Newton’s Law effect regarding traffic

IN reply to Brian Dickinson (letters, July 25), no I have not sat in bumper to bumper traffic north of Morpeth, but I have often experienced it on the Coast Road at either end, the southbound Central Motorway from the Jesmond entry and the northbound Jedburgh Road on Nuns Moor. None can be as bad as my journey home in my last town, where a normal twominute journey took 40 minutes at rush hour.

Regarding the A1 dualling I was merely taking a strategic view and this was based on driver habits changing as new roads are built. I lived in the south before the M25, M5, M11 and M40 were built. All these new roads proved to be very convenient for me and one wonders what the traffic would be like without them – but all caused problems elsewhere.

It is almost like a Newton’s Law of traffic, every action will cause a reaction. We all know the new problems created by the introduction of bus lanes and now cycle lanes, so instead of ridiculing my comments perhaps Mr Dickinson would enlighten me on what he thinks the adverse consequences would be.

At one stage recently it was discussed in these columns the traffic problems which might occur in the future as expansion of Newcastle westwards continues. I did put forward the possibility of a ring road passing close to the Airport but this is pie in the sky because environmentalists would oppose it, so inevitably the western by pass will see ever increasing traffic anyway.

Regarding the problems at the Gateshead end of the Tyne Bridge, I was not living here when the Central Motorway was built, so would like to know what the planners thought at the time. Was there a larger plan which was cut back?

I have previously put forward a possible solution to the problem involving the roundabout further south, but I am sure others have equally valid solutions. I wonder if they are afraid of putting them forward in case they are ridiculed.

Also former lorry driver Ronnie Hoye (July 28) has every right to disagree with my forecast of the effect of dualling the A1 will have on future traffic flow, but he has no right to insult my intelligence when he says I haven’t got a clue about the geography of my own country.

I don’t see what it matters to my argument whether this great island is tilted to the West or East or even horizontal.

He has in fact added to my case when he uses the M11, a relatively new route. Since the opening of the Channel Tunnel more traffic uses the M20 than the M2, taking a longer route.

I lived in Kent and when travelling to Birmingham originally I would have taken the M1/M6 route but after the opening of the M25 and much later the M40, this became my preferred route. I did not worry about straight lines or whether I was travelling North or West. BRIAN TAYLOR, North Shields