The attempts to blame utility companies for the state of our roads, simply won’t wash. Some of the damage may result from utility works, but the bulk of the current epidemic of potholes is down, surely, to lack of maintenance. Read More...

Tags: roads, councils

The Aberdeen by-pass has finally been given the green light, but the Scottish Government’s announcement does seem to be back-pedalling on the commitment to build the AWPR by the Transport Minister’s date of 2012.

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Tags: roads, AWPR, by-pass, government

Sir Moir Lockhead, chairman of the Aberdeen-based international transport group First, has called for action to get Aberdeen’s roads unblocked.

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Tags: transport, roads

The fatal accident yesterday on the B977 underlines, yet again, the increasing pressure that is being put on totally unsuitable roads west of Aberdeen as we wait, and wait, and wait for the promised Aberdeen by-pass.

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Tags: roads, transport

Stand by for traffic gridlock in the centre of Aberdeen as the Union Square development opens tomorrow. Thousands of shoppers are expected to descend on the new retail park over the coming days. Read More...

Tags: transport, roads

Aberdeen could get its first car share lane under proposals being discussed by NESTRANS.

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Tags: transport, roads

Something seems to be going badly wrong with road safety in the North East of Scotland. While nationally in Scotland and the UK the numbers of deaths and serious injuries is at its lowest for 50 years, we seem to be seeing a spate of accidents in this area.

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Tags: roads, safety

The Transport Minister has launched a new ten-year road safety framework for Scotland, which sets what are claimed to be the ‘toughest’ targets in the UK for for reduction of injuries and fatalities. Read More...

Tags: safety, roads

According to The Sunday Herald, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce have called on the government to revert to plans for a wider replacement Forth Bridge with light rail potential and a motorway approach.

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Tags: transport, roads

Thos of us who use roads in the North East of Scotland (and that is the vast majority of us), tend to drive longer distances and greater miles. In future, you may find that many of these journeys are limited to 50 mph. Read More...

Tags: roads, transport, politics

Driving along a single-track country road this morning. Coming the other way as clear as could be was a Ford Ka with a young driver at the wheel. I could see him - indeed I could hardly ignore him. He could have seen me, if he was interested in anything beyond the front of his bonnet! Read More...

Tags: roads, transport

A cross-border battle is raging over the funding of the new Forth Bridge. But, is it worth fighting over this vital link in the transport network for North-east Scotland?

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Tags: transport, roads

Recent frosts have turned the roads of Aberdeen City and Shire into a network of car breaking potholes. Read More...

Tags: roads, transport

Speaking in a Members’ Debate in the Scottish Parliament on Alison McInnes’s motion ‘Safe Drivers are Made, Not Born’ Dr Nanette Milne, Conservative MSP for the North East said that in her time as a North East MSP, it had become clear that the area has a major problem with road accidents. Read More...

Tags: roads, safety

Scotland’s road accident statistics just released for 2007 show yet another reduction in deaths and injuries on Scotland’s roads. Read More...

Tags: roads, safety

So Aberdeen City Council plans to increase fines for driving in bus lanes to £80. What is the justification? Where is the proof that by strangling traffic flow on our arterial routes we are providing benefit for our citizens... the electorate? Read More...

Tags: buslanes, transport, roads, politics

It is just 18 months since everyone was seething over the long-running road works in Market Street, surely one of the busiest streets in Aberdeen city centre. When the work was finally completed everyone breathed a sigh of relief – particularly those who found themselves trying to conduct a business in the middle of the chaos. Read More...

Tags: roads, transport

The number of deaths and serious injuries on Scotland's roads fell to their lowest level for more than 50 years in 2007, according to latest statistics. Read More...

Tags: roads

Are we actually going to see some action over one of Scotland's worst traffic black spots? The infamous Haudagain roundabout has been accused of costing the country between £15 and £30 million in lost time, delayed deliveries and wasted fuel, let alone the undoubted diversion of trade away from Aberdeen. Read More...

