Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.
Jeez, at this rate, most posts this week might be transport-related. (See the cover of the Age this morning?) Back when I was learning to drive, one of the things that stuck in my head (thanks to Andre the driving instructor) was that when turning right, one should keep the steering wheel in the forward ... [More]
I liked the vehicle emissions chart I posted here last week that I included it in Sunday’s presentation. A journo at the presentation liked it so much he wrote it up for this morning’s Age. The graph has been published again in full here (it doesn’t have my old Magna, and includes some extra cars) ... [More]
Another post about traffic lights… Apart from the CBD, it seems there are some other places where you don’t need to press the button to get a green man. From what I can tell, this includes a number of intersections in the Caulfield area, such as along Glen Eira Road, on Friday nights and Saturdays. ... [More]
I find it amusing when there’s a mismatch between things that are apparently hip and modern and up to date, and things that definitely aren’t. Take this shop for example: Cool laneway location Grungy warehouse basement position Daggy antique 80’s blue-screen DOS-based Point Of Sale system (on a flat screen)! My fellow geeks are probably ... [More]
I just about punched the air when I read Elliot Fishman’s great opinion piece in today’s Age: RACV heading down the wrong road. Elliot highlights some of the things I’ve pondered recently, such as the RACV’s 2004 spectacularly wrong guess on oil prices, as well as pointing out the flaws in their calls for lower ... [More]
Glad it wasn’t me that this happened to. One can understand the frustration which gets people taking flying kicks at the machine, trying to rock it on its base to get the purchase out.
On Thursday some school books were lost by Son The Elder. On Friday he checked with his home group teacher. He checked with the year level co-ordinator and the office. Following the long weekend, he checked again on Tuesday after school. Nothing had turned up. He seemed worried about the missing books, so I moved ... [More]
While one can see that developing hybrid Camrys is going to be of some benefit, with reduced petrol consumption and therefore reduced emissions, I think we need to get a little perspective here. What they’re saying is that the hybrid Camry will reduce consumption by about a third. That’s certainly a start, putting it below ... [More]
Brian K posted about different types of people and their behaviour at pedestrian lights: those who don’t press it, then look confused when nothing happens; those who press it once; those who rapid-fire press it dozens of times, in the mistaken belief that it makes the lights change quicker. (Ah. It seems I’ve written about ... [More]
I’m not really familiar with the work of Bill Henson. I’m more familiar with Jim Henson. But I do know this: Nudity is not necessarily sexuality. Context is critical. Which is why Mal Day’s comments on Lateline were so stupid: If I was to take those – take similar photos and display ’em in any ... [More]
My sister and her family are moving from gentrified East Brighton to the wilds of Cheltenham. They bought a house there on a huge block of land, with a pool in the backyard. They don’t expect to keep the pool (what, in this day and age, and with Waves about 5 minutes’ walk away?) but ... [More]
An email went around noting that today is World Environment Day, and it provided a list of tips for reducing your impact on the planet. It made for some interesting reading. Turn down the heat – reducing the thermostat by 1 degree can save 5 – 10% of energy When I use the heat, I ... [More]
Having never been a clubbing-type disco person, I don’t pretend to know enough about the CBD club 2am lockout to know if it’ll work in reducing alcohol abuse and street violence. But I do know that protesters seem to be making out that it means every night at 2am, people will be kicked out onto ... [More]
There was some discussion on this recently in the comments, and now it’s become reality: From tomorrow, most Australian credit cards will offer you the choice of using the PIN instead of signing, at most shops. Details on the Pen Or Pin web site. Wouldn’t surprise me if it had been pushed by those retailers ... [More]
Amusing sight the other morning: a group of tourists lining up along a tram stop platform in Flinders Street to take photos of a passing fire engine, zooming by with lights and sirens blaring. Sorry, I didn’t get a pic of them. I admit, I’ve done similar in foreign cities. It’s what’s different about every ... [More]
Something I remember my driving instructor telling me all those years ago was that mounting the kerb was a big no-no during a driving test. It would result in instant failure. It sticks in my mind, particularly when I see something like this: This was the second attempt at parking for this guy. I watched ... [More]