A New Danger

On Aberdeen's Osbourne Place, we spot a development which we think is new for Aberdeen "City and Shire". These mummies (no car - therefore not yummy) and their children are walking down the pavement dressed in high-visibility clothing.

Do they think that this is a suitable way to bring up children; i.e. not in a car? They are obviously aware that they're putting their charges at risk, hence the hi-vis. We considered calling social services. We also considered calling the police, because, in the salubrious west-end of Aberdeen, no-one walks. It is suspicious. These people without cars must be poor (or they would be in a car) and so they are definitely therefore jealous of the more important and affluent people of Osbourne Place - good, professional people; nice, real people who own cars and who, in turn, should fear for their property; the pestestrians probably want to steal or vandalise it.

But, putting that aside, pestestrians wearing hi-vis raises much wider social issues affecting the drivers of Aberdeen Cars. Firstly, we think that it' s good that at last, the pestestrians are getting the message and knowing their place. By wearing these ridiculous figure-of-fun clown outfits they are branding themselves as 'outsiders', as 'other' and so will be easier for our agents to round up when the time comes for their re-education. Secondly, the wearing of hi-vis acknowledges that walking is a 'special' activity requiring special preparation, permissions, equipment, planning, etc. Quite right.

But, the problem that this development raises for the drivers of Aberdeen Cars is that the tried-and-tested court-testimony mitigation for accidents involving cars and pestestrians is that the pestestrian "just came out of nowhere", and so wasn't seen by the blameless driver until it was too late. Our Sherriff Courts are quite accommodating to this defense, as their record of judgements and sentencing shows. This development which sees the pestestrains adopting high-vis runs the risk of robbing the blameless drivers of Aberdeen Cars of the "sorry I didn't see you" defense. This is deplorable, because it puts our no-claims-bonus at risk.

How much easier it would be if there were no pestestrians at all. This is one of the reasons why it is vital that we get all the support possible for our campaign to save Aberdeen's Heritage Dual Carriageway at Denburn Road. It has no pavements and so is a model of our ideal future.

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A Very Dangerous Situation.

We really were horrified to see this. This really is a disgrace, something must be done. We were so worried by this sight on Aberdeen's Victoria Street that we felt we had to document it.



Yes, that little old lady is dangerously close to touching that beautifully customised Mitsubishi Warrior pickup reg DG10FFZ. This risks scratching or otherwise damaging it, thus rendering it less nice.

The driver of this Aberdeen Car is clearly already hard-pressed; the costs of maintaining such a vehicle are considerable and the price of fuel has reached record highs recently. Something's got to give, and long-suffering motorists all over the country are forced to make tough choices. In this case, our research shows that the legendary tight-fistedness thrift which is famously part of the local character has manifested itself in the driver of this vehicle deciding that it's most probably OK to do without motor insurance. And so this vehicle is not insured (not appearing on the Motor Insurance Database when we checked). Such sacrifices are tough but necessary in these austerity times, and we admire the driver of this Aberdeen Car for his or her thrift and selflessness. Well done!

But we must ask, is it fair that - as well as everything else - this already put-upon driver of an Aberdeen Car should have to worry about rogue old-folks touching their car? Several questions present themselves:

1. Should the elderly (who are often unsteady on their feet) be allowed out in the west end of Aberdeen where they might easily damage innocent uninsured cars?
2. Should the pavement be completely removed from Victoria Street? After all, it only encourages them!