Parking too close
You’re meant to park at least one metre away from other cars, I guess so they have a chance of getting out of their parking spot:
If parking bays are not marked, you must leave at least one metre between your vehicle and those in front and behind.
– VicRoads
But how does anybody get booked for breaking that rule? How would a parking inspector know who had done the wrong thing?
That’s my car on the left. Nobody else was there when I parked; I came back to find the other car behind me. There was plenty of space — a driveway if I recall correctly — in front. So it wasn’t a problem.
Tags: driving, parking
11 comments
The storm
It just took almost two and a half hours to drive from Glen Huntly to Footscray. Here’s why.
Glen Huntly. The hail was bouncing off the cars.
…and the gutters quickly flooded…
…but that was nothing to Caulfield North…
…and St Kilda Road.
Kingsway wasn’t pretty — much under water, traffic lights out, and lots of traffic.
This street between Kingsway and Sturt Street/Eastern Road had a couple of cars which will have water damage.
All was quiet at this SES building in Sturt Street. Perhaps they were all out on calls. Note the hail stacked up by the building.
(Thanks to Marita for taking some of these.)
Update 9pm: Show pictures individually.
Tags: Melbourne, rain, traffic, weather
16 comments
SmartRoads
For a while now, VicRoads has been working on a plan to allocate different priorities to different roads around Melbourne. Rather than the free-for-all we sometimes see now, some roads would be setup to emphasise pedestrian priority, some bus, some tram, and some would be “preferred traffic routes” and lesser “other traffic routes”.
I suspect it was inevitable that this would be launched under the title “SmartRoads“.
Here’s the glossy VicRoads video with Roads Minister Tim Pallas:
One of the positives is to encourage through-vehicle-traffic onto particular roads and off others, and with my sustainable transport hat on, hopefully it means better pedestrian facilities (eg crossings and low traffic speeds) and priority for public transport vehicles where it counts.
The detail about where the principal bike routes will be isn’t clear yet, and of course for cycling to really take off, these preferred routes need to be much more closely spaced than they are for cars.
The down side of the plan is that if you live on a road which is deemed to be a preferred traffic route, you’re probably going to see more traffic coming through. But then, it does seem to formalise trends which have been ongoing for some time now, so you may not notice a huge difference. It’s been obvious for some time now that the Nepean Highway and Punt Road are traffic sewers.
One of the big questions will be what happens when two priority routes intersect? Anybody who’s caught a tram that crosses Alexandra Parade, for instance, will know you can spend minutes waiting at the lights. Hopefully the view that the higher priority is the number of people moving through the intersection, not the number of vehicles, will be the prevailing one.
I saw a draft of this thing in 2008; things have changed a little bit since then. In my area (which is still under review), happily, there are no preferred traffic routes, though there are some “other traffic routes”.
I think this is a step forward; recognition that the car is no longer king, at least not on every single road, and that more efficient movement of people means giving priority to trams and buses, as well as pedestrians in some areas.
But the devil will be in the detail — and to take full advantage of it and really cut traffic congestion, the government needs to push much harder on upgrading the alternatives to car travel.
How will it affect your area? Download the maps from VicRoads.
Tags: driving, public transport, roads, traffic, Transport, VicRoads
12 comments
Two things I hate
Two things I hate are getting up early, and driving in heavy traffic.
This morning I did both, for the sake of The Car.
The Car was bought from Alan Mance in Melton. (”Don’t take a chance, go to Alan Mance.”)
To maintain the three year used-car warranty (which mind you only covers certain types of faults, and under fairly specific circumstances), I need to take it back to them every 6 months for a service, or a “safety check” if it’s not due for a service (which it rarely is, as I drive so little).
Thankfully I don’t have to go all the way to flippin’ Melton for that; but the closest one is in Footscray.
This either involves being organised enough to stay at Marita’s overnight (which I didn’t do), or getting up way earlier than I’m used to and driving across town in an effort to beat the traffic.
So this morning I the alarm went off at about 6:25, I was conscious and eating breakfast a few minutes later, in the shower at about 6:50, and out the door by 7:10. Now I know some would be scoffing at this and saying that’s not early at all. But it is for me.
Brad with the traffic on 774 was saying it was a CFMEU rostered day off today, and this was helping the traffic. I can only assume it’s pretty horrible normally then, because I got stuck on Brighton Road, St Kilda Road, Queens Road, and Kingsway.
Sure, it was only for a short period each time, but it really makes me appreciate that I don’t have to fight my way through the traffic every day. I don’t know how people do it.
