Tag: Canberra

Photos from ten years ago: Canberra

Almost all my photos from August 2005 seem to be from a three day Canberra trip (actually the only time I’ve been to Canberra). I remember it being cold but fun.

And many of the photos are from around the Parliament Houses (old and new).

Old Parliament House:
Old Parliament House, Canberra, August 2005

Old Parliament House, Canberra, August 2005

New Parliament House. I think this was the approach from Canberra Avenue. Obviously there were works going on at the time.
Parliament House, Canberra, August 2005

It’s rather impressive up close.
Parliament House, Canberra, August 2005

At the time there seemed to be pretty free easy access to the top. Can you still go up there?
Parliament House, Canberra, August 2005

Inside: the House of Representatives.
House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra, August 2005

The Senate. In contrast to some of PM Abbott’s appearances, only two flags — almost seems unpatriotic in comparison.
The Senate, Parliament House, Canberra, August 2005

A panorama from the roof of Parliament House. Use the scroll bar to move across, or view the large size at Flickr.

A typical Canberra bus shelter. They look funny to this Melburnian’s eyes, but you can’t deny they’d provide actual shelter from the weather, unlike the glorified advertising billboards we often get here.
Bus stop, Canberra, August 2005

This was snapped out of the plane window as we left Canberra. Makes you realise how low-rise it is (or at least, was).
Canberra from the air, August 2005

The Black Mountain/Telstra Tower. Shame we didn’t get a chance to go up there.
Canberra from the air, August 2005

#HighSpeedRail may not happen anytime soon, but it’s critical that the corridor be reserved

The Phase 2 Report from the High Speed Rail study was released last week — predicting that although HSR would cover its recurrent (running/maintenance) costs, it’d first take some $114 billion and 45 years to build it.

As I’ve said before, I think a 3-ish hour trip from Melbourne to Sydney would be time-competitive with flying.
Taiwan High Speed Rail
$114 billion is obviously an incredible cost, and taking decades to build it is a totally unambitious timeframe. I’m sure if you outsourced it to those who have built such lines elsewhere, they could get it running much more quickly and cheaply. Or if they got tough on the airlines and proclaimed a forced heavy future reduction in emissions, and particularly if oil prices skyrocket and a second Sydney airport is put on hold, they could coax Qantas and Virgin into the railways business.

(It’s interesting that much of the debate since the report was released has ignored emissions issues, and focussed on the benefits to existing rail passengers, not those currently travelling by air.)

But even if you assume it could be built quicker and cheaper, the question is: should one heed the calls of the optimists and start building it now? Or follow the cynics who say it’s all too expensive, that we don’t have the population, and we should forget it?

I’m not sure. Fact is, across the country, there are probably a lot more important infrastructure projects that need building first. That money (even if you assumed it could be built for half that cost) could solve a lot of other problems.

And realistically, the political and economic climate means there’s no hope of it being built right now.

But… as this piece in The Conversation says, they should definitely go ahead and identify and reserve the corridor — just like the roads people do all the time.

All that said, it seems prudent to plan and protect a corridor. It’s not overly expensive to work out a detailed alignment and preserve it from incompatible land development. This does little harm and ensures we can move forward if and when circumstances change and/or the time is right.

This is a must. Not doing so — even if actual construction work isn’t to start in the foreseeable future — could make it impossible for it to ever happen later.

Road space: bus vs bikes vs cars – a famous photo recreated in Canberra

Many years ago the German city of Munster set up a photo comparing the road space taken by people in a bus, on bikes, and in cars.

Earlier this month the Cycling Promotion Fund recreated that picture in Canberra, and yesterday they released it.

69 people, by bus, on bikes, or in 60 cars

On Sunday 9th September 69 volunteers, 69 bicycles, 60 cars and one bus gathered in Canberra to recreate a world-renowned photograph taken more than 20 years ago to demonstrate the advantages of bus and bicycle travel in congested cities.

The captured image shows the typical space occupied in a city street by three common modes of transport—cars, bicycles and a bus —- and is being made available free of charge to organisations, group and individuals to help promote the efficiency of public transport and cycling in congested cities.
…

The project used 69 people, as this is the capacity of a standard Canberra bus, and 60 cars, as this is the number occupied on average by 69 people.

— Cycling Promotion Fund media release

Like the old photo from Munster, it very clearly shows how moving large numbers of people by car around cities is not efficient — something people sometimes seem to forget when praising such developments as electric cars.

But unlike that old photo (and a similar photo I recall being done on Melbourne’s Swanston Street which seems to have never been seen since), CPF have made the photo freely available at high resolution.

They also did a short video showing the photo shoot:

Good work CPF.