There is only one response to the suggestion car drivers could have to pay £15 a day to use Aberdeen roads – and it’s not one you can print in a family newspaper.
However, I am quite sanguine about this latest wizard wheeze from Transport Scotland to smack drivers who dare use their car with road pricing across the land.
If you delve deeper, it’s obvious this is merely a shock talking point punt in a think-tank piece to look at ways of driving down car use. It’s not on anyone’s table as an option and it never will be.
Not unless the current incumbents in Holyrood decide they really do want to push the big button marked “political suicide”.
It is, though, illuminating how Transport Scotland thinks in its drive (pun intended) to hit Holyrood’s target of reducing car use by 20% in the next six years.
Essentially it is all stick and not even so much as a sniff of a carrot. Don’t forget the LEZ now cranking up Aberdeen’s anti-car misery is a directive from the Scottish Government, not the local council. (Mind you, the brains trust in the Town House did come up with bus gates all on their own).
How do you get people out of their cars? Give them a decent joined-up public transport network in every city. I mean, just look at Edinburgh and Glasgow. Shiny new trams, shiny upgraded Underground trains, and even a nifty rail service between the two cities.
Aberdeen public transport is severely lacking
And what do we have in Aberdeen? Rhetorical question really, because if you live here, you know. Sadly.
The problem with the “get ‘em out their cars” campaign is it is not one size fits all. Public transport is all fine and dandy in major conurbations like the Central Belt.
But the north-east is a blend of one major city surrounded by a string of smaller towns and communities. It is largely rural and Aberdeen is the place where the majority of people of Stonehaven, Banchory, Ellon, Inverurie, Portlethen, Ballater, Peterhead et al come to work and play.
And most of them do so by car because of the limiting factors of public transport of which we are all painfully aware.
I’m a case in point. I commute to work by car because the frequency, cost and time it takes to use an unreliable bus or train service just isn’t worth it.
And don’t get me started about trying to get home on public transport after a night out.
For so many aspects of everyday life, driving is easier and cheaper and as long as that’s the case, public transport is all but useless to me – and to countless others across the north-east.
So perhaps the boffins at Transport Scotland should stop thinking of ways to penalize car drivers and instead look at realistic ways to properly invest in a public transport network that works for everyone.
Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired.
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