Are you an authorised pedestrian?
Remote
Augustus Brown 🌈
@augustusbrown@aus.social
mastodon 4.7.2Transport planner 🍃
Posting about news and politics.
Also at https://augustusbrown.bsky.social
Naarm (Melbourne, Aus)
585 Followers
202 Following
29 Posts
Joined November 04, 2022
Have you noticed?
The traffic lights on both Napier Street and Canning Street are now 'double cycling' at the Eastern Highway (Alexandra Parade and Princes Street).
This means the pedestrian and bike crossing phase can be called twice in the cycle, reducing waiting times of more than two minutes to as short as approximately 40 seconds.
The double cycle is uneven (short then long then short, etc) and you'll notice it more in peak times when there's a constant ped and bike demand. The double cycle may not call if the button isn't pressed in time or if the overall cycle time reduces in times of low traffic (usually overnight).
Police accuse anarchists of 'terrorism' against a military manufacturer in Melbourne last year.
I will find it curious if such a definition of terrorism stands.
Concluded.
-
Support the ABC's worker strike. Don't interact with trackable ABC services from 11 am AEDT this Wednesday to 11 am Thursday.
Don't use ABC websites. Don't use iview. Don't use ABC apps. Don't interact with anything trackable.
New 'programmable read only memory' has been installed at the Grattan and Swanston street traffic signals, enabling 'head start' lights for north-south pedestrians, bicycle riders, and trams.
Boggles the mind that fake satellite imagery should be a tool in Google Earth.
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/31/nx-s1-5914652/google-adds-ai-to-satellite-images-raising-fears-of-deepfakes-in-the-sky
#Slop #Google #GeneralNews
About bloody time. Victoria stuck with group voting tickets far beyond their useful life.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/election-law-overhaul-set-to-hurt-crossbenchers-and-help-one-nation-20260711-p60ehj.html
No paywall: https://periscope.corsfix.com/?https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/election-law-overhaul-set-to-hurt-crossbenchers-and-help-one-nation-20260711-p60ehj.html
#SpringSt #AusPol #GeneralNews
Snowy winters fading from memory in New South Wales.
Sheltered public bicycle parking with horizontal rails allowing you to lock the frame and both wheels immediately scores you the maximum of 10 points in the Transport Planning Olympics.
It's the evening and you're driving alone along the main street of an unfamiliar town looking for a hotel for the night.
The pavement is rather bumpy and you feel eerie as the streets are deserted.
Then, as you approach the Town Hall, the doors burst open and the townspeople emerge shouting 'monorail!'.
Terrified by what you were fleeing back home in Ogdenville, you make a dash for the only bridge out of town. Maybe there will be a room in Shelbyville.
Noting for other purposes - These will be approximately two-metre-wide bike lanes created by removing parking on one side of the road.
A juxtaposition for another part of town?
@streetsaliveyarra@aus.social @jessta@aus.social @yarrabike@toot.bike
This evening's tram driver doesn't seem keen on the job. He's slumping over the controls at every red light and driving very slowly. I thought we must be running early. Nope, five minutes late and getting later.
Jon Faine on Back to Back Barries. He discussed his Jew-ish-ness and how he thinks the Royal Commission is worsening antisemitism and social cohesion by failing to bring minority groups together.
Link should start at 18:56.
Back to Back Barries podcast: what the Vic spill means for federal politics
The baby boomers made some of the best televisual entertainment around the 90s and early 2000s.
Donald Trump's war improving bus services in Melbourne.
A quick look at the narrowed bike lanes on Elizabeth Street, Richmond.
The positives. The new smooth surface and removal of road humps from the bike lane are great. You can ride without giving attention to pavement obstacles.
However, the bike lane is now too narrow for social cycling and passing. This was considered to be a luxury item by the populist mayor and low on his hierarchy that puts car parking above.
I think social cycling is very important for normalising bicycle transport from an early age. The simple act of allowing a parent to cycle beside their child with a hand on their back goes a long way.
As a side note, this bike lane plus the buffer would be about the width of a stepped bike lane design from Copenhagen. They don't bother with buffer space there and let you use the whole width between the footpath and parking lane (example linked below). If such a design was made here, you'd keep parking and still allow social cycling.
A currawong eating an apple. 🐦⬛ 🍎
Meta pervert glasses used for stalking?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/08/ai-smartglasses-camera-film-privacy-consent
Replying to
@owen3d@fosstodon.org It's an interesting question, but it's passenger side door against the protected bike lane, which has much lower occupancy compared to driver side door, and if a door does intrude, the rider is generally not at risk of being knocked into the path of a moving vehicle.
Replying to
@mherbert@social.chinwag.org These kerbs on Macaulay Rd will be harder for drivers to cross than on the corner with Shiel St. It's only rubber rollover near Sheil St.
K-Mart's pervert glasses sell out.
Replying to on aus.social
@athrun@c.im Thanks for sharing. Agree, there's nuance to everything (in this case, were these historic developments trying to cover what a local council would do today? Streetscape, parks, amenities, etc).