In pictures… Road Morons
One can only hope that (a) the idiots didn’t hit anybody as they sped through the Mall, and that (b) those that do this kind of thing get pulled over for it.
(1:21pm on Monday)
As you can see from Google Streetview, there is signage/road markings indicating that when coming westbound on Bourke Street, motorists shouldn’t enter the tram stop — they should do a U-turn and go back.
(Ironically both the Google Streetview car and another vehicle can be seen driving through the tram stop — though the other vehicle is a loaded ute which parks in the Bourke Street Mall, so it may have had permission to be there, where some exceptions apply, though this does not appear to be the case for the Bourke/Swanston tram stop.)
I suspect the answer here is the City of Melbourne needs to close Bourke Street to vehicles all the way up to Russell Street; or at least ban motor vehicles from entering and heading westbound (but allow them to leave eastbound eg if they’ve come via Royal Lane or Russell Place.
Who’s meant to give way?
The law says that motorists turning into a street must give way to pedestrians crossing that street.
The law also says that motorists turning in or out of a private property (such as a carpark) must give way to pedestrians.
So why does the signage always imply it’s the pedestrian that should be the one to give way?
OK, obviously it’s good for pedestrians to be aware of cars coming through, in case they don’t give way, but perhaps signage should also remind the motorists of their legal obligations (since a few appear to be unaware)?
And I wonder if there would ever come a point where building codes reflect what the law says, and preclude building high walls/fences/hedges which cause blind corners?… or ensure that mirrors or some other precaution must be undertaken so that motorists can see those they’re meant to be giving way to?
Tags: pedestrians, road laws
9 comments
Unwanted phone calls, and a higher premium? Youi insurance FAIL
Got my car insurance renewal from Bingle. $375.10. I’ve had it there since 2009.
Thought I’d quickly look around at insurers known to take low car usage into account.
PayAsYouDrive… whipped through the form, and it came up with $426.50 for the minimum 5000 kms per year of driving. A more conservative 7000 kms came back as $477.80. So they’re out. (By the way, their web site has improved since the problems I had with it in 2009, which at the time prompted them to respond on my blog. But it doesn’t appear to cater for anything other than a policy starting today, even though I was already currently insured. Odd.)
Youi. Asked for a mobile number to send me a PIN. Annoying, but they say it’s to prevent robots getting into their system. Not sure I believe that, but ok, I went through web form, got to the end and…
…it announced I’m a “preferred customer”, and, without giving me the option: one of our highly skilled advisors is busy calling you right now to finalise your quote.
Sure enough the guy rang up a minute later.
I was cranky. I didn’t want a phone call. I hate making phone calls about insurance, and I don’t have the time. That’s why I used the web site. Heck, this type of transaction is what web sites are made for.
I told the guy so, and asked him to pass that on to his management, and I reluctantly agreed to have him ring back later. (5-6 minutes on the phone, he promised.) After all, perhaps it would be cheaper than Bingle… though it would need to be a significant amount to overcome the inconvenience of the phone call, and the deceptive web site.
You know what Youi, you’re not getting off to a good start on the whole customer-relationship front. If I’d wanted to discuss it on the phone, I would have clicked the “Quote by phone” button instead of the “Quote online” button.
So anyway, I took the subsequent call. The bloke was polite, quick and professional, but the questions included nothing they couldn’t have asked online.
Except this: he asked who I was currently with, and what their premium was. He said Bingle is a hard one to compete with, and Youi’s cover is better, with more benefits (which may well be true, but what do I care if I have never ever claimed, and drive so little that, touch wood, I’ll never have to?)…
Here’s the kicker: He said that the best premium they could offer me is $466.85.
Yes, after all that, after wasting my time with an unwanted phone call, Youi was $91.75 higher than Bingle.
I think at this point you can guess who’s getting my money.
Servicing a car that barely gets used
Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve now had my car for almost three years.
This means the dealer warranty that came with it is just about to run out, which in turn means I don’t have to keep driving it across town to Alan Mance to keep it current. Good.
I’ve only made use of that warranty once or twice, and of course it didn’t wipe out the cost of a service/repair, merely reduced it. (At one stage there was a problem with the engine stuttering, and another time one of the electric windows failed.)
I’m actually wondering how little servicing I can get away with. Consider this: I barely drive during the week. It’s not uncommon for the car to sit in the driveway from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon.
Apart from long drives such as this past weekend (up to Marita’s parents and back; a total of about 320 km) and suburban jaunts, I reckon I’d normally do less than 50 km per week. So (and I haven’t checked this) I might drive about 3000 kilometres in a year — a long way from the Australian average of 14,600.
So I’m thinking for the basic twice-a-year checkup (including oil change) I’ll probably just start taking it to the local Ultratune, which is closeby (in Mckinnon) and in fact is closer to a railway station than the nearest Holden dealers at Elsternwick, Oakleigh or Glenhuntly.
Occasionally they might need to order a part and wait a day or two, but given how little I drive during the week, it’s unlikely to matter.
(By the way, Ultratune is one of several companies that sell roadside assistance, for $65/year — cheaper than RACV’s basic rate of $86 plus $46 establishment, and you don’t see Ultratune out lobbying for more freeways, do you…)
Tags: Astra, driving
15 comments
RoadMorons strike again
Sometime last night, it seems. Update: Marita says it was Thursday night.
By my calculations, I fill up my car with petrol every 27.5 days
With the usual media coverage of petrol price rises over Easter (yes, that’s how the market economy works… when demand goes up, so do prices…), I was pondering how much money I’ve been spending on petrol.
The car barely goes anywhere on weekdays, and even on the weekends I’m doing perhaps around 50 kilometres.
Given I never pay cash at petrol stations, I had a quick skim through my credit card history to see how often I fill up. And the answer is that the median number of days between fills is 27.5 days. (Usually I don’t bother going in unless the tank is under about 15% full.)
Sometimes it’ll be as short as a week or so between petrol visits — such as over the Christmas period when there’s often a trip or two up to the country. But at other times I’ll go as much as 42 days between refills.
I also worked out that I’ve spent $716.26 on petrol in the past year, and my median petrol cost per day is $1.71… so I suppose about 1.3 litres at current costs.
But I’m lucky enough that most of the time, I simply don’t use much petrol, because most of my trips each week are either on foot or on PT.
Be nice if more people had that option.
- 20/8/2009: The monthly refueling
Tags: driving, petrol, transport
4 comments
A 4WD actually used for 4WDing
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of four wheel drives, but it’s nice to see one that’s obviously used for its intended purpose, rather than just cruising around the suburbs.
It appears to be real mud, not those stick-on blobs you hear about.
Peugot 308: Turbo-powered sneaker
For some reason, every time I see a Peugot 308, especially in white, it reminds me of a giant sneaker.
In fact specifically it reminds me of the sneaker in The Magic Portal (around the 12:30 mark).
Tags: cars, Peugot
3 comments
