philip

philip, 28 days ago to melbourne

New video out today!

The story of Springvale Junction and how it became one of Victoria's most dangerous and complex intersections.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3THrXcrST6E

#Melbourne #Transport #UrbanPlanning #Roads #Australia #Urbanism

The story of Springvale Junction - Victoria's most dangerous intersection (youtu.be)

philip, 2 months ago to melbourne

What happens when you don't do a hook turn or check for trams when turning...

On Elizabeth Street just now.

#HookTurn #Melbourne #MelbourneTrams #Tram #PublicTransport #Cars

image/jpeg

philip, 3 months ago to history

Found this wonderful ad from the Victorian Railways advertising upgrades to the Geelong Line from a copy of The Age in March 1974.

Also includes mentions of double decker trains and a freight terminal in Horsham

#History #PublicTransport #Melbourne #MelbourneTrains

philip, 3 months ago to wordpress

After a lot of pain and learning along the way, I am very pleased to announce my new website!

The biggest change is finally migrating away from Wordpress to Jekyll.

I've been a user of Wordpress for over 14 years and it has served me well. But now I find it too bloated and resource heavy for what I need.

Jekyll was a long learning experience for me. But so far it seems like the best option.

I still think that Wordpress is a great piece of software that has transformed the internet. It just doesn't suit my needs at the moment.

Check it out at: https://philipmallis.com

#Website #Jekyll #Wordpress #FoSS

philip, 3 months ago to Youtube

Following on from the great reaction video of @nerd4cities I've released my own responding to the question -'Does Urban Planning YouTube have a HUGE problem?'

Check it out here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLNeNiE9_Ko

#UrbanPlanning #Cities #PublicTransport #YouTube

philip, 4 months ago to melbourne

One person blocking 50

#Melbourne #MelbourneTrams #PublicTransport #Tram

philip, 4 months ago to melbourne

Another Southern Cross Station update, this time from the bank of screens near Bourke Street.

For some reason the clock on one of the four metropolitan screens is one minute slower than the other three.

One is dim and very hard to read, and another is just broken entirely. Another for country trains flickers on and off intermittently.

As with the other screens at Collins St from a few days ago, the order and display of trains is all over the place. For example, why does it only show only one next departure for the Sunbury, Alamein and Craigieburn Lines when most others have the next two, three or even four displayed?

Another mess!

#MelbourneTrains #Melbourne #PublicTransport #ShowMeASign #Transit #PTV

photo of screens showing next train departures at Southern Cross Station with another screen black and one screen showing "5:32" and all others "5:33"

philip, 4 months ago to melbourne

E-class tram 6067 has broken its pantograph running a Route 70a service to the Australian Open.

All Route 70 trams are diverting down Wellington Parade until it's cleared. By the look of things though it could be a while.

Appears to have happened while making the left turn from Batman Avenue onto the segregated tram tracks towards Swan Street.

#MelbourneTrams #YarraTrams #PublicTransport #Melbourne #AusOpen

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photo of an e class tram on Batman Avenue stopped with a broken pantograph and workers on a cherry picker fixing the overhead wire

philip, 4 months ago to melbourne

Appalling passenger information yet again from PTV, this time for buses.

Protests disrupted public transport in the city today and for many Sundays coming up, including buses. This means that there are large sections of the CBD that are not being serviced. Fair enough. However, the signage and information provided either doesn't exist or is very unclear.

This photo was the scene at the Hardware Street bus stop on Lonsdale Street, a busy city stop. There is only one small sign posted at knee height which is worded badly and does not clearly identify that there even is a disruption, let alone articulate what people should do. Moreover, the PTV website and app showed "good service" for all of these routes, the "live tracking" for the stop showed that buses were coming when they were not, and the PID at the stop continued to show buses that were not going to show up.

The result? At least 30 passengers just at this stop waiting for 40 minutes or more - many of whom just gave up waiting and took an Uber or began a 1 hour walk to their destination.

How to fix this? Very easy.

1. Have a map at each stop showing the disruptions and where people should go as alternatives.
2. Word the signs more clearly and obviously.
3. Place signs at eye level and have many more of them.
4. Update the website, app and PIDs to show that there is a disruption
5. Have customer service staff at major stops to tell people - especially tourists

This is far from the first time that this has happened and it is unacceptable that this is what passes for "customer service" in 2024.

#MelbourneBuses #Melbourne #PTV #PublicTransport

"Temporary bus stop closures" sign on a bus stop in Melbourne

philip, 5 months ago to mediawiki

Out of all the things that I have to do on my websites, upgrading Mediawiki is still probably my least favourite.

It's not easy even if you've done it many times before. Extensions break and it's not easy to find older versions, which you need if you're upgrading from anything other than the last two releases. Non-LTS releases are also not supported for very long (12-18 months) and there is quite often a significant change that breaks an extension or core function.

Upgrading has definitely become better and easier since I started using Mediawiki in 2013 and it is still a great piece of software. But I do think that more needs to be done to make it friendlier to non-developers.

#MediaWiki #foss #software

philip, 5 months ago to melbourne

Happy New Year!

#nye2024 #Melbourne #Australia

philip, 6 months ago to melbourne

Just noticed something interesting on the PTV website about the new myki ticketing system.

In this diagram, PTV have included "short life smart tickets" as a future payment option. These sounds to me like we may finally be getting short-term paper tickets again.

These were intended to be part of the original myki system and were part of the initial trials. However, these didn't make it into the final rollout.

If I'm right, this will be a game changer for Melbourne's public transport. It's something that has been a major complaint ever since myki was introduced. Bringing them back would be a big help for many people.

You can see this diagram and more information on the webpage here: https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/tickets/building-you-a-better-myki/

#Melbourne #myki #PublicTransport #Transit #MetroTrains #YarraTrams #Transport #Australia

philip, 6 months ago to melbourne

Never gets old

#Melbourne #Australia #YarraRiver #City

philip, 6 months ago to melbourne

Renovated Food Hall has just (unofficially) opened at the Queen Victoria Market! Still setting up the shops but you can just wander inside to take a look

#Melbourne #UrbanDesign #Market

photo of new interior off food hall with seats and windows
photo of new interior off food hall with 'Rubens' above unopen shopfront

philip, 8 months ago to melbourne

E is for Elizabeth Street

#MelbourneTrams #Melbourne #Tram

philip, 1 year ago to Futurology

I've updated the list of #urbanplanning #cities #transport accounts to follow on Mastodon.

New feature allows you to export a CSV file and import the accounts you want to follow directly into Mastodon.

Check it out here: https://philam.github.io/movetomastodon/

#planning #transit #urbanism