With new speed cameras to be switched on this week, concerns have been raised about the number of motorists using quiet hamlets and villages as “rat runs” to avoid the busy A9 Perth to Inverness road.
A shop worker told The Courier she has heard “screaming lorries” hurtling along the Bankfoot to Birnam road as some drivers attempt to save time on their journeys north.
A9 campaigner Mike Burns is behind the idea of an alternative route for those travelling between the north and the central belt by avoiding the A9. A map drawn up by Mr Burns will suggest using parts of the old A9 between Perth and Inverness.
Dorothy MacTaggart, 70, a shop assistant at the Perthshire Visitor Centre in Bankfoot, agreed many motorists are using the quieter rural roads.
She said: “This was the old A9 and goes up to Birnam/Dunkeld but you are now getting many drivers treating this road as a rat run.
“Many people come off here and Tullybelton and drive far too fast. I often hear screaming lorries and you see cars going well over the speed limit.”
She added: “The speed limit goes from 30mph to 40mph and then past Waterloo it is a case of every man for himself. I was travelling on the A9 yesterday and there were some slow vehicles so there was a hold-up.
“Some motorists came off at Bankfoot because of that.”
A shop worker at Nisa on Main Street in Bankfoot, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was aware of many motorists driving too fast through the village.
She said: “There was one driver today who was going far too fast but I know the police sit in near the Barratt’s housing estate and carry out speed checks from time to time.”
Bankfoot resident Archie McConnell said he did not think there was a problem.
He said: “The only time I feel motorists cut through here is if there has been an accident. It takes longer to drive on this road up to Birnam.”
His view was shared by Ron Greer, 63, a retired biologist from Blair Atholl, who said the only time people cut through the town is when there has been an accident on the A9.
He said: “When there is an accident you realise how inadequate the infrastructure here is.”