@jessta@aus.social
@jessta@aus.social avatar

jessta

@jessta@aus.social

Musings on software development, bike infrastructure, public transport, and urban planning.

https://jessta.id.au

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

jessta, to melbourne
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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.

jessta, to sydney
@jessta@aus.social avatar

"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, to random
@jessta@aus.social avatar

Don't worry, one more lane will fix it.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-01/rozelle-interchange-explainer-first-week-congestion/103172454

timrichards, to Travel
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Good read. I've long been suspicious of such practices as carbon offsets for flights. Seems tokenistic.

Greenwashing in travel is getting worse

https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/travel-news/i-have-sustainability-fatigue-and-greenwashing-is-to-blame-20231120-p5elfb.html

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@timrichards carbon offsets that aren't directly reducing fossil fuel burning are just reducing our ability to capture CO2 in the future.

Eg. Planting trees is a really bad offset.

jessta, to ElectricBikes
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@pathief @ProdigalFrog it's just physically not possible to build enough parking for everyone to always have a park. You have trouble finding a park because that's just the physical reality. Adding more parking (like adding more lanes) doesn't increase availability because of induced demand and the inherent inefficiency of cars.

Reducing parking won't reduce the parking available to you. Just as reducing the number of car lanes won't reduce your ability to drive places.

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Sounds like a no-brainer to put medium-rise apartments in country towns. Not everyone wants a house with four bedrooms on a big lot, and it'd revitalise town centres.

Gisborne, Victoria: The little country town under big population pressure https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/in-a-flap-over-shop-top-flats-how-population-pressure-is-rattling-one-country-town-20231115-p5ek90.html

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@timrichards They just need row town houses. The 'apartments above the shops' plan is probably unnecessary.

jessta, to random
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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

timrichards, to melbourne
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

I suspect if you have a spare Myki in your drawer with a few bucks' credit on it, it's too much hassle to arrange a refund.

Myki cards: Almost $100 million sitting on expired and unused cards https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-myki-money-you-could-be-giving-the-government-for-nothing-20231109-p5eirr.html

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@timrichards As long as it's spent on public transport I don't mind at all.

jessta, to random
@jessta@aus.social avatar

I love this cartoon from Stan Kelly.

arstechnica, to random
@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

Driving the Volvo EX30, a $36K EV that prioritizes sustainability

Volvo says the EX30's carbon footprint is 25 percent smaller than the C40 or XC40.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/driving-the-volvo-ex30-a-36k-ev-that-prioritizes-sustainability/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@arstechnica that's not what prioritising sustainability looks like.
25% less emissions for a car is still above the emissions for sustainability

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

Imagine if people drove door-to-door trick or treating.

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@davidho instead they do 'trunk or treat'. Kids walk around a car park and gather treats from parked cars.

jessta, to auspol
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Boring, it's only parallel parking. Come to Melbourne and try the hook turn, baby!

The majority of drivers are anxious about this manoeuvre, survey finds https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/anxiety-about-parking-survey-australia/

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

I really don't understand why people find the hook turn a difficult thing to do...mechanically it's really straight forward.
Parallel parking is difficult even after it's explained and takes practice to get right.

jessta, to melbourne
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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/

jmcleod, (edited ) to random
@jmcleod@mastodon.au avatar

Want to drive a monster truck in the inner city? Let's treat it like an economics lesson.

Let's have a weight-and-size-based congestion tax. Bring your monster truck into the city? Pay $25 a day tax.

Want a big parking spot for your monster truck? They're over there. Pay $10 an hour for parking. Everyone else gets free parking.

You can obviously afford it, driving a $100,000 vehicle that consumes $2 litre petrol. No problem. Enjoy your life.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/2023/10/15/parking-space-cars-size/

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@jmcleod all of those amounts are much too small. Non-earlybird parking in the Melbourne CBD is already $40 a day.
Free parking shouldn't exist anywhere. We shouldn't be using tax dollars to subsidize car travel.

luciedigitalni, to random
@luciedigitalni@aus.social avatar

Can't we just tax these things out of existence instead?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/15/australia-may-increase-standard-car-parking-spaces-as-huge-vehicles-dominate-the-streets

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@luciedigitalni I think it would be pretty funny if the increased weight of vehicles made existing multi-level car parks structurally unsound thus requiring reducing the number of car parks available and increasing the cost.

jessta, to random
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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.


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

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

I didn’t know what happiness is until I got married.

By then, it was too late.

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@dgar tired misogyny.

jessta, to random
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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

coolandnormal, (edited ) to tea
@coolandnormal@aus.social avatar

Weighing in on the general discussion about tea receptacles falling over. I have always known this as a Railway Mug at the Bendigo Pottery shop front, although they're currently called a Yacht Mug in the online store. Either way, they're intended for drinking around a table that's moving. I suspect they would also be good for desks.
@tea

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@coolandnormal @tea to me, that's always been the "Raktajino" mug from Deep Space 9.

timrichards, to melbourne
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

IMO this should only continue if spaces are made for the scooters to be parked on the roadway, not the footpath.

Melbourne e-scooter trial extended for third time

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/third-time-s-a-charm-melbourne-e-scooter-trial-extended-again-20231004-p5e9pn.html

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@timrichards Extend footpath in to car parking space, allow cars and scooters to park in that part of the footpath. The best part is that scooters will likely be in the way of cars trying to park rather than pedestrians.

reginasbread, to random
@reginasbread@homo.promo avatar

I'm so tired of teenagers being "the chosen ones" in fiction. please, let a middle-aged woman save the universe! she's seen some shit and dealt with it. she's tired of it all. she doesn't give a fuck. she's angry. she will get this shit done.

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@reginasbread
Don't forget about Donna Noble

Doctor Who GIF

timrichards, to melbourne
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Melburnians! I'm writing an article today about Melbourne attractions for budget travellers. I have some ideas, but could use more. Any cheap/free things you can recommend? Could be food, sights, arts, whatever.

jessta,
@jessta@aus.social avatar

@timrichards what about the Tram museum?
https://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au

jessta, to random
@jessta@aus.social avatar

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?


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

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