Tags: roads, transport

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is urging people to take special care following the changing of the clocks early on Sunday morning. Indeed RoSPA goes further and is calling for the Government to keep the clocks one hour forward. RoSPA claim this would save 450 lives and serious injuries each year.

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Tags: roads, safety

An expert group that will advise the government on road safety issues was announced yesterday by Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson. Read More...

Tags: safety, roads

Transport seems to be constantly in the headlines in Aberdeen. Perhaps it is no wonder considering how our transport infrastructure was largely ignored during the period when the North Sea Oil industry baled out UK plc. Read More...

Tags: transport, roads, environment

Being involved in a near miss involving four cars at the Kingswells roundabout this morning highlights the risks that impatient drivers are taking with their safety and others... and with endorsements on their licences. Read More...

Tags: roads

The Eddington Review has been published and proposes, surprise surprise, a tax per mile for the roads you use. A satellite receiver in your car will track your every move and the government will send you a bill for the roads you use. You can find an e-petition on the Downing Street website.
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Tags: roads, politics

Putting 1.25p on a litre of fuel will hit businesses and hauliers in the North East very badly, but it could be seen as road users getting off lightly. Certainly, all the green campaigners who have been baying for motorists to be squeezed till their pips squeaked, have been clamouring to get on the media to tell us so. Read More...

Tags: economy, roads, transport

With road fatalities now topping 61 this year in the North East, there should be growing concern not just from the public but also from the authorities charged with looking after our roads.

Last night, on the commute home I happened to be the car immediately behind a fortunately minor collision but which could easily have been much more serious.

In the absence of proper roads round Aberdeen (roll on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route - 20 years late is better than not at all) we were travelling on a minor route from the Westhill area across to Blackburn. In front was "white van man" driving his vehicle in a manner that only someone who wants to get home from work can.

Despite being in a modern, four wheel drive vehicle and driving reasonably quickly there was no way I could keep up with the determined white van driver.

The inevitable happened. At a 90 degree left hand bend, the white van lost its grip on the road surface and slid into a car coming the other way.

The driver's fault? Of course. He was not driving within the capabilities of the vehicle and the road conditions.

But, if our authorities provided us with roads fit for purpose it would help. That includes the AWPR, but it also means improving other busy roads and it most certainly means resurfacing roads. Over years, inevitably, the passage of thousands of car tyres polishes off the stones that give road surfaces their grip. Resurfacing the road used to be carried out regularly, to ensure that grippy surface was maintained.

Now, resurfacing is a rarity. And that despite road users handing the authorities £36 billion in taxes every year.

Tags: roads, safety

If, like me, you recall a fanfare at Christmas time about the road works on Market Street being completed, you may also have found out how much of a false dawn that was Read More...

Tags: roads, transport

In something of a U-turn (hope he checked U-turns were allowed before carrying out the manoeuvre) Tavish Scott, the Scottish Transport Minister, has apparently said that the toll tax will not fall on Scotland's road users for at least four years. Read More...

Tags: transport, roads

As someone who will usually take roads like the Lecht over to Tomintoul rather than brave the dreaded A96, it was good to hear the First Minister Jack McConnell say that he believed the A96 should "probably" be the next priority for upgrading. (Of course, one has to recognise the timing of his comments, just weeks before a parliamentary election at which he hopes Labour will have enough support for him to serve a new term as First Minister.) Read More...

Tags: roads, transport

News that a new underground automated parking system is being proposed for Golden Square has to be good news. It potentially solves the problem of the unsightly clutter of parked cars in one of Aberdeen's most magnificent squares, while also providing much-needed additional parking to help re-vitalise our city centre. Read More...

Tags: citycentre, roads

In response to the Evening Express transport survey in which 55% of all respondents identified the Haudagain roundabout (junction of the A90 south, A90 north and A96) as the worst traffic blackspot in Aberdeen and the call by 75% of respondents for a flyover or underpass, the paper reports Transport Minister Tavish Scott as saying that the option is being considered. Read More...

Tags: roads, transport

The announcement by the Minister for Transport, Stewart Stevenson, that the completion of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) would not now be until 2012 is extremely disappointing. But it is not surprising.
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Tags: roads, transport