"Codename JannieJumbo" shows us the urban motorway we could have had.

Nestled away at the far end of the west end of Aberdeen is a secret. A green corridor cuts through the heart of Craigiebuckler in a dead straight line from the no 16a bus terminus at Airyhall all the way to Rubislaw Park Road and then Queens Road at Hill of Rubislaw.

If you drew a straight line going west from Queens Road and kept it going straight where today it curves round to the northwest at Angusfield Lane, it would discribe this green corridor. We saw this map online somewhere:

Check it out - the underdeveloped 'green corridor' had been planned as long ago as 1949 to be the route for a thrilling high-speed radial expressway cutting Cragiebuckler in two to link Countesswells Road at Hillhead with Queens Road at Hill of Rubislaw. A huge cloverleaf interchange occupies what is today Robert Gordons College playing fields at Slopefield. And we're pretty sure that the junction with Queens Road would have been an exciting gyratory or something. Maybe even a flyover!

Some people say that these plans are "car-sick" and that they show the pathology inherent in the "centre of the car-crazy 20th century", but we think that these people aren't true Aberdonians. Now that plans are afoot to go ahead with that other long-planned radial expressway for Aberdeen - The Berryden Corridor Improvement Project - maybe the 'powers that be' will get on and build this one next. We think it'll make a lovely addition to the bypass - which is also shown (albeit closer in to Aberdeen) on the 1949 plan. The bypass is going to be a 'special category road'. That's a motorway in all but name. We can't tell you how excited we are about that.

Anyway, an orbital motorway needs high speed radial expressways to usher important consumers to city centre underground shopping destinations, so we see no reason why the "Cragibuckler Green Corridor Expressway Improvements" shouldn't be next on the agenda. You heard it here first!

Our pathetic undercover double agent "Codename Janniejumbo" shows us the route all the way from Slopefield to Bayview Road.



Towards the end of the video, Codename Janniejumbo does his usual great job of pointing out parking opportunities in the cycle-lanes of the west end. But we don't know what he's on about at the very end of the video, though. Something about "close passes"? Hilton.co.uk van RJ10AZA Audi A4 'sport' SV02ZSO Fiesta SW08NPC?