Categories
transport

Why are pedestrian crossings so narrow?

Why is it that at most traffic lights, the crossings for pedestrians are so narrow? Even in Melbourne’s CBD, where heavy pedestrian numbers are expected, most crossings are far too narrow for the number of people. It appears that technically, anybody crossing outside the lines is in breach of Road Safety Rule regulation 234 (a)  ... [More]

Categories
driving transport

Dash it all! Why intersection markings are changing

You may have noticed that some intersection markings, including pedestrian crossings, are changing. Solid white lines are becoming dashed white lines. Ditto turning lines at intersections. This change brings Victorian practice into line with the Australian standard. NSW (and probably other states) used to have solid lines too, but sometime in the last few decades  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Would you want a spaghetti junction in your neighbourhood?

In a plan that takes the popular level crossing removal program but flips it on its head, the State Coalition have announced they will grade-separate 55 road intersections around Melbourne if elected in 2018. (Reports: ABC / Age / Herald Sun) Here’s an animation created by the Coalition: And here’s the list of intersections announced  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Level crossings: Which are funded to be removed, which are promised?

Updates: September 2017 | November 2018 | November 2020 Jump straight to the list I’ve been trying to sort out the status of all the level crossings from the various lists. Some are fully funded, others are funded for planning, and some are merely promises/pledges from the politicians. I ended up going back to the  ... [More]

Categories
transport

#EWLink: What is it? What is it For? Why it won’t die easily? – Sophie Sturup on mega projects

I and others have been known to call the East-West Link tunnel a zombie project — you can fight it off (as was done in the 70s) but it will never truly die. Last year at the launch for the Trains Not Tollroads campaign, Dr Sophie Sturup gave a great speech on mega projects. She  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Bike lanes that don’t disappear 50m before an intersection? Yes, it is possible.

As an occasional cyclist, nothing puts me off like feeling unsafe. Bike lanes help me feel safer, but tend to fizzle out before intersections — just where many cyclists would consider that you need them the most. It doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s a real life example of continuous bike lanes: the corner  ... [More]

Categories
transport

So, is this a zebra crossing, or not?

Dear City of Maribyrnong and/or VicRoads, I’m confused. Is this a zebra crossing, or not? This is the corner of Nicholson and Droop Streets, in Footscray. It appears the lights were originally a conventional non-zebra crossing when the road was narrowed a few years ago. But with only a single lane of traffic (which very  ... [More]

Categories
driving Politics and activism

If east-west traffic is so critical, why does the M1 only provide 2 through lanes each way?

The government argues that cross-city traffic is so critical that the they want to (without a mandate) spend $8 billion building just the first phase of the East-West tunnel. If that’s the case, then why does the newly remodelled (2008-2010) M1 corridor only provide two lanes in each direction for those cross-city trips? Eastbound (coming  ... [More]

Categories
transport

What do people want prioritised? PT or roads? Every survey says PT.

The state government continues to push the East-West motorway (a plan they barely mentioned in the 2010 election campaign) over major public transport projects. But what do the people want? As it happens there’s a pretty clear message from surveys going back at least five years. (Skip to the end for the latest one.) October  ... [More]

Categories
transport

One look at the planned EW route shows why it would have made yesterday’s #Citylink mess worse, not better

The claims that the East-West link would somehow help the road network cope with yesterday’s horrible Citylink accident are truly mystifying. It really does appear as if the motorway boosters have tried to make use of this high-profile event to promote their cause in the hope that nobody thought too much about what they were  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism transport

Abbott reckons the Commonwealth doesn’t fund railways… Of course they do. Here are some examples.

“We spoke to Infrastructure Australia and their advice was that the most pressing road priority in Melbourne was the east-west link,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Frankston on Thursday. “Now the Commonwealth government has a long history of funding roads. We have no history of funding urban rail and I think it’s important that we  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Vicroads and their decades-long plans for road widening

Say what you like about VicRoads, they know how to do forward planning. For example, there’s a stretch of Ballarat Road in Footscray, just west of where the dual carriageway ends, where this is a common sight: Lovely, isn’t it. Derelict wasteland, left to rot. A look at Google’s aerial view reveals quite a few  ... [More]