"...most intersection are unsafe to have an automatic green man, as pedestrians j-walk and it creates a dangerous situation with possible filtered right turners. A scenario where people see a green man and run to cross the road creates one of the most dangerous situations, with regards to left and right turners.
Studies conducted by VicRoads and the Australian Road Research Board have proven the safety issues with the above."
I contacted VicRoads to ask about making a pointless pedestrian crossing green automatically when it's safe to cross and their response was very telling.
So despite climate change, Australia's federal government has just committed an extra $3.25 billion into building a toll road and a 20-lane freeway widening.
"Pouring an extra $3.25 billion worth of federal funds into Melbourne’s North East Link is a good use of taxpayer money, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted, despite the project’s cost doubling just a few months ago.
...
"The North East Link – which includes 6½ kilometres of tunnels – will stretch from Bulleen to Greensborough. It will widen the Eastern Freeway by up to 20 lanes.
"Allan revealed in December that the 10-kilometre toll road had more than doubled in cost since it was first announced.
"The toll road was initially budgeted at $10 billion and reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed last year that the updated cost estimate was $26 billion."
I do wonder about the wisdom of demolishing them; they keep inner-city Melbourne from becoming completely gentrified. And I'm suspicious of what will replace them, whether it'll really be affordable housing or just another property developer dodge.
Melbourne public housing: Heritage bid set to save Park Towers from oblivion
The saga of Waverley Park — Melbourne's car-dependent suburban AFL stadium with a planned seated capacity of over 150,000 (not a typo!)
A really good run down by @philip on the plans by the AFL (and its predecessor, the VFL) to build the world's largest stadium in outer-suburban Melbourne.
Unfortunately, a planned railway line past the stadium to Rowville was never built. That meant a massive 25,000-spot car park as the only real means to get there.
While most of it has been demolished and redeveloped for housing, the oval itself still used by Hawthorn Football Club as a training and administration centre.
Surely it'd make more sense to put an injecting room within the grounds of a major hospital, eg St Vincent's? Close to the CBD and wouldn't disrupt CBD businesses and residents.
CBD injecting room: Melbourne churches call for safe facility as city overdoses spike
'Taylor said her research had found that trying to provide enough parking for everybody led to an oversupply of off-street parking but did not stop people parking on the streets.
'“Who parks in the street? It’s mainly people who have houses with garages full of junk,” she said.'
If the #byelection result tonight goes to #potato, then i'm done with this country, hopping in my car, driving north, crossing the border, & moving to Canada.