Madam,

I feel I must agree most strongly with Andrew Currie’s letter (last week’s Cambrian News, ‘Dolgellau junctions should be put back as they were’).I wish no disrespect to those injured at these junctions, but there is no evidence of a link between accidents and the original junction layout as such.The form of a T-junction onto a dual carriageway is a very common, standard, pattern used throughout Britain (and overseas), and has no inherent excessive danger other than the speed of the traffic passing straight, and the actions of those turning.One incident is reported as a driver having ‘inexplicably’ pulled into the path of a larger vehicle - indeed this is common to a couple of the incidents at Dolgellau.This does not implicate the junction shape as an explana-tion - in fact that is ruled out by the finding it was an ‘inexplica-ble’ action, appearing to exhon-erate the junction design.I use both junctions on the bypass, although the Bala one much more, and I have no problem with visibility of the ‘give way’ signage though, as Andrew has pointed out, maintenance of the road sur-face marking visibility in poor weather could be improved.The cost of roundabaouts is enormous, and will not fix the problem which, as I have experienced it, is excessive speed and poor driving skills (wrongly assuming right-of-way; poor speed judgments; ignoring motorcycles) across the junction, which will continue even with roundabouts, unless the driving standards and speed of drivers is improved. This should take precedence, since it can improve safety, whereas roundabouts are unlikely to make much difference whilst human factors are untackled.More useful value for money could be gained by attention to possible visibility issues, such as sun angle, wet surfaces, and possibly lighting, but overall to reducing excessive speeds (albeit may be difficult at the bottom of a big hill!), and improving driver attention and vigilance while using the junctions.

Yours etc

David Church

Tywyn.