Categories
Home life

Insulation is back in my roof (just in time for winter, it seems)

Well, I’m getting there. Last week I had a ceiling fan installed in the livingroom. It’ll help on hot days, and because I have ceiling ducted heating, also helps distribute heat better on cold days as well. To do this, the old light fitting was removed. I’m hoping it might be worth something — I  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Hidden meaning in route numbers

There’s hidden meaning in some of Melbourne’s tram and bus route numbers. Below 150 is all trams, for a start. Above is buses. I suspect trams will move to 1 or 2-digit numbers in the next few years, to accomodate the new “a” (altered) and “d” (depot) suffixes in the displays (most of which are  ... [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
Melbourne transport

How much ground level parking is there in Melbourne’s CBD?

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]

Categories
Social media transport

Metro Trains and their Twitter feed

Amidst the outrage about changes to Metro’s Twitter feed, there are claims that it used to include train cancellations. This was not so. They did not tweet individual train cancellations or diversions. These only went out on SMS to subscribers, and on the web site. (Alas Metro have now deleted the evidence of this that  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism transport

Pondering: Why aren’t MetroTrains promoting the hell out of their ten minute services?

(I’m at home today awaiting two tradesmen, so I’ve been a little creative.) Here’s what I can’t figure out: since late-2010, the Frankston line has run every ten minutes between the peaks. In 2011 they tidied this up and made all those trains run direct to Flinders Street, and then through to Newport, with alternating  ... [More]

Categories
Culture

Street art near Richmond station

Noticeable from the train near Richmond station is this street art/mural, with its distinctive image of a man and the “RIP Dad” markings. The other week I got a chance to take a closer look. You can just make out the small print: James Patrick Beatie 1933-2010, which matches this short bio. On the opposite  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

At Brighton beach last night

We were trying to escape the heat, which really wasn’t successful — apart from right next to the water, it was as warm by the beach as it was at home. (For you out of towners, it reached about 40 degrees yesterday, with a low of 24 overnight.) But we did meet this critter. Very  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne News and events

How many people watched the fireworks in different cities?

Happy new year. This was the view last night from Footscray, looking along the Maribyrnong towards the City. By the time they’d finished, there was something of a smoke haze. (From where we were, we couldn’t see the spire fire.) I was curious how many people turn out to watch fireworks for New Year’s Eve  ... [More]