Rising safety concerns as taxi shortage in Aberdeen forces people to walk home at night

Safety concerns are rising at night-time in Aberdeen due to a lack of taxi provision.

Long queues at taxi ranks are becoming increasingly common, meaning some people need to walk home in the dark.

Councillor Lynn Thomson from Aberdeen Women’s Alliance, who organised a Reclaim the Night march in November, said: “Being a woman, every time you go out you think: ‘Will I take this path? It’s a bit longer but it’s better lit and it’s busier.’

“Will I carry my keys in my hand so I’m ready to open my door in case I need to do so in a rush? Will I actually go out at all? If I can’t get home safely then I might just stay home.

“That’s bad for everybody. It’s bad for the people who stay at home and it’s bad for the local economy.”

Christina Schmid, President of Aberdeen University Students‘ Association, said there’s always a feeling of “unsafety” late at night.

She continued: “Even that feeling might hinder some folk to go out or take a shift late at night, especially women or young students.”

It was hoped that the arrival of Uber would ease the problem.

However, the firm has struggled to onboard drivers in the city since its launch in the city in late October.

“From the demand that we’re seeing in our app we could probably hire roughly about 200 drivers tomorrow.

“But we can’t, at the moment, because of the Aberdeen City Council street knowledge test which is constraining supply.”

Unlike in Glasgow and Edinburgh, private hire car drivers in Aberdeen are required to sit a street knowledge test to gain a licence.

This has had an impact on the number of private hire cars in the city.

According to local authorities, Aberdeen has 284 private hire cars, Glasgow has 3,450 private hire cars, and Edinburgh has 2,717 private hire cars.

Matthew added: “There has been a street knowledge working group which has met this year and convened over three meetings.

“Our position was to advocate for removal of that test because it’s just not needed anymore, but the council decided to keep it and streamline it.

“From our perspective it will have no material difference on the number of drivers on the streets of Aberdeen.”

A spokesperson for Aberdeen City Council said: “A working group was established featuring councillors, members from the trade, local business representatives, and the Disability Equity Partnership to look at the makeup of the test and possible amendments to the content and process.

“The working group finished its deliberations and an updated test has now been brought into place for both taxi and private hire applicants. The first updated test was run on 10 December.”

The updated test has reduced the number of questions asked from 64 to 44.