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]
Tag: transport
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]
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]
Yet again we have public figures extolling the virtues of technology over service in public transport. Underground railways Jeff Kennett thinks underground railways are the panacea: “If I was able to wave a magic wand even now, I would start the planning for an underground rail system,” he told the Australian Property Institute Pan Pacific ... [More]
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. On Sunday 9th September 69 volunteers, 69 bicycles, 60 cars and ... [More]
Someone was handing these out at Flagstaff station the other day. The bloke was in the exit area at ground-level, and was not on the public footpath. If it were Southern Cross station, where the security guards are super-vigilant about this kind of thing, he’d have been moved on unless he had a commercial arrangement ... [More]
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My blabbering in the TARDIS
Deep within the bowels of the ABC studios at Southbank… …there is a Triple J studio called “TARDIS”. Well, recording booths. I discovered that they’re not bigger on the inside. I was there the other day at lunchtime. My blabbering has shown up as part of a Triple J “Hack” story on the costs of ... [More]
What’s the ultimate waste of space in a city centre? Ground level, single level parking. Along with the access space required to get cars in and out, it’s wasted space because apart from perhaps $20-30 per day in revenue, it isn’t used for anything. This post from Gordon Price compares a few cities — the ... [More]
Some reasons why the Rod Eddington-proposed east-west road tunnel makes no sense: 1. Eddington’s own study showed the road tunnel would have a benefit/cost ratio of just 45 cents in the dollar. 2. Even including the rather wobbly “wider economic benefits” only got it up to 72 cents. (Only by lumping in other projects including ... [More]
This is Flagstaff station yesterday at 8:50am. It’s not a once-off occurence, but happens regularly. As patronage has grown at Parliament and Melbourne Central, more gates have gradually gone in… fitting more in at Flagstaff is probably a challenge, but one that will have to be looked at, perhaps in conjunction with the conversion from ... [More]
Here’s something to ponder… If Melbourne didn’t have trams anymore, would every CBD street look like Lonsdale Street? (Seen on Twitter recently: “Lonsdale St is the scariest, least bike friendly St in CBD. Discuss.”) PS. Lunchtime: I’d just note that I deliberately chose Lonsdale Street over the (arguably more attractive) Exhibition or Queen Streets because ... [More]
Glen Mount Waverley MP Michael Gidley got into a scrap with some ALP campaign workers on Wednesday outside Parliament Station. On exiting the station, I received a brochure from an individual. I then sought advice from authorised officers at the station on the distribution of this information because I do not believe it is appropriate ... [More]