A bunch of new bus gates, a ban on right-hand turns on one of the busiest roads in the city centre and more are coming very soon to Aberdeen.
With South College Street reopened and the King George VI bridge fully reopened to traffic, you’d think Aberdeen’s traffic nightmare was finally at an end for car drivers.
You would be wrong.
Within weeks, new bus gates will be installed at three key roads in the city centre, and all cars will be banned from going through them — with £60 fines issued to rulebreakers.
It’s all part of Aberdeen City Council’s new plan to make the city centre better for bus travel, by reducing the amount of general traffic getting in the way.
Where will the new Aberdeen bus gates be?
The new bus gates will be place at Bridge Street, Guild Street, and between Market Street and Union Street.
Only buses, taxis, cycles and goods vehicles will be allowed through them.
They will be enforced by cameras.
1. The Bridge Street Bus Gate
This gate will be located just north of the junction with Wapping Street — where you turn down off Bridge Street towards Union Square, next to the former Debenhams building.
It means that for car drivers wanting to travel from South College Street to Union Street, the next best route would be via Crown Street.
2. The Guild Street Bus Gate
This bus gate is a bit more complicated than the others.
It will be located at the junction of Guild Street and Market Street.
The measure will prevent any cars turning off Market Street onto Guild Street, and any cars travelling westbound from Trinity Quay onto Guild Street (this was shut off to all traffic ahead of these works just before Christmas 2022).
There is another element to this bus gate, in that it will also prevent any cars going east along Guild Street from its junction with Stirling Street.
Cars wanting to turn around and avoid getting a fine will instead be able to go up Stirling Street, right, and then down along Exchange Street before being permitted to travel west along Guild Street.
3. The Market Street/Union Street bus gate
This new bus gate will be a familiar sight to city centre visitors in the past few years.
It will start on Union Street, around Adelphi Lane.
But instead of ending at the junction with Market Street, like the former bus gate did, it will continue down Market Street to the junction with Hadden Street.
This will mean all car drivers wanting to go from eastern Union Street to Market Street will need to go via Mariscal Street and Trinity Quay.
The existing bus gate system on Union Street, which extends from its junction with Union Terrace to Market Street, will stay in place.
So you will no longer be able to drive a private car along Union Street between its junction with Union Terrace and near Adelphi Lane once all the new bus gate cameras are fully up and running.
It’s not just new bus gates for Aberdeen… new turning restrictions coming to Union Terrace as well
A ban on turning right from Union Terrace onto Rosemount Viaduct will also be introduced.
So if you want to get to Rosemount Viaduct, the easiest way from Union Street would be via Skene Street instead.
When is all this happening?
Scottish Gas Networks will be shutting Union Terrace from July 31 to August 11 in order to carry out a gas connection.
The council says that roadworks to create the new bus gates and other changes will take place “prior and during the same time” as these gas works.
Aberdeen City Council says the works for bringing in these major new changes will be done on a “rolling basis”, and it expects they will “take about three weeks to complete, weather permitting”.
So, it’s looking like the new measures won’t be completely in place until at least late August/early September.
It’s not clear if the bus gate system will be actually turned on when the works are finished, or if there will be a delay.
Aberdeen City Council has been approached for clarification.
Is there a public consultation so I can have my say on these changes?
No, you can’t have your say — not until the new bus gates and road layouts are actually in place, anyway.
This is because these changes have been carried out by the city council through what is called an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO), which Transport Scotland says is a “very rarely used” process which councils consider to offer “little benefit”.
So instead of a consultation before the changes are implemented, Aberdeen City Council has decided to only ask people what they think in a public consultation after the new measures are already in force.
The bus priority route was agreed at a meeting of the full council last June, as part of the City Centre Masterplan.
The route, and the bus gates being used to create it in, are designed to “encourage sustainable and active travel in the city centre” of Aberdeen.
Ian Yuill, co-leader of the council, said: “The new road layout will help encourage people to travel by bus by helping to reduce bus travel times in the city centre.
“The Council is investing in the new infrastructure as part of the City Centre Masterplan, which is aimed at making the area a more attractive place to live, work, and visit.”
Although the public haven’t been consulted before these changes, groups like the emergency services have already been informed.
The public consultation which will launch when the new road layout comes into force will last six months.
