Scott Begbie: Scottish Government is going down the wrong road with its war on cars

Could the high heid-yins at Holyrood please drop the dogma and rethink their war on cars before the north-east grinds to a halt?

We’ve already had barmy suggestions such as cutting the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph on single carriages stretches of trunk roads like the A96, just to make it that bit more time-consuming to Inverness.

And no need to rehearse the carnage bus gates have created in Aberdeen city centre – or the sheer illogical thinking of wrapping a Low Emission Zone round a train station and busy working harbour crammed with diesel trains and ships.

Now we have the latest wheeze of suggesting roads in “built-up” areas – including key transport routes by the way – be reduced to 20mph.

Now, that’s fine and dandy in places that are properly residential where ordinary folk – especially kids – should go about their business in quiet and safety without motors zooming past at speed.

But to slow traffic down to a 20mph crawl on the likes of major routes like Holburn Street, Garthdee Road and North Deeside Road? Seriously?

Scottish Government’s war on cars is taking us backwards

Sometimes I think there’s a man behind a curtain in the bowels of the Scottish Parliament coming up with wizard wheezes designed purely to force drivers around the bend – providing they do it at 20mph or less.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually get an announcement that we are going back to the future – cars can only drive on city roads if they have someone walking in front of them holding a red flag.

There is, of course, a policy at play in these diktats from Holyrood. It’s to “encourage” people to give up the car and use public transport instead – or get on their bikes.

The only problem is, here in the north-east the car is quite simply the cheapest, quickest and easiest way to get around, be it for work or play, given the disjointed public transport network that we have.

Public transport needs to be improved

For example, on days when I car share to the city office, I’m door to door in 25 minutes – including a walk from my drop off point. On days I take the train, I have to leave 20 minutes earlier than normal, walk to the station, hope the train turns up on time, or at all, and then walk to the office, all of which takes a good 40 minutes out of my day.

Now which do you think I choose most often?

Besides, the anti-car drive isn’t working. The Scottish Government’s target was to cut car use across the nation by 20% by the end of the decade. It’s only come down by 3.6% since before the pandemic.

Little wonder then, that Holyrood last month dropped that target as “not realistic”.

Well, we could have told you that. Same with so many of the other measures.

So, can the powers-that-be now concede we all still need our cars, especially with the north-east’s mix of rural and urban communities, and stop trying to make driving as difficult as humanely possible?

You’re on the wrong road, admit it and change direction for all our sakes.

Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired.