Traffic 'Slow but steady'

Gordon Berry, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 21 July 2000

Traffic heading to St Andrews for the second day of the Millennium Open Golf Championship over the Old Course was moving slowly but steadily today.

This was made clear by Fife Police, who have repeated their appeal for drivers to be patient when they find themselves in tailbacks.

A spokesman confirmed that lengthy but still moving queues had built up between Cupar and Melville Lodges roundabout, between Dairsie and St Andrews, and on the northern approach via Leuchars and Guardbridge.

He said that anyone who came to the area and did not expect to be delayed to some extent could not have been reading newspapers or watching the television.

It had been made as clear as possible, he said, that hold-ups were almost inevitable, but he added that this morning car parks were "filling up nicely", and there had been no major problems.

One area where there did appear to be some difficulty involved motorists trying to leave St Andrews by the main road through Guardbridge. One angry driver contacted the Evening Telegraph this morning to say that she had sat for some time, for no apparent reason, on the road bridge at Guardbridge after being involved in some routine business in St Andrews.

"A long queue of traffic built up, and for some reason police would not let the traffic coming out of St Andrews get moving. It was only when two motorcyclists came up the outside of the queue with blue lights flashing that the police at the roundabout were spoken to and we were allowed to move.

"It seemed to me that golf fans were being favoured at the expense of people like me, who had no choice but be in St Andrews in the morning and were quite simply trying to get out again."

Police said there were occasions when flow problems would lead to incoming traffic being given priority at certain times of day.

Every effort was being made to keep delays to a minimum, and police could only apologise for any inconvenience it caused.

*Severe traffic congestion expected to centre around the Tay Road Bridge during the duration of the Open golf at St Andrews, has so far failed to materialise, writes Graham Huband. During the first day-and-a-half of the championship proper, traffic volume has markedly increased on the bridge, but staff have reported no problems with delays.

A total of 13,000 vehicles travelled from Dundee to Fife across the bridge yesterday, an increase of around 3000 vehicles on the same day the previous week.

Peak period came between 6am and 10am, when staff estimated that bridge traffic was up around 100% on normal.

Tayside Police also said today the extra traffic volume had moved smoothly through Dundee, and said there had been no reported problems.

Inspector Gordon Taylor of the force’s mobile support unit said, "Motorists have been coping very well, and there have been no major delays. Yesterday saw a record crowd at the golf, and there were no major problems at all."