All forms of transport, including gunzelly
Something I’ve been meaning to blog about for… oh, over a month. At the Climate Change forum last month, a question was asked about the car pollution impacts on cyclists. Elliot Fishman from the Cycling Promotion Fund (and who looks uncannily like my sister’s husband) replied that because cyclists are higher up, they don’t get ... [More]
The Age today has a give-away poster of the Art Deco exhibit Spirit of Progress ‘Matthew Flinders’ picture. It’s not quite as massive as the poster on the side of the gallery. Hmm, that’d make a great framed print for my house. Err, slightly smaller that is. Not sure where I’d put it though.
Most unexpected question from the media pack at 1 Treasury Place this morning: Should Premiers Lane have a possessive apostrophe? (That Brendan is a joker.) I gave a mock answer for that one, which wound up proceedings, and a quick discussion followed on the merits or otherwise of punctuation in street signs. As it turns ... [More]
I almost did a double-take when I saw this on the news last night. Why? Because I recognised it as being this, snapped by me on my phone, and originally used on my blog: …plus a little bit of this, snapped by me and originally used on the PTUA web site… It looks like a ... [More]
The other week I wrote: Personally, Iâd rather eat than drive any day. Evidently not everybody agrees: Pensioner Josephine Simsa says she would rather not eat than give up her car and her treasured independence. She doesn’t mean it literally of course, but the article goes on to describe how she specifically shops for cheap ... [More]
Where is that damn train? Flinders Street Station, 1920s (or maybe 30s?) (From the Public Record Office Victoria) Flinders Street Station, 2007 Yeah the angles don’t match, but I reckon it’s not bad given that I took the new picture last year, before seeing the older one. AND it’s exactly the same platforms in shot. ... [More]
A Herald Sun article last week quoted figures showing that ditching cars and switching to PT could save you between $4,000 and $10,000 per year. (Seriously, it’s not just fuel — if you take into account finance, rego, insurance and repairs, it adds up fast.) Problem is that somewhere in the sausage factory that is ... [More]
In an ideal world, you would hope that when a new estate is settled, they’d provide good quality public transport into it from day one, so that people don’t move in and establish car-oriented travel patterns (eg buy one car per adult, and from thence-forth drive everywhere). Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. The Aurora ... [More]
Despite the cold, there’s a surprising number of people on the Sunday morning 9:58 to Frankston. Two uniformed sailors heading perhaps to the naval base at Crib Point after a night out (this train connects with the Stony Point train); a lady who insists on standing all the way to McKinnon, papers in her hand, ... [More]
Spot the difference… From the $5 million Eddington report (full version) page 84, section: “What other cities are doing” From urbanrail.net, a rail enthusiast web site run by Robert Schwandl Shanghai (China) — The Shanghai metro is one of the youngest in the world and among the most rapidly expanding. The first line opened in ... [More]
The Melbourne Press Club have put up the MP3 recordings of last month’s “Public Transport: Ticket to Where?” debate. Their web page is a bit confusing (you have to click on the Quicktime logos), but here’s a summary of the MP3s: 1. Introductions — Not really worth listening to. 2. Paul Mees — You can’t ... [More]
Here’s a handy thing Metlink is beta testing at the moment: apart from having online timetable displays that show you the whole day on one page (at last!) you can also get a timetable for your individual stop. To get them, go to the Metlink web site. You can search for the route number, then ... [More]
So, Eastlink is open. Whoop-de-do. And even though it was meant to be the solution to eastern Melbourne’s traffic, it’s already clear it’s just moved the problems elsewhere: Opposition leader Ted Baillieu said congestion on Eastlink could cause problems at both ends including at Hoddle Street and at the Frankston end at the Cranbourne Road ... [More]
April 2005: September 2005: May 2008: June 2008: Richard Heinberg: “I think what the oil consuming nations really need to understand is that this is not a temporary blip in the oil market. What we’re seeing is a fundamental and permanent change in the global energy economy. We will be dealing with the fallout of ... [More]
(Move your mouse over the vehicles) In reporting a proposed congestion charge in Manchester, UK, some of the international media seem to have got a bit confused. The Daily Mirror says: There are now also congestion charges in Stockholm, Melbourne and Toronto. CNN reports: Melbourne, Australia, has imposed a charge for downtown driving since 2000. ... [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]