One of the tropes of urban planning is that traders think car parking (and car access generally) for their customers is far more important than it might actually be. Here are some live examples in Melbourne right now. Save Inkerman! In Caulfield, traders reckon their businesses will suffer if separated bike lanes, part of the ... [More]
For the proposals in City of Melbourne’s discussion papers to be described as “radical” and “ridiculous” just shows how far we haven’t come in transport planning in this state. Perhaps it’s no surprise given that in the forthcoming election, if choosing a major party, we vote for either the mob who wants to build two ... [More]
Lots of people usually alight at my station, even late at night. But as we all exit and walk off in different directions, the streets, especially at night, can get pretty quiet very fast. The awful murder of Eurydice Dixon has got us as a society once again talking about personal safety issues. While it’s ... [More]
We all like some greenery in our neighbourhoods. But as I noted in this rant blog post, one bane of pedestrians is bushes and trees overhanging footpaths. They’re not really obvious unless you’re walking, but bushes and trees like this are everywhere. I’m sick of having to duck out of their way. This is especially ... [More]
I ran a Twitter thread over the last fortnight, highlighting some of the ways that footpath space is misused, or mis-allocated. This blog expands on those posts. In some of these cases, capacity constraints are causing problems for large numbers of pedestrians. Able-bodied people are often able to avoid those hazards, though it does slow ... [More]
If they want to encourage people to walk, they should at least ensure it’s as easy as possible. But in many cases, traffic lights are programmed to make it difficult – even where fixing it wouldn’t disadvantage motorists at all. Example 1 Here’s the T-junction at Centre Road and Eskay Road, Oakleigh South. I’m walking ... [More]
One of the things I found fascinating about Brussels on our recent holiday was – in contrast to Cardiff – how they’ve gone out of their way to make life easy for pedestrians. Most striking was that there were zebra crossings. Lots and lots of zebra crossings. When I first spotted how many there were, ... [More]
Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I see a lot of motorists blocking intersections, including pedestrian crossings. Here’s road regulation 128: Entering blocked intersections A driver must not enter an intersection if the driver cannot drive through the intersection because the intersection, or a road beyond the intersection, is blocked. Penalty: ... [More]
I sometimes wonder if motorists driving in and out of car parks get irritated by pedestrians walking through. Often the pedestrians have no choice. These pictures are from Caulfield Plaza – with the major drawcard inside being the Coles supermarket. There is obvious pedestrian traffic from the railway station and the university campus to the ... [More]
I’ve written before about blockages on footpaths: overhanging trees, motorcycles, cars and real estate agent advertising. There’s at least been some pogress with real estate. It seems some agents, perhaps realising that blocking the footpath is illegal, have got newer, smaller flags. During my walk on Saturday morning, I spotted these: Buxton seem to have ... [More]