jessta

jessta, 19 days ago to random

A little bit of #CarBrain

The building my new job is in has 'Ground' and 'Upper Ground' floors.

'Ground' is the basement carpark.
'Upper Ground' is the main entrance.

jessta, 21 days ago to random

It seems bizarre that anyone would think that reducing public transport fares is a good way to reduce cost of living pressures. It's not going to get people out of their cars because it's a minor saving on the already huge savings of not driving.

So this becomes a handout to people that can already take public transport.

$150 million could get you a lot of extra services. Either expanding services to places not currently catered to or expanding frequency on exisiting routes.

If you want people out of cars and on to public transport then accessibility, convenience and flexibility are what you need to target. Affordability isn't as important because public transport is already always cheaper than the alternative.

#qldpol #PublicTransport

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-26/qld-fifty-cent-public-transport-preelection-trial-translink-cost/103894398

jessta, 1 month ago to melbourne

"...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.

#Melbourne #VicPol #VicRoads

jessta, 1 month ago to melbourne

This crossing is where a cyclist was hit 2 days ago by a b-double truck while crossing with a green light.

The cyclist was told he is unlikely to ever be able to walk again.

The safety of this crossing relies on truck drivers turning on to a motorway on-ramp to expect and look for cyclists and for cyclists to know that trucks will be doing that while cyclists have a green light.

#melbourne #bicycles

jessta, 1 month ago to melbourne

5:14pm on St Kilda Rd.

Compare the 12 cyclists waiting at the lights to the 8 cars. I couldn't actually fit all 8 cars in the frame.

#melbourne #bicycles #StKildaRdBikeLanes

jessta, 1 month ago to melbourne

Bike Route Buddy's great video of some Geelong examples of the intentionally sabotaged bike lanes that make up the majority of bike lanes in Victoria.
'Car door death-zone' bike lanes that encourage drivers to illegally close pass are worse than no bike lanes at all.

#Geelong #Melbourne #BikeLanes #Bicycles

https://youtu.be/Qq76dX5OMTE

jessta, 2 months ago to random

Backpacks are essential urbanism.

This is my backpack.
It's a Crumpler Dry Red No. 5.
I paid $200 for it 12yrs ago.

It has a separate padded laptop pocket and an expander zip to double its capacity.

I carry it everywhere I go, even when it's empty.

It fits a week's worth of groceries or enough clothes for a few nights away.

Get yourself a good backpack.

#bsckpacks #urbanism

A photo of the backpack from the side showing the regular unexpanded capacity.
A photo of the backpack from the side showing the unzipped expander capacity, it's double the capacity.

jessta, 2 months ago to random

The 'banana' and 'cone' bicycle intersection from @BicycleDutch

Having a crossing that starts wider (to allow many bicycles to wait) and narrows in the intersection.

We do this sometimes with car infrastructure too, where we have two lanes before an intersection that immediately merge in to one on the other side of the intersection.

Of course this design is much more effective with bicycles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZOAb11yKNI

#bicycles #BikeLanes

jessta, 2 months ago to melbourne

'Freshwater' mural in the Bourke Rd tunnel on the Gardiners Creek Trail bike path. #Melbourne #bicycles

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jessta, 3 months ago to Victoria

Lol, Leader of the Liberal party in Victoria reckons we should include the life time running costs in the cost of building new infrastructure.

I agree, we definitely should. But good luck building any more roads.

#vicpol #victoria #auspol #springst #melbourne

https://youtu.be/MujqEDL4ncE

jessta, 3 months ago to random

This Westgate Tunnel Project video ends with exactly why this $7 billion project is not going to reduce travel times or traffic congestion.

#ImducedDemand #CarsRuinCities #WestGateTunnel

https://m.youtube.com/clip/UgkxwimIW-G89LZZ98KHnRpDzOC4oxfj0Yiq

jessta, 4 months ago to random

The Victorian government is spending $87 million to add 500 extra parking spaces to Frankston Station. That's $174K per space.

https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/c-king/media-release/major-works-create-hundreds-car-parks

This 1 bedroom apartment recently sold within walking distance of Frankston train station for $166K

https://www.domain.com.au/316-435-nepean-highway-frankston-vic-3199-2018097525

#CarsRuinCities #HousingNotCarParks #SpringSt
#VicPol

jessta, 4 months ago to auspol

I grew up in cooperative social housing. The model is that a not-for-profit organisation (with government funding) buys houses within a community area and rents them to people within that community. Rents are capped at 25% of the household income or at cost (which ever is lower).