So could I beat the traffic getting the car home? I checked with my sister, who works in South Melbourne and sees it every day — she said Kingsway is fine at 4:55pm, but clogs up just after five.
Originally they’d said the car would be ready at 4pm. Plenty of time to get across the bridge before 5pm. But then wouldn’t you know it, they rang at 3:15 saying it was advisable to replace the external drive belt (whatever the hell that is, apart from another $140), revising the pickup time to 4:30. D’oh!
As it happened I turned onto Kingsway just after the 5pm radio news came on.
And actually, it wasn’t too bad, and I made it home in one piece. Maybe that CFMEU RDO really did make the difference.
Tags: car, driving, traffic
7 comments
Manual vs auto
Sometimes I ponder if I should have gone ahead and bought a manual car. I can handle it okay, but gears are just another thing to deal with. As summer comes along, one has to remember to rev it a bit more when the aircon’s on, otherwise you make an unscheduled stop in Stall City.
It also means when Marita’s with me, she gets driven everywhere as she doesn’t do manuals! (Though she had a go of a manual truck recently and did fine.)
On the plus side for manuals, the fuel economy is a bit better, and there’s less mechanical stuff inside the car to break down.
Then again, hill starts still scare me a little.
Within a few years, the kids will be learning to drive. On the one hand it makes sense for them to learn gears, on the other, I wonder if not having to deal with them makes beginner drivers safer?
Thoughts?
Tags: cars, driving
23 comments
On the roads
The horrific car accident on Sunday morning that left 5 teenagers dead reminds me of some very stupid driving I saw from people on the trip down to Inverloch and back.
On the way down I saw a motorcyclist come up behind me on a stretch of single lane road. I was doing about the speed limit. He sat behind me for a few minutes. I saw a sign noting we were coming up to an overtaking lane, and thought he’d wait to overtake, but no, while we were on a curved stretch of road with double-white lines (indicating it was unsafe to overtake, don’t cross the lines), he decided to zoom past me. Only then did I see his pillion passenger on the back.
Stupid.
Driving back to Melbourne, I saw a couple of instances of people (one a zoomy sportscar, one a big truck) overtaking by using lanes marked for vehicles moving in the opposite direction to turn right.
And that was just two days after a nearby fatal crash close to Phillip Island. (In that accident, the man killed was not wearing a seatbelt.)
What can be done to stop this kind of behaviour?
Tags: driving
17 comments
Friday pics
Every time I pass this mural in Glen Huntly, I wonder if the grinning face is meant to be anybody in particular.
This sounds like brutal honesty to me — perhaps they’re just not that good.
Surely this can’t be good for your tyres.
Tags: driving, street art
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Grumble
Please note that I’m away for a couple of days, and may not be able to approve comments that fall into the moderation queue while away.
I don’t drive as much as many people, but one trip I do regularly is from my place to Marita’s (in Footscray), generally with a big box of fruit+veg from her favourite green grocer in Ripponlea.
There are two principal ways of doing it, to avoid the CBD:
When I’m in a hurry and/or don’t mind paying the toll: Kingsway, Westgate Freeway, Bolte Bridge, Footscray Road.
When I’m not in a hurry and wish to save the toll: Kingsway, Westgate Freeway, Montague Street, Wurundjeri Way, Footscray Road.
The toll is $2.15. Not a huge amount, admittedly. But then, it’s not a huge time-saving, either. And sometimes I like to check out the state of the Wheel or see if Melbourne’s fascination with Costco is still leading to queues into the carpark.
Not to mention the “spot the people who get into the left-hand lane for Aurora Lane and then try to sneak back out again” game.
As of this Sunday, the toll-free route will vanish:
New westbound entry-ramp at Kings Way for drivers heading to the West Gate Bridge, Bolte Bridge or Todd Road (please note drivers will no longer be able to get on at Kings Way and get off at Montague Street)
– West Gate Freeway – major traffic changes October 2009
Grumble.
I suppose I could go via South Melbourne to get to Montague Street, or via King Street, but I’d rather not clog up South Melbourne or the CBD with my car — nor get caught in traffic. Or I could go all the way over the Westgate then up to Footscray. But I suspect I’ll just end up paying the toll.
Which is not to say I’m against road tolls for the purposes of reducing demand or getting cars off city streets, but this may have the opposite effect. And while I know my taxes and rego etc don’t pay for the cost of roads, this could be seen as a massive $1.4 billion tax-payer funded subsidy to Citylink.
Oh, and thank you too to the government for failing to fund more frequent train services so that this kind of cross-town trip could be done without the current 20-30 wait between trains on weekends.
Tags: Bolte bridge, driving, M1, Westgate freeway
7 comments
