Motorists have racked up more than £1million in fines for speeding on the A90 road over the last three years.
Data released through freedom of information legislation has revealed that more than 11,000 fixed penalty notices were issued to drivers travelling on the Aberdeen and Dundee road.
On average more than 10 a day – worth a total of more than £1.1million – were handed out between 2015 and 2017.
This compares to 365 tickets handed out to speeding motorists driving along the Aberdeen to Fraserburgh stretch of the route over the same period.
Further north, 1,070 penalty notices were issued for speeding on the A95 between Keith and Aviemore, with 1,399 fined for similar offences on the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness Road and 574 on the A9 linking Inverness to Thurso.
Scottish Conservative MSP for the north-east, Peter Chapman, said: “Many drivers will look at these figures and think this is just another tax on the motorist.
“This is an enormous amount of revenue from speeding fines across the north and north east of Scotland.
“The Aberdeen to Dundee road in particular records far more offences than any other route in the region.”
He added: “I think everyone appreciates that drivers have to obey the speed limit and that excessive speed can be a factor in many accidents.
“However, if there are 10 times as many tickets issued on the A90 as on the A96, then it seems that there might be something wrong.”
Average speed cameras were installed along the 51 mile section of A90 between Stonehaven and Dundee last year to help improve road safety.
Before the new technology went live in October, a Transport Scotland survey found that 60% of motorists on the stretch were speeding. One in every five vehicles was travelling at more than 10mph over the speed limit.
However, this dropped to just 1% after the new cameras were introduced.
The new study in December only one in every 5,000 motorists were caught speeding.
At the time, the area commander for road policing in the north, Chief Inspector Stewart Mackie, said he was “delighted” by the results.
He added: “Reducing excessive speed on this road directly corresponds with reducing the chances of people being injured and killed in road traffic collisions.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Road safety is paramount, which is why the Scottish Government is committed, through Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020, to achieving safer road travel, reducing the number of serious injuries and working towards an ultimate vision of zero fatalities on our roads.
“The recently installed average speed cameras on the A90 between Dundee and Aberdeen have already shown there has been significant improvement in driver behaviour and speed limit compliance in a short period of time.
“This adds to the growing evidence base of the effectiveness of average speed cameras with notable long term improvements in road safety already seen on the both the A77 and A9.”
