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transport

T junction lights

Even this brand new set of traffic lights prioritises non-existent traffic over pedestrians

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transport

Beg buttons for motorists

This is real priority for pedestrians

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Toxic Custard newsletter transport

Traffic light programming, and the tale of the Magic Laptop

The Magic Laptop One evening many years ago some PTUA bods and I were meeting with a Vicroads bloke about traffic light priority and other related issues. He had a laptop with him, and it displayed a diagram of a major intersection; I think it was somewhere out on Burwood Highway. While pondering topics such  ... [More]

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Toxic Custard newsletter transport

Traffic light programming is why your CBD tram trip is start, stop, start

It’s not uncommon to see trams stopped at traffic lights along Bourke Street, sometimes in queues, at locations where there is no stop. If you’ve wondered why your tram journey is start-stop, it won’t surprise you to learn that the lights are all over the place. With the handy-dandy stopwatch function on my mobile phone,  ... [More]

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Toxic Custard newsletter transport

You shall not pass

I know it’s been around for a while, but I was quite struck the other day by these traffic lights on the corner of La Trobe and Swanston Streets, facing southbound traffic coming down Swanston. The left and right arrows are for motor vehicles (which can go left or right, but not straight ahead). The  ... [More]

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transport

Spotted

Spotted around the RACV centre in Bourke Street… I’m not sure what these things are called. They’re from the days before traffic lights — before my time. The only problem with these ones is that two directions are getting a green signal at once, which would result in a crash. This street sign looks a  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism transport

Spotted

Spotted (by Marita, actually), this amusing van: Meanwhile on the corner of Latrobe and William Streets, they’ve painted arrows and lines to help show drivers where to wait to make their hook turns: PS. There are also animated/flashing signs signalling for right-turning drivers to wait. Will see if I can snap a pic of one.  ... [More]

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transport

Bottom of the foodchain

I’ve been sitting on this blog post for a while now. Haven’t had time to refine it as much as I’d like, but it’s time to just get it out. We probably don’t need footpath reports on the radio… …but we do need more consideration of pedestrians. I think people would jaywalk less, and I  ... [More]

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transport

Traffic light cleaner

Here’s a job I never knew existed: traffic light cleaner. (Seen on William St yesterday)

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Melbourne transport

Where are the green men?

A number of traffic lights used for crossing the “little” streets in central Melbourne don’t have green/red men. Some do, however, particularly along Swanston Street where there are heavy pedestrian flows and — I suspect — more people likely to be just following everyone else like sheep, and not looking for cars before they cross  ... [More]

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transport

King Street

What’s so special about King Street, in Melbourne’s Central Business District? Well, it’s the only main street in the Hoddle Grid which has absolutely no scheduled public transport running along it. So you might think, given the rhetoric is to help people get onto PT, especially for trips into the CBD, that they’d avoid giving  ... [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]