A HIGH school has banned bicycles because it has no bike shed and it doesn’t want to encourage students who refuse to wear helmets.

Hume Central Secondary College’s policy has puzzled health and cycling groups amid growing concern about childhood obesity.
…
In the same newsletter, she [Principal Bronwyn Meek] complained about the dangerous congestion caused by too many cars around afternoon pick-up time.

– Herald Sun: Hume Central Secondary College bans bikes

Meanwhile, a study by BusVic concluded that users of public transport get an average five times more walking time per day than those who use private transport.

• Public transport (all users): 41 mins
• Public transport, no private transport: 47 mins
• Private transport (cars, taxis, motorcycles), but no public transport: 8 mins
• Overall Melbourne average: 15 mins

And they looked at which areas of Melbourne have the lowest average minutes per day walking and cycling. Hardly surprising that it’s the areas which have the poorest public transport, where people are dependent on their cars for most trips.

And people wonder why there’s an obesity crisis.

I may not always enjoy the walk to the station, but I know it’s good for me, and because it’s built into my daily routine, it always happens.

I’m just lucky I live in an area where I’ve got that choice.

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.

For the record (because often years later I come back and compare what I got for how much) the specs are: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400, 2Gb RAM, 500 Gb hard disk, NVidia GeForce 9300 GE (256 Mb video memory), DVB TV tuner, and a bunch of other stuff. All up $750 from GraysOnline ($609 plus some strange 15% fee called a buyer’s premium, plus delivery, but at least you know all that up-front).

Unfortunately it came with Windows Vista, so I’m taking the opportunity to upgrade it and the older computer (”Tintin”, which got an upgrade last year) I’m keeping for desktop use to Windows 7. The new one will do the games and video stuff, the old one I’ll chop back to basics: email and web and stuff.

Now I just have to work out what to do with “Snowy”. (Perhaps it’s time for it to upgrade the server, “Nestor”.)

But it would be wrong to publish such a photo without his permission.

Instead I give you this, found in a street in Footscray. Let’s hope it’s bigger on the inside.

And it was nice to see this in Dudley Street, West Melbourne.

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.