Voices is the Dorset Echo's weekly youth page - written for young people by young people.

This week Oliver discusses congestion issues on the relief road.

As summer season heads to a climax, motorists are repeatedly plunged into misery on the Weymouth Relief Road as it falls to single lane on the approach to Dorchester.

Under even the slightest of strain, a mixture of poor planning and impatient late mergers create a backlog that can easily stretch for hundreds of meters - plunging motorists into misery.

There are two solutions, one radical and one that you can perform as part of your daily drive.

Simply put, do not cut people off and filter in earlier.

Having to tolerate the traffic on a daily basis, I have bared witness to ridiculous attempts to merge at the last minute, not only halting the flow but in some cases resulting in crashes.

Whilst the responsibility unfortunately falls on letting these late mergers in, drivers need to wait their turn and filter in earlier so the traffic can move as one steady continuum.

The concept of having a dual carriageway ending in such an abrupt manner is forever doomed to automotive catastrophe.

A radical, albeit plausible solution could be to have the road continue as a dual carriageway towards the Dorchester Learning Centre, with a clear point to merge without visibility being blocked by a hill cresting and a corner.

Environmentally there would be an impact, however the impact would not be major as the majority of the road is lined by fencing or a verge – housing minimal to no wildlife.

Merging back into a single-carriageway before the DLC would ensure that no trees or notable habitats are destroyed and traffic is calmed before the junctions around Winterborne Monkton, minimising risk to joining traffic and those on foot.

The one issue is that the area is a gigantic bottleneck – the major link to Weymouth and Portland; however, nothing good came easy.

Without the pain of construction, there would not be the gain of increased traffic flow and soothed merging.

However, I have a lack of experience in this area so I wholeheartedly encourage anybody affected to voice their suggestions for improvements to the dual carriageway, they are likely more informed than mine.

By Oliver Streather-Paul