Tissues
Time for one of those quick boring domestic posts: Recycled tissues. I’m almost out. I can’t find any in the local Safeways, Coleses or IGAs, or anywhere else.
Anybody seen them recently, or do I have to resort to using recycled paper towels as tissues? (Well, and handkerchiefs, of course.)
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Swanston Street
One day in 1992, I had a joyous moment when I walked most of the length of Swanston Street — in the former traffic lanes — for the first time.
It was a wondrous thing, and while Swanston Street still sees delivery vehicles, taxis and the odd errant car, with the wider footpaths and cyclists galore, it’s a much more pleasant place to be than it was back then.
About the only one who doesn’t see it that way is new Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. He is firm on saying he wants to return traffic to Swanston Street. I guess he means something like this, filmed in 1988:
Doesn’t look all that great to me.
Of course to put cars back in, you’d either have to remove half the footpaths (and their trees) or mix up all the cars, trams and cyclists, resulting in a dangerous congested mess. And how you’d achieve tram platform stops (required by 2020 or so to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act) I don’t know.
Doyle appears to subscribe to the Neil Mitchell view, that people should be able to drive through the CBD at 60 km/h and park wherever they like. That might have been true… oh, about 160 years ago, but probably not since then, and it’s certainly not true now, not with over 700,000 daily users.
So really, Doyle’s plan to re-open Swanston Street to cars is flawed.
It might make sense if car drivers were a majority of city visitors, and they were lacking road space on other streets, but they aren’t.
It might make sense if the car ban applied at night and was keeping people out of the street, threatening safety, but it doesn’t.
It might make sense if there was space to properly segregate trams, cyclists, service vehicles, general traffic and pedestrians, but there isn’t.
It might make sense if we were wanting to encourage more motor vehicle traffic into the CBD, but we aren’t.
Swanston Street has its problems, but bringing back cars won’t solve them. On the contrary, it would clog up the street, sacrifice dozens of trees, delay thousands using trams, and make it less safe for cyclists, pedestrians and tram passengers alike.
If you feel strongly about the issue, join the protest at 5pm on Tuesday outside the Town Hall (timed to co-incide with the first meeting of the new council).
(Alas, I can’t make it.)
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In the loop
On the subject of mobile phones, it’s astounding after all these years how many people look surprised when their phones (on any network) drop out in the City Loop.
Perhaps half of people, including myself, know this’ll happen. If I’m on the phone going into the tunnel, I’ll tell the other party I’m about to drop out, and I’ll ring them back later. And I’ve heard others say this.
But I’ve seen plenty who look surprised when it drops out, examine the phone carefully to try and work out if they accidentally pressed the Hang Up button.
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Bad news and a little good
The bad news is that as expected Metcard prices will jump by 5% from January 1st. Stock up now!
It’s a curious thing. If you have to increase fares, CPI rises are probably the most logical way to do it. But this time around, the September quarter CPI figures were heavily influenced by petrol price rises earlier in the year. Now petrol prices have dropped again. When there’s a big drop in fuel prices, and an increase in PT prices, what message are we getting about how we should travel? Perhaps it’s no wonder anecdotally the roads have got more crowded in the past few weeks.
The silver lining in the Metcard cloud is that the benefit of being able to use both zones on weekends with a single zone periodical (weekly, monthly, yearly) is to be retained after all.
As for the debate about whether or not Melbourne has the highest PT fares in the country, the figures compiled last year do need updating, but they’re pretty clear: Melbourne is most expensive for trips up to 35km; cheaper beyond (due to the removal of zone 3 in 2007).
Oh by the way, my picture of the crowded train showed up again. I wonder if they’d still use it if I put an obvious watermark on it? (Last time)
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Get off the phone
1. Dear driver of EML 925,
How about you get off the phone?
Then you might be paying enough attention to remember to indicate when you turn.
2. Good on you for driving a Prius.
But parking in a Bus Zone? Not so good.
Oh, unless… I don’t suppose you’re a substitute service for the 703?
3. No, really. IT DOESN’T APPLY TO US.
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Ironic
I’ve been looking for this video for ages: why Alanis Morrisette doesn’t understand “ironic”. I couldn’t find it because I thought I needed to find Sean Hughes, but it’s actually Ed Byrne.
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The new transport plan
I was a bit busy yesterday. Took a few hours off work to deal with the Transport Plan release — the presentation to stakeholders and skulking around at Treasury Place to talk to media.
In summary? Well although I’m at home today, I’m a bit rushed again, so maybe I’ll just paste in my two hundred words for The Age:
Two-and-a-half years ago, the government issued Meeting Our Transport Challenges, its long-term vision for Melbourne’s transport system.
That document is now in tatters, replaced by the new transport plan. While some communities will welcome new and improved train services, and CBD commuters will see a little relief from overcrowding, for most car-dependent Melburnians who live in bus-only suburbs and rarely travel into the CBD, this plan will make little difference.
Public transport is lacking in many areas but the plan includes funding and studies for more than 100 kilometres of new motorways in the misguided belief that these will relieve traffic congestion.
We had hopes that this plan would bring quality public transport to all of Melbourne, not just those lucky enough to live near tram, train and Smartbus routes. We had hopes that more Melburnians would finally get real transport choices, so they could leave their cars at home. On these points, this plan, like its predecessor, is a failure.
So is it half-baked? Well, yes, unfortunately I think you’d have to say it is. $38 billion to be spent, but for a lot of people in the middle and outer suburbs, it really will make very little difference.
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How to make public transport run more smoothly
Including: Don’t come up with another half-baked transport plan!
Click here to join the related Facebook group
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