Most unexpected question from the media pack at 1 Treasury Place this morning: Should Premiers Lane have a possessive apostrophe?

(That Brendan is a joker.)

I gave a mock answer for that one, which wound up proceedings, and a quick discussion followed on the merits or otherwise of punctuation in street signs. As it turns out, the Guidelines for Geographic Place Names says apostrophes shouldn’t be used, or that the possessive “s” at the ends of words shouldn’t be included.

And of course we were never going to get a lightning bolt in ACDC Lane.

Oh, the real topic of discussion? Congestion charging. It works in other cities. London is obviously the shining example, where the funds have gone into public transport — primarily buses — and usage has jumped. Provided you give people a viable alternative to driving into congested areas, why not encourage them to use that alternative by charging them extra?

Here, the government has ruled it out. I suppose they know it’d be unpopular. But the thing is… it works.

Congestion pricing “has worked around the world in about 100 different places, 100% of the time.” — Martin Wachs.

As with most transport issues, it’s a political problem, not a technical one.

Like apostrophes in street signs, I suspect it’ll never happen.

Obviously I can’t predict any better than anybody else, otherwise I’d be rich, but I wonder if now might be a good time to put any Amazon orders in, before the dollar drops any further.

(Source: Reserve Bank)

PS. Cameron recently pointed out this company, which ships worldwide from the UK for free: The Book Depository. (I haven’t tried them yet.)