tom_andraszek

jon, 4 months ago to random

Montpellier is making its trams and buses free...

... but for residents only

The exact same way Tallinn did it

This means you KEEP the expense of maintaining a ticketing system, AND you reduce the income for your system

AND Montpellier has now banned taking a bike on the tram as a result

Oh and whether completely free public transport even is a good idea... is questionable, as this @OlivierRazemon blog post explains:
https://www.lemonde.fr/blog/transports/2023/12/21/la-gratuite-des-transports-une-fausse-bonne-idee/

kravietz, 19 days ago to Bulgaria

Unemployment in #EU in 2004 and 2024 - this massive blue hole (>17.5% unemployment) that disappeared over the 20 years is #Poland and East #Germany. What happened in the meantime was Poland joining the common market of the European Union.

tom_andraszek, 6 months ago to cycling

Lots of interesting data in this 2014-2019 German study.

"Cycling rather than driving was positively associated with orientation towards the common good in all models. Cycling was the only variable that was a significant positive predictor for all four facets of orientation towards the common good after controlling for possibly confounding variables (homeownership, personal income, education, sex). "

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494423001731

#bikes #cycling #cities #Germany #FuckCars

tom_andraszek, 10 months ago to Bulgaria

Petition open to #EU citizens, for a #HighSpeedRail network:

We want to connect all European capitals through high-speed railway lines. We are calling for the European Commission to make a proposal for a legally binding act to establish a European high-speed train network as quickly as possible. This means linking up the existing high-speed railway networks and building high-speed lines where these do not yet exist.

https://eci.ec.europa.eu/035/public/#/screen/home

tom_andraszek, 11 months ago to australia

The old #Australia was not built for cars. You could go by train from #Brisbane to #TweedHeads from 1903 to 1964 (South Coast railway line, Queensland). Now you can't. But a motorway has been built, and widened, and widened again. In every old Australian town you will find the old walkable core: a pub, a square, a cafe, an ANZAC memorial or a street shaded by old trees, or a museum with a photo of an electric tram or trolley bus that used to go there...

https://youtu.be/REni8Oi1QJQ

tom_andraszek, 4 months ago to France

From 21 December 2023 public transport in Montpellier, France is free for all residents.

4 tram lines, 42 bus lines. Population of the city proper is 300k, urban area: 466k, metro 813k.

Are the 59 bike share stations (750 bikes) included?

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/04/16/this-european-city-is-making-public-transport-free-for-citizens-from-december

#France #PublicTransport #Montpellier #FreePublicTransport

tom_andraszek, 1 month ago to climate

What generates more carbon pollution for a typical commute: a petrol car or an electric grid that powers an electric tram?

https://tandrasz.blogspot.com/2024/04/carbon-pollution-trams-vs-cars-think.html

#PublicTransport #ClimateChange #GoldCoast #Urbanism

tom_andraszek, 3 months ago to Ukraine

#NAFO - have a look at the hashtags of this account in posts related to Poland and the protests at the border: BoycottPolishGoods, BoycottPolishBusinesses, BurnPolishTractors, PolandIsNotAFriend, PunchAPolishFarmer etc. The person running it is doing everything they can to make the situation worse. The articles they link usually objectively report the facts, but they add inflammatory commentary including things that were not in the linked articles.

@kravietz #Ukraine #Poland

One of hashtags: boycott Polish businesses.
One of hashtags: boycott Poland.
Hashtag: Poland is not European.

tom_andraszek, 9 months ago to goldcoast

An example of #Unwalkable #GoldCoast, #Australia. I didn't plan my bike ride carefully enough yesterday. I looked at an old map and didn't see footpaths, but I assumed that part of a recent A$25 million redesign of M1 exit 57 in Oxenford was adding some pedestrian infrastructure. I was wrong. There is no way to walk from #Oxenford to #Helensvale here. There is no way to safely ride a bike either. Even the painted #bike lanes end. This is a people-hostile design in the middle of the city.

A zoom in to the view with cars visible. No footpaths.
A zoom out showing the location in relation to Coomera River.

tom_andraszek, 6 months ago to queensland

7 years of rooftop PV, 6.5kW panels, 5kW inverter: 64,610 kWh of electricity produced, worth A$3,230 at a price I sell it to the grid (5c), or A$15,506 at a price I buy it from the grid (24c). 1 kWh of electricity produced in Queensland, mostly by burning coal, emits 0.80kg (2021-22) of CO2-e, so my rooftop installation so far prevented emission of perhaps 51.7 tons of CO2-e (minus GHG emitted to make the inverter and panels).

https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/OSR/EERS/eers-current-release

#Queensland #PV

tom_andraszek, 5 months ago to climate

This chart illustrates misconceptions about individual climate change actions. Recycling helps, but very little, while 59% of respondents thought it helped a lot.

