It’s easy when looking at aerial pictures to see the vast amounts of land taken up by freeway interchanges. (Pic: Google Maps) What is sometimes forgotten is the impact at ground level from elevated roadways. Here are some snaps from around South Melbourne — which of course being inner-city, has some of the most valuable ... [More]
Category: transport
All forms of transport, including gunzelly
Some bits of transport news worth noting today: July: new services The Herald Sun has the scoop on public transport service upgrades from late-July: Work commute eased as new train, tram, bus services announced (a very narrowly focussed headline given the upgrades benefit a lot more than 9-5 workers). Details are still a little sketchy, ... [More]
This was posted on Facebook by a Melbourne train driver last week. It’s well worth a read. Given he says “please share this” (and other copies doing the rounds are screen dumps, making it difficult to read, especially for those with vision issues), I’m posting the text in full here: I try to keep my ... [More]
I was passed this infographic on public transport from some mob from Ireland called HoogleIt. They seem to be sending it around to various bloggers to get it posted around the place as a promotional tool. Fair enough. It has some interesting factoids on it. Anything about Melbourne in here? Indirectly. The photo illustrating “liveable ... [More]
I was chatting on Friday to a colleague who has just bought a house with her husband. They ended up in an area they are familiar with and like, and as a bonus, she said, it’s in zone 1. I was the same when I bought my house back in 2005 — it wasn’t necessarily ... [More]
As an occasional cyclist, nothing puts me off like feeling unsafe. Bike lanes help me feel safer, but tend to fizzle out before intersections — just where many cyclists would consider that you need them the most. It doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s a real life example of continuous bike lanes: the corner ... [More]
I finally got around to going to look at the new Myki gates at Springvale station the other day. They’ve also been installed at Mitcham, and will be put in at Richmond soon. From what I’d heard, they are faster than the existing older Myki gates installed in 2012-13. The stories were true. They are ... [More]
You might have seen media coverage (Age / Herald Sun) of the new City of Melbourne Draft Walking Plan. There’s lots of interesting stuff in the document (PDF, 35Mb). Below are some notes from a skim through. (Page references refer to those at the top of the page, eg numbered from the start of the ... [More]
In this blog post I hope to address a few myths around Melbourne’s rail system that I’m seeing floating around. The Loop tunnels have hardly any trains! I’ve heard from a couple of sources in the past week (one on mainstream radio) the claim that nothing needs to be done about rail capacity in the ... [More]
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When the trip home goes wrong
Obviously I wouldn’t normally do this, but let me tell you about my trip home last night. And then I’ll look beyond it to the big picture. I wouldn’t normally do it, because despite problems, it’s usually pretty smooth. Last night… not so much. 5:20. Check Metro web site to see how the trains are ... [More]
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So, is this a zebra crossing, or not?
Dear City of Maribyrnong and/or VicRoads, I’m confused. Is this a zebra crossing, or not? This is the corner of Nicholson and Droop Streets, in Footscray. It appears the lights were originally a conventional non-zebra crossing when the road was narrowed a few years ago. But with only a single lane of traffic (which very ... [More]
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Can you spot the problem here?
Back in the day, the PTUA ran a campaign called “Problem Of The Day“. It highlighted a basic problem on the public transport network each week, by a way of a photo or a video. It was a good way of highlighting that many of the issues are not those that require billions of dollars ... [More]