The Magic Laptop One evening many years ago some PTUA bods and I were meeting with a Vicroads bloke about traffic light priority and other related issues. He had a laptop with him, and it displayed a diagram of a major intersection; I think it was somewhere out on Burwood Highway. While pondering topics such ... [More]
Thursday’s awful incident brings back memories of January’s attack, and authorities are rightly saying that it will be investigated from all angles. One issue is road infrastructure that allows a vehicle to reach high speed in a constrained, pedestrian-dense area like Flinders Street. The speed limit is 40. But apart from the placement of tram ... [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]
This in the Herald Sun a few weeks ago: Melbourne traffic congestion on par with world’s biggest cities like London, Rome and New York (paywall): TRAFFIC congestion in Melbourne is on par with New York and could rival the worldâs worst cities if nothing is done to combat the problem. Figures supplied by Tom Tom ... [More]
Remember the Dingley Bypass? The western end was built as the “South Road Extension” as two lanes (one each way) just last decade. It mostly wasn’t dual carriageway, but it was otherwise suspiciously freeway-like. Having appeared in the 1969 freeway plan, it wasn’t difficult to see that it would be expanded. (Dingley Arterial 2015 – ... [More]
I’d been reading this article about the proposal to narrow a section of Mountain Highway through Bayswater when the level crossing is removed — from 3 lanes in each direction down to 2. Bayswater state Liberal MP Heidi Victoria has submitted the petition against the plans to State Parliament and urged the Government to intervene. ... [More]
The argument for more/bigger roads (particularly motorways) is often that tradies and others need to carry their tools and equipment to jobs, so they can’t use public transport. Perhaps that’s true, but they are the minority of people on the road. According to a 2012 ABS study, only about 7% of people avoid using public ... [More]
GRIDLOCK will begin to choke Melbourne’s roads from Friday night, but the full impact of bridge and tunnel closures for maintenance won’t bite until the New Year. Motorists are being advised to steer clear of the city, or they could experience delays of up to an hour. — Herald Sun: Traffic chaos expected as West ... [More]
Some of those of us who hang around the city are truly amazed at the number of motorists who ignore the “No Entry” and turn ban signs and drive along streets they’re not meant to. So it’s nice to know that — just occasionally — they do get pulled over by the police. Unfortunately others ... [More]
Heading south along William Street in morning peak hour, fighting for space on the street, are pedestrians (predominantly coming out of Flagstaff station), trams, cyclists and motorists. How many of each? Tram route 55 gets a tram about every 4 minutes in peak hour. The May 2012 PTV load survey said that each tram carries ... [More]
The new 40 kmh limit now applies along Centre Road in Bentleigh, 7am to 7pm, every day. This is good news, particularly as earlier this year it appeared the plan was for it not to apply on Sundays — one of the busiest shopping days. It’s official recognition that the street is not just for ... [More]
Last week the first of the new Swanston Street tram superstops opened. On Monday I went down at lunchtime to have a look, and came across Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, City of Melbourne planner Rob Adams, and Yarra Trams’ Michel Masson all down there having a look, and talking to the media about it. Robert ... [More]