A segregated bike lane will be built on Union Street – as councillors rushed to approve plans in the face of rising costs.
City planners hope the three-metre-wide cycle lane between Market Street and Bridge Street will later be extended up the full length of the Granite Mile.
Cycling lobbyists urged councillors to include the space for bikes as part of the £20 million refurbishment of the street’s central stretch.
They likened the current experience in the bus-only strip to “fleeing Terminator”.
Fears Union Street bike lane could keep disabled out of Aberdeen city centre
But disability campaigners said experiences on Union Street, with electric bikes and scooters dashing about, “scared the life” out of them.
They warned the designs might force the visually impaired, or those with mobility issues, to stay away from Aberdeen city centre.
Bus stops will only be accessible over pedestrian crossings across the bike lane, which will run up the north side of the street.
SNP and Liberal Democrats backed the plans on Wednesday.
But opponents forced the matter to be referred to full council – despite warnings any wait would likely hit the cash-strapped local authority’s purse.
‘Low skullduggery’ to create Union Street ‘white elephant’
Instead, the administration called an urgent business meeting to see the plans through within the week.
Probing as to why they had chosen the slimmed down decision-making, as opposed to a special meeting of full council, was shrugged off by convener Ian Yuill.
This resulted in Labour – who pressed once more for full pedestrianisation of Union Street alongside the bike lanes – branding the Friday summit “low skullduggery”.
“It is antidemocratic. It is a bad day for democracy and a bad day for our city,” said group leader M Tauqeer Malik.
“We are the guardians of democracy.”
While railing against the exclusion of all councillors in the decision making, Conservative Duncan Massey warned the bike lane could become a “white elephant”.
He cautioned against listening only to “single issue groups” and thinking “job’s a good’un”.
“I don’t think the vast majority of the city are onboard with this design,” he added.
What is being done to alleviate concerns?
Aberdeen Cycle Forum spoke in favour of the plans as a “compromise”, which chairman Gavin Clark said was needed “on all sides”.
They had been pressing for cycle tracks on both sides of the Granite Mile but accepted there was not space for that.
Roads planners have said the single, bidirectional bike lane on the north side of Union Street could be narrowed to slow cyclists down on approach to a crossing.
Rumble strips could alert those on bikes that they were approached a crossing, which would be paved in a different colour compared to the bike lane.
Chicanes would be another way of slowing down cyclists around the crossings to the bus boarding islands, as well as countdown signs like those found on dual carriageways.
A massive public information effort has also been promised, once the bike lanes are in place on Union Street.
‘Construction inflation is only going one way’: Urgent meeting called after cost warning
As the Union Street cycle lane plans were waylaid on Wednesday, resources director Steve Whyte told councillors: “It would be fair to say that construction costs continue to create pressure for our capital programme.
“You will see that costs are significantly higher than we anticipated, at Craighill and Kincorth (house building projects) that is what we are still experiencing.”
Similar warnings came from masterplanner Sandy Beattie, who said: “With any delay in any project, there will be a cost.
“Construction inflation is only going one way so any delay costs us more money.”
He – and chief finance officer Jonathan Belford on Friday – were unable to put a price on how much any pause would cost.
But they warned delay could put £2o million in UK grants for the project at risk.
Union Street bike lane vote is ‘not the end of the conversation’
The plans were passed by the urgent business committee on Friday afternoon.
But now continued engagement with interested groups is included in council policy, as well as a first-year review.
A result of that year one evaluation, signalled crossings could be put in place.
The bike lane will be laid with space for underground cables, in order to make their potential installation possible.
SNP finance convener Alex McLellan said: “We have clearly set out that this is not the end of the conversation, dialogue will continue.
“Officers, working in consultation with the Disability Equity Partnership and other local stakeholders will be able to bring forward a scheme which is safe and puts pedestrians at the top of the hierarchy.
“I am sure the public will appreciate us actually getting on.”