The reduction values probably apply more to countries in the EU with yearly CO2e per person of about 8 tonnes, not Australia (19t), Canada (14t) or the US (15t).

Also, there are heat pump dryers that use 4x less electricity (and don't need vents for hot, humid air).

#ClimateCrisis #Australia

tom_andraszek, 6 months ago to goldcoast

Meanwhile in Australia...

#GoldCoast #Australia

tom_andraszek, 5 months ago to goldcoast

Riding a bike, or public transport, is much more interesting than driving a car. You see more: places, people, animals...

Yesterday I saw a koala, really up close:
https://youtu.be/q7ZbHXTw74c

#GoldCoast #bikes

tom_andraszek, 4 months ago to poland

Part 4 of my blog - Warsaw:

https://tandrasz.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-trip-to-spend-bit-of-time-with-mama-4.html

#Warsaw #Poland

tom_andraszek, 4 months ago to random

My wife has not been getting any work, because of school holidays, it's raining, so I drove to work yesterday, and the first thing that comes to mind is:
"when you're used to privilege, equality feels like oppression". The privilege is getting to work in 20 minutes in a comfort of a car, not paying for parking, not paying any tolls, and since the car is an EV, paying only A$0.12 - 0.90 for the electricity. Bus + train takes 50 min. and costs A$4.34. Riding a bike takes 65 min.

#PublicTransport

tom_andraszek, 14 days ago to brisbane

After watching the latest, excellent @notjustbikes video about the introduction of even more 30 km/h streets in Amsterdam, this one by Chris Cox from Brisbane, feels like it could be an addendum.

The Brisbane Times reporter Felicity Caldwell is a legend.

https://youtu.be/ioQSfaPWa_w

#Brisbane #Queensland #Australia #Urbanism #bikes

tom_andraszek, 10 months ago to Ukraine

There are many ways to help #Ukraine defend itself from #Russia. Mateusz Wodziński (#Exen) with helpers, buys, services, paints and delivers used 4x4 vehicles directly to soldiers. About 120 so far.

https://pomagam.pl/en/4x4dlaukrainy

tom_andraszek, 9 months ago to goldcoast

#Walking in #GoldCoast, #Australia be like...

tom_andraszek, 2 months ago to poland

Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski lobbying in the US for military aid for Ukraine:

https://www.youtube.com/live/SFOYe92FHxE

#Poland #Ukraine #Russia

tom_andraszek, 3 months ago to climate

IPCC climate models assumed that climate sensitivity (how much Earth's surface will warm for a doubling in the atmospheric CO2) is 3 C. It is 4.8 C.

Air pollution was "masking" it. Since 2015 we are making the air dramatically cleaner (marine transport) and we are getting more solar radiation.

The 1 W/m^2 increase in global absorbed solar radiation is a BFD (Big F*cking Deal) in words of Dr James Hansen. The 1.5 C limit is long dead:

https://youtu.be/KnDb_bznZvE

#ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis

m0bi13, 2 months ago to random Polish

Ważny materiał o podejściu do tematu katastrofy klimatycznej w kontekście oblania syrenki wodą, skrobią i barwnikiem spożywczym przez #OstatniePokolenie - organizację uznaną przez sąd w DE za przestępczą (sic!)

https://tube.pol.social/w/m7FM9CHuW81duMGAs7NKcE

kyonshi, 10 days ago to random

so a substitute teacher somehow thought it was a good idea to ask my kid's class what their thought about their home country were. They had to write down 4 things.

I am not sure she expected the results, my son's friend (6yo), the little tiny shy mouse that he is, managed to sum it up with: *broken pavement
*dirty streets
*ugly buildings
*people stealing numberplates and just bribing their way out of trouble

good lord, that kid is a natural born cynic if I have ever seen one.

tom_andraszek, 21 days ago to goldcoast

My morning Gold Coast train was cancelled. The next one in 30 minutes. Lots of high school students will be late for school today.
No point taking the 725 bus as it takes 54 minutes to go from Coomera to Helensvale vs 5 minutes by train. The TX7 bus is more direct, but it doesn't run that early, and it still takes 47 minutes.

#PublicTransport #GoldCoast #Australia #QueenslandRail

The almost direct TX7 bus route.