The best way to drive to Dublin

TO motorway or not to motorway? Or rather, to take the M17 or to drive the L3210 on the way to Dublin? That is the question that has been exercising the minds of many readers since the new motorway opened five weeks or so ago.

Let me offer you the results of my research. Experiments conducted under controlled conditions have led to firm conclusions — fairly firm, anyway.
Here are the parameters (we scientific types have to use words like that): test the correlation between road type, speed, fuel consumption and any other relevant factors in choosing the optimal route for travel between Tuam and Dublin.
In other words, are you better off to take the motorway, which is longer, or go the old route, via Mountbellew and Gowla Bog to Athlone. (That’s where the L3210 comes in — that’s what we all call the Bog Road.)
It’s not just a matter of speed: we know that time is money. But time saved by driving fast means money lost in terms of fuel consumption.