Categories
driving

Fast cars

I was trying to get some photos and/or video for a blog post I’m writing. I’m having trouble finding a source for part of the post, so in the meantime here’s a snippet of video from the pedestrian overpass above the Nepean Highway at Moorabbin. I might be wrong, but it does appear to me  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Why do some stopped buses use indicators, and some use hazard lights?

It’s long been a bugbear of mine that a vehicle that has correctly stopped in a legal parking/stopping position should not use its hazard lights. Some buses do this, despite being stopped in proper bus zones. Melbourne Bus Link appears to be one company whose buses mostly do this. Most buses from other operators seem  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism transport

As a pedestrian, I hate streets with only one footpath

The Greens are traditionally strong on sustainable transport issues, but one of the local candidates for council raised my hackles with this comment: Do we really need footpaths on both sides of the street, in every street in Tucker Ward? There are plenty of places without footpaths or footpaths just on one side. This would  ... [More]

Categories
transport

“Second river crossing”? We already have six seven.

A lot of the talk around the need for a new east-west motorway claims we need a second river crossing. The issue with this claim is that we already have a second river crossing. The first river crossing is, of course, the Westgate bridge — recently-upgraded (25% boost in capacity as part of a $1.4  ... [More]

Categories
transport

17 years ago, Citylink ads claimed it’d fix our traffic problems. Surprise! It didn’t work.

Tony Abbott apparently doesn’t just think more roads can solve traffic, he actually thinks tarmac and cars smothering our cities makes them more liveable. Melbourne suffered traffic gridlock yesterday. It’s very important that the national government fund nationally important infrastructure. I have committed an incoming Coalition government to spending $1.5 billion to kickstart the East  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Is this Melbourne’s narrowest bike lane?

Is this Melbourne’s narrowest bike lane? What exactly is the point here? I wonder if it actually offers cyclists any safety if they have to move out into traffic every time there’s a parked car? I’m not sure that it inspires me as a prospective cyclist. Pic from Brewer Road, Bentleigh. I thought Neerim Road  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Westgate bridge: induced traffic coming soon

There you go; the RACV said again yesterday (as they have done in the past) that the $1.4 billion M1/Westgate Bridge upgrade (including the new lanes opened yesterday) will be swamped within a decade. Brian Negus, of the RACV, welcomed the opening of the fifth lane. It was the final link in the freeway corridor  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

How Ernst Wanke Road got its name (and how to pronounce it)

If you’ve had Ernst Wanke Road catch your eye when you were looking at Berwick in the map, and wondered “what the?”, then wonder no longer. The Wanke Family: Settlers From the German States Ernst Gottlieb Wanke was a Doctor of Dentistry and was born in around 1821 in Prussia. The Wanke family arrived in  ... [More]

Categories
Health transport

Living near busy roads

As reported in The Age, the US Health Effects Institute recently published a report on the effects of living near busy roads. Its conclusion was that: …there is sufficient evidence that exposures to traffic-related air pollution cause asthma exacerbation in children and suggestive evidence that they might cause other health effects. …the zones most impacted  ... [More]

Categories
driving Morons on the road

Hello, Sunday drivers

I’ve become something of a Sunday driver since I no longer generally drive anywhere on weekdays. But I’d like to think I’m better than the stereotype. Out and about yesterday, I’m just staggered by the number of people not paying attention, or wilfully ignoring the rules, or apparently ignorant of the rules. Ms Old Bomb  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne News and events

What was yesterday?

Yesterday was the 5th of April. It was Easter Monday, a public holiday in Victoria. Most businesses were closed. When it comes to the shops, it looked like a Sunday: most smaller ones closed, most bigger ones open. (Not like Good Friday and Easter Sunday when everything’s closed.) Schools were all closed, but they’re in  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne transport

Going backwards

This is not progress. This is the corner of Flinders Lane and Spring Street, in the CBD. Should be a priority pedestrian area — it’s certainly flagged that way under the SmartRoads strategy. But the zebra crossing that was here before has been removed and replaced with a traffic light. Which means that while before  ... [More]