Lazy Friday post

A new railway station has opened and the train now burrows under Glen Huntly Road, rather than impede the progress of cars, trams and pedestrians at road level. We visited the station Wednesday and had a nice bite to eat at a local cafe. Here is a comment I made on another blogger's post about the new station.

Given the light loading often seen in the front and rear carriages, is it a bad thing that this station has an entrance near the rear of the train?

We used the station yesterday, mainly for a look. I didn’t check in advance if the lifts were yet working. My partner struggled with the stairs. I planned to have a good look before catching the train and 58 tram home but my partner suggested we just catch the 67 tram home to avoid the station stairs and the steep South Yarra Station ramp. Interestingly the tram trip took only four minutes longer than train/tram.

So aside from noticing the station is a long way from being complete, and may as well not be for some people who can’t deal with stairs, I didn’t get to have a good look around. Thanks for the photos.

Meanwhile at Metro Trains and elsewhere, the Glen Huntly/Glenhuntly battle goes on. A real estate agent had a bob each way with the office address being Glenhuntly Road, Glen Huntly.

Oh yes, there was a woman at a cafe who thanked passing hi-vis workers returning from a break for the fine work they had done. That was nice and the workers looked rather pleased.

Road rights

The Australian state of New South Wales recently legislated that all new traffic lights must have head off pedestrian lights. If you are at traffic lights the green signal for pedestrians will light first and a few seconds later the traffic green light will allow cars to proceed. This causes minimal delay to car drivers and by statistics makes intersections much safer for pedestrians. I thoroughly approve.

This seems to be happening in my state of Victoria too, but I don't know of any legislation. 

Our building and our two sister buildings have lost on street parking of about 15 spaces purely because of segregated bike lanes. Personally I don't think it was necessary for us to lose parking, but it is already spilt milk. 

There is more than one type of cycling lane in Melbourne but here are a couple of examples.

This one is good but does not offer cyclists any real protection from a swerving car. The green is painted where there could be car and cyclist conflict.

This model is gold star for cyclist safety and this is how my street, St Kilda Road is mostly already, just waiting for completion. While it has come at a cost for us because of the lost parking in front our building, I do approve of the change. The cycling lane will encourage bike riders, meaning less cars on the road and less people on the trams. It was once a very dangerous road for cyclists as they rode past parked cars and were 'doored' by drivers opening car doors in front of them. You who drive on the wrong side of the road will have to translate in your heads. 

 

Driving in England

 As for driving in England, I have come away with different feelings after each visit. My first visit when we hired a car, I found the English too polite when at the wheel. You go first, no you go first. There are clear road rules about who goes first. I guess that must have been twenty years ago.

I recall driving from Newcastle to Blackpool via Carlisle, mostly on the M6. It was a wonderful drive with mostly three lanes and trucks and heavy vehicles in the left hand lane at 60 mph, general traffic at 70 mph in the centre lane and the third lane used for overtaking and by speeders. It worked brilliantly.

The same applied this visit when using the M/A1 motorway, except it was much busier. Trucks in the left lane moving to the centre lane to overtake a slightly slower truck in the left lane caused bother and it was not really possible to maintain the 70 mph in the centre lane for very long. Then there was the unnecessary slowing of traffic a long way before roadworks, that weren't even happening. In some places there were what looked like permanently placed traffic cones. 

As for the speedsters, here if you are caught travelling 15 mph over the speed limit, it is an immediate driving license suspension. I don't think it must be like this at all in England, given the number of people speeding on motorways. 

However, I found the standard of driving in the north excellent, only falling apart in the inner west area of Newcastle area where a lot of immigrants live. I felt sorry for the bus drivers. The large roundabouts can be intimidating but drivers are very forgiving if you are not quite in the correct lane. I seldom heard a blast of a horn. Many roundabouts have traffic lights and that all works quite well to ensure everyone gets their turn. A roundabout in Chesterfield was the worst for me and there was no way to avoid it after leaving our hotel. There were good road markings indicating which lane you should be in to use whatever numbered road you wanted, but they were faded to the point of being unreadable. 

R's Sister 3 will not drive further along the West Road than the A1 roundabout because as she said, she has lost confidence. She drove us to Sister 2's place one day and her driving was fine. Perfectly competent and safe. If she needs to go further, one of her three children, grandchildren or partners will take her.

Unlike here, no one really needed a horn blast from the car behind to move when a turn arrow came up. Clearly drivers were focused on their task at hand and not surreptitiously looking at their phones or in car screens. From what I have learnt, it is much harder in England to obtain a driving license and perhaps behind Germany, it must be nearly gold standard. It seemed few people pass the driving test at their first attempt. Clearly driving while distracted by devices and screens as a bad must be drummed into new drivers. 

I may as well include public transport here. I was disappointed that the electric buses have disappeared on the West Road. However, the current buses are first class. They are smooth, quiet, comfortable and the drivers are excellent at making your journey smooth and fuss free. Buses in cities in Australia are generally dreadful, noisy, rough and just unpleasant, though at least ours are air conditioned. 

Taxis and minicabs are similarly priced to here, but in England there is never a complaint about a short trip to the shops from the driver. People generally use the same  minicab firm, they become known and even there are short trips, they know at times the same person will require a longer trip. 

There is a plentiful number of helpful road signage, although for me, turn left in  246 yards was not helpful. Later I thought about it. A yard is less than a metre, so maybe it was say 200 metres, but I can't think like that on the road in a an area I am not familiar with and concerned about my driving when confronted with a yard distance number. 

Clearing Decks

Normal winter evening peak traffic down below. It gets very messy.

Melbourne's very nice Century Building.

What? We are supposed to be in the right hand lane to turn right? No one told them the bleeding obvious.  

No trams and a bus replacement nightmare. I can see two St Kilda Road inbound buses and a 58 replacement bus. That was very unusual. 

Maybe I stole this from a fellow blogger because it amused me.

We have had dire warnings of energy price rises, but it hasn't happened yet. I would be a bit cynical about what is said in this picture, however with both electricity and and gas the Labor government in the state of Western Australia is in control of gas and power companies and pricing. It is not so in other states with their privatised systems, and it has taken a Federal Labor government to begin to clean up the mess left by the neo conservative so called Liberal Party.