageway is 2 cars and a truck wide if it comes to it (and I wasn't overtaking I might add).

Difference between a very quick run and a fairly slow run is about 30 mins from Perth to Inverness anyway.

(by the way does anyone know if Bankfoot roadworks are still there?)

living just north of the A9 is great… unless you want to go any direction but north…

living just north of the A9 is great

Hello Orkney!

Me, I drive it every day. What pisses me off is the amount of loonies you get riding skateboards, C5s, horses and carts along it for charity thro the silly season.

Also can't understand the divvies who risk their lives cycling the section of dual between Tore and Inverness, when there is a very well marked parallel old road, which is a joy to ride.

Stu-n the roadworks are still there they are easy to bypass thought if you look at a road map

Bankfoot roadworks are still there I think. Traffic Scotland claims they're ending on 22nd August.

Better stay out the way tomorrow morning – two minibuses and canoe trailers heading north from Pitlochry to Aviemore at 8am….and the boss is onboard the other one, so no more that 50 the whole way 😕

Stu-n the roadworks are still there they are easy to bypass thought if you look at a road map

Unless it is rush hour it's just as quick to wait in them i.e <=10 mins delay.

Bankfoot roadworks weren't there on Saturday and Sunday. There are 30 signs however. Unless they were just being considerate over the weekend? Everything appeared to have been done.

Call me an old man but what's the prob with taking it easy? I will overtake when I can (i.e. SAFE) but the amount of near misses I've seen (and been involved in when people are overtaking looking for a head-on with me and when they pull out on me and stop in the road) it's just not worth it. Nobody would say I drive slow but I certainly wouldn't want some psycho trying to kill my wife because he thinks he can make 20 seconds on the car in front before the next dual carriageway.

Nasty crash on A9 today. Diversions via Ft Bill for southbound traffic for a while. Not good. I wonder if speed was a factor? Apparently a car flipped over, so I guess so…

But speeding doesn't cause accidents silly!

Didn't say it was the cause, just a factor. Maybe. I wasn't there, so I don't know. But I think the accident was in the southbound dualled section south of Drumochter, which is also where I see the highest speeds on the whole road.

It was a piss-poor attempt at humour and I profoundlyt apLOLogise 😀

The A9 is Scotlands disgrace and an economic ligature – imho. I am talking about the stretch from Edinburgh to Inverness. I have been travelling it quite a bit recently, I find the best option is to crank up the music and just go with the flow. Some of the speeds mentioned above simply exacerbate the situation; roll on the dual…………except I doubt I shall ever see it.
Tom

bumbly1 – wtf are you talking about? The A9 goes nowhere near Edinburgh.