(Move your mouse over the vehicles)

In reporting a proposed congestion charge in Manchester, UK, some of the international media seem to have got a bit confused.

The Daily Mirror says: There are now also congestion charges in Stockholm, Melbourne and Toronto.

CNN reports: Melbourne, Australia, has imposed a charge for downtown driving since 2000.

No. Melbourne does not have a congestion charge. It has toll roads. They are completely different things. The toll only applies to Citylink (and shortly Eastlink), not to a myriad of other routes. It can be avoided.

Melbourne also has a CBD parking levy, which has marginally increased the price of central city parking. Unfortunately a lot of the money from this is being blundered away on a tourist bus service (they call it a “shuttle”, but actually it’s a loop).

At the Press Club luncheon yesterday, during the time for questions, I got up and reminded Brian Negus from RACV about the RACV’s 2004 prediction that petrol prices had peaked at $1.08 cents per litre, and asked what their current medium-to-long-term prediction is.

Brian didn’t give a direct answer, but instead said nobody really knew what would happen, and talked about wanting to get rid of excise, and replace it with a congestion tax.

It was a nonsense answer, of course, and I’m not really surprised he avoided a direct response, though I find it hard to believe the RACV hasn’t done some forecasting of global oil prices. (Hint: Supply is flat or has peaked; demand is up. Economics 101.)

Cutting excise would cost billions every year, and would benefit the rich (who buy the most petrol), and exacerbate emissions by removing the incentive to get off oil. It would also be swimming against the tide of expected oil price increases — with any benefit to motorists probably gone within a couple of years.

And a congestion tax? Perhaps it’s okay in theory, it’s certainly worked in London. But actually, in a world of increasing petrol prices, a tax on petrol does much the same thing. It stings you more for driving more. Unless you have a hybrid vehicle, it stings you more for driving in congested traffic. It stings you more for driving inefficient polluting vehicles. Why bother spending billions on vehicle tracking devices when plain ol’ petrol tax does a better job?

If anything, the tax should go up, with rego coming down, so you pay for driving your car, not having it in the garage 6 days a week. The problem is it would unfairly sting those in regional areas, who even if PT was genuinely competitive in urban areas would still have little choice but to drive.

If I’d had the chance, my second question to Brian Negus would have been about whether or not the RACV is properly representing its members in promoting endless roads expansion. They often quote polling saying their members think congestion will get worse, but never seem to produce anything saying their members want freeways under Melbourne Cemetery and Royal Park, or through the Yarra Flats and the landscapes of the Heidelberg School.

Not that I’m one of their members anymore.

PS. Vote today on whether you think the government should reduce the excise tax on fuel: Herald Sun poll.

Jeez, at this rate, most posts this week might be transport-related. (See the cover of the Age this morning?)

Back when I was learning to drive, one of the things that stuck in my head (thanks to Andre the driving instructor) was that when turning right, one should keep the steering wheel in the forward position until actually moving to make the turn. The reason being that if someone smashes into the back of you (particularly a problem if you’re not using a dedicated turning lane, and they weren’t paying attention) you’ll get bumped forward, rather than into the oncoming traffic.

It’s something that’s stuck with me.

Apparently my sister also learnt this, and it’s stayed with her too, because recently she was waiting to turn right, and another car hit her from behind. She rolled forward, rather than into the traffic.

So it really works. It’s good advice, and personally I cringe a little when I see people doing otherwise.

(Thankfully nobody was hurt; but she was shaken, and the students in the bomb that banged into her had insurance issues…)

I liked the vehicle emissions chart I posted here last week that I included it in Sunday’s presentation.

A journo at the presentation liked it so much he wrote it up for this morning’s Age.

The graph has been published again in full here (it doesn’t have my old Magna, and includes some extra cars) and are also in the slides from the forum on Sunday. It went well by the way — except some of the promotion didn’t hit the mark and the attendance was only about 100 people. David Spratt’s presentation from his book Carbon Code Red was particularly worthwhile, and confronting, painting a “we are in deep crap” picture of climate change which was not very comforting. Subsequent discussion about cycling and PT looked… well, fairly tame in comparison.

Another post about traffic lights…

Apart from the CBD, it seems there are some other places where you don’t need to press the button to get a green man. From what I can tell, this includes a number of intersections in the Caulfield area, such as along Glen Eira Road, on Friday nights and Saturdays. This is Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath), and orthodox Jews are forbidden from work, which includes lighting fires, using electricity and driving cars. I gather for the ultra orthodox, this includes a ban on pressing traffic light buttons.

So during Shabbat, there are a good number of pedestrians out and about who simply won’t press the buttons. Evidently VicRoads has wired these traffic lights so that during these times, the green man will come up automatically.

Clever stuff. (Apparently a similar philosophy resulted in the Shabbat Elevator).

It reminds me of the case a few years ago when the local council initially knocked-back planning permission for a synagogue on the grounds that it had inadequate parking. But, people pointed out, on Saturdays, the busiest day, the congregation didn’t need parking, as they all walked.

I find it amusing when there’s a mismatch between things that are apparently hip and modern and up to date, and things that definitely aren’t.

Take this shop for example:

Cool laneway location

Grungy warehouse basement position

Daggy antique 80’s blue-screen DOS-based Point Of Sale system (on a flat screen)!

My fellow geeks are probably nodding. All you “normal” people are probably wondering what I’m on about.

PS. More geeky posts over at www.geekrant.org

I just about punched the air when I read Elliot Fishman’s great opinion piece in today’s Age: RACV heading down the wrong road.

Elliot highlights some of the things I’ve pondered recently, such as the RACV’s 2004 spectacularly wrong guess on oil prices, as well as pointing out the flaws in their calls for lower fuel taxes and encouraging biofuels.

The RACV has deceived its members by constantly claiming that petrol will not rise very much higher than whatever it happened to be at the time.

In the middle of 2004, for instance, it claimed oil had peaked at about $US44.50 a barrel and we would not need to pay much more than $1.08 a litre. With oil now around $US130 a barrel and the price at the pump exceeding $1.60, Victorians have a right to ask why the RACV got it so wrong.

It appears that the RACV aren’t making the same kinds of medium-to-long term predictions at the moment. Instead they’re acting with surprise: “It is unbelievably high. I can’t believe they have gone that high” — David Cumming.

Elliot, as well climate-policy analyst David Spratt, transport energy efficiency expert Dr Patrick Moriarty, and some guy who is not called Damien Bowden will be talking at a free forum this Sunday at Melbourne Town Hall.

(I was wrestling with some slides last night in Powerpoint. Hopefully I’ve now persuaded it that I really honestly don’t want it to check my spelling with the US English dictionary.)

Glad it wasn’t me that this happened to. One can understand the frustration which gets people taking flying kicks at the machine, trying to rock it on its base to get the purchase out.

On Thursday some school books were lost by Son The Elder. On Friday he checked with his home group teacher. He checked with the year level co-ordinator and the office. Following the long weekend, he checked again on Tuesday after school. Nothing had turned up.

He seemed worried about the missing books, so I moved on it quickly. On Tuesday afternoon we went to the bookshop and bought replacements of everything. Cost a pretty penny. We came home and labelled it all, this time ensuring names were written on the outside of books, not just the insides. Easier identification.

He took them all into school on Wednesday.

And you guessed it: all the lost stuff got found. A teacher had found it all and held onto it.

D’oh. That’ll teach me to be organised.

Next time, I’ll wait at least a week.