The people within this community manage rent collection and maintenance requests.
Tenancy is long term so tenants have leeway in making modifications to the house. Even major modifications are possible with consultation with the community group.

This gives people that majority of benefits of home ownership without having to be property investors.

The not-for-profit can use the equity in their property portfolio to purchase or build new properties.

It's a great model for housing for people across a wide range of income levels.

Chronic under funding in the past 25yrs hasn't allowed these cooperatives to grow with population growth so this option isn't available to most people.

Most people don't actually want to own a house, they just want location stability and the ability to paint their walls.

https://www.cehl.com.au/

#auspol #HousingCrisis #HousingPolicy

jessta, 4 months ago to melbourne

World Naked Bike Ride 2024 is on February 25th
https://wnbrmelbourne.com.au/
#melbourne #bicycles

jessta, 5 months ago to random

Paris is really speed running bike infrastructure.
Over 5yrs one road went from 25k cars a day to 25k bicycles a day.

#BikeLanes #Bicycles #ActiveTransport #CarsRuinCities

https://youtu.be/CWiaBGHdHa0

jessta, 6 months ago to melbourne

I wonder what would happen if you told these restaurants that you wanted to revert this 50 person outdoor dining space to parking for 5 cars.

#melbourne

jessta, 6 months ago to sydney

"You can't solve congestion, we solved congestion during COVID when nobody was travelling — the question is, whether you have people on high-capacity public transport, on footpaths, on e-scooters...That's the question about what congestion you want, not can you solve it."

#WestConnex #Sydney #CarsRuinCities #JustOneMoreLane
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-05/nsw-rozelle-interchange-design-experts/103186410

jessta, 6 months ago to ElectricBikes

Stream from @notjustbikes at the Fully Charged Show with some commentary about some of the risks of commerical electric cargo bikes on bicycle infrastructure.

Removing speed limiters, maxing out dimensions, and electric motorbikes pretending to be bicycles.

#bicycles #ElectricBikes

https://www.youtube.com/live/91kqpHRi8BM?si=1aHjhIm0lVzDiwhG

jessta, 6 months ago to random

We can't put in protected bike lanes, our roads are too narrow. #bikelanes #bicycles #CarsRuinCities

jessta, 7 months ago to random

I love this cartoon from Stan Kelly.
#bicycles #bikelanes

jessta, 7 months ago to auspol

Lets have a look at how Australia's "Vision Zero" strategy is going:
"Cycling deaths rose 30.3%, and pedestrian deaths rose 11.3%." in 2023.

"The peak body says these numbers show annual fatalities are now 13% higher than when the strategy was agreed upon."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/29/australias-road-toll-increased-46-in-past-12-months-new-data-shows

#bicycles #auspol #RoadDeaths

jessta, 7 months ago to melbourne

The problem that so much bike advocacy has is that it focuses on 'safety' instead of utility.

It's not that most roads are 'unsafe' for cycling, it's that most roads are 'unusable' for cycling.

Something like bikespot that allows you to mark places as 'safe' or 'unsafe' is fine for polishing the rough edges of a great cycling network, but it's pretty useless for a city that largely lacks a cycling network.

https://www.bikespot.org/

#melbourne #bicycles

jessta, 8 months ago to random

This is why I don't trust Bicycle Network to do bicycle advocacy. They promote and approve bad designs. They're basically a bicycle friendly face of the car lobby.
This is a bad design, the good design is well known.

#Bicycles #BicycleNetwork #BikeLanes
https://bicyclenetwork.com.au/newsroom/2023/10/12/innovative-crossing-proposed-for-bentleigh/

jessta, 8 months ago to random

Saw this ute on my ride.
Sensible size, hauls everything you'd need to haul.

jessta, 8 months ago to random

Did you know that tyre dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics?

Did you know that emissions from tyres are a greater direct health hazard than engine emissions in modern cars?

#CarsRuinCities #CarsRuinOceans
https://www.thedrive.com/news/tire-dust-makes-up-the-majority-of-ocean-microplastics-study-finds