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For immediate use: Friday 4th March 2005
TRANSform Scotland today condemned the Scottish Executive's
consultation on a new Aberdeen western bypass. TRANSform Scotland considers
it wrong for the Scottish Executive to be consulting on new road-building
when it has failed to evaluate public transport and other sustainable
options. [1] Colin Howden, TRANSform Scotland Campaign Manager,
said: "The western bypass will do nothing to address
the key traffic congestion issue in Aberdeen. Everyone knows that the
real problem is car commuting into the city, especially during the morning
rush hour. The best way that this could be tackled would be to deliver
commuter rail routes into the city. It is unfortunate that the City Council
and the Scottish Executive seem unwilling to deliver this sustainable
option. Colin Howden continued: "The Scottish Executive has made a deliberate
decision to ignore its own policies on evaluating sustainable alternatives
to road-building. The current policy direction, by focussing on road-building
rather than investigating more sustainable options, is entirely unbalanced
and environmentally irresponsible in the extreme. "The proponents of this damaging scheme have failed to conduct a multi-modal appraisal of transport options in the area. This is plainly incompetent given the findings of the Scottish Office's own 'Sustainable Transport Study for Aberdeen' that low-cost combinations of measures, including parking controls, extended bus priority and improvement to walking and cycling priorities could reduce traffic levels in the city by 29% by 2011, while a road-building led strategy would produce limited benefits in terms of traffic reduction." ENDS Notes to editors: [1] Scottish Executive consultation launched today.
See: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2005/03/04112356
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