 The road very rarely appears busy on this stretch - the adjacent New Town development area of Irvine, North Ayrshire (which includes Kilwinning, Dreghorn and Girdle Toll) had a population of just over 50,000 in the 2001 census; the town planners designed the infrastructure for a population more in the region of 120,000.Until December 2004, the route of the A78 went through the "three towns" - namely Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston.The result was a highly congested section with numerous traffic lights making progress slow.