Categories
transport

A tale of two Bentleighs

Census data for Journey To Work was released on Monday, and many are taking a good look at the results. In Greater Melbourne, overall about 16.3% of people are using public transport to get to work — up from 14.5% in 2011. (It actually depends how you define “Melbourne”, and how you analyse the figures.  ... [More]

Categories
walking

Whoever programmed these traffic lights is treating pedestrians with contempt

If they want to encourage people to walk, they should at least ensure it’s as easy as possible. But in many cases, traffic lights are programmed to make it difficult – even where fixing it wouldn’t disadvantage motorists at all. Example 1 Here’s the T-junction at Centre Road and Eskay Road, Oakleigh South. I’m walking  ... [More]

Categories
Europe 2017 ???????????????????? Toxic Custard newsletter walking

Brussels has zebra crossings. Lots and lots of zebra crossings. Could we have more too?

One of the things I found fascinating about Brussels on our recent holiday was – in contrast to Cardiff – how they’ve gone out of their way to make life easy for pedestrians. Most striking was that there were zebra crossings. Lots and lots of zebra crossings. When I first spotted how many there were,  ... [More]

Categories
transport

PTV’s web site timetables are broken

A few weeks ago I looked at problems with Metro’s paper timetables. Now, can we talk about how hopeless the PTV web site timetables are? Most of the rest of the web site works quite well, but the timetables, a key part, really are horribly unusable. If you’ve got the patience, see how many steps  ... [More]

Categories
transport

2017 passenger load surveys

PTV released their passenger load surveys for trams and suburban trains, with results from May 2017. They used to do these twice annually, now it’s only once a year. These surveys are used to measure crowding on Melbourne’s trains and trams in peak hour. As usual, cancellations and major delays are excluded. Why? Because the  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Trains through Glenhuntly are barely faster than walking pace

The other week I noted the current state of level crossing removals across Melbourne, and that Glen Huntly Road / Glenhuntly Station [1] isn’t on the list. This used to be my home station, and with about a million boardings per year [2], it’s the busiest on the Frankston line south of Caulfield, apart from  ... [More]

Categories
The week in transport transport

Some brief transport stuff from this week

A post in an occasional series wrapping up a few brief transporty things from the last week or two. The new train design This might be the least crowded train I’ve ever caught. That’s because it’s a pretend train, a mock-up of a carriage and a half, somewhere in a warehouse in outer-suburban Melbourne. I  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Southland paid parking starts soon

Southland Shopping Centre introduces paid parking on Monday 16th October. But before you reach for the pitchforks, it only applies if shoppers stay more than three hours. You get the first three hours for free, with an extra hour if you’re going to a movie. Beyond that, it’s basically $3 per additional hour. It uses  ... [More]