Melbourne not Shutdown

With a State of Emergency declared across Victoria the seriousness of the worldwide pandemic has arrived to Melburnians. But despite consistent messaging from the Premier, action from the public is still lacking. Accurate and clear reporting of the situation is essential to prevent apathy towards the control measures, but the media is dropping the ball.

Wilful Blindness

Following a week of protests consistently targeting peak hour CBD road transport there has been a growing conspicuous police presence around the city of Melbourne. But with dozens of officers waiting around for the action to kick off, they chose some rather odd activities to fill the time.

Impediment upon hinderance

Walking around Melbourne it is clear motorised transport is still the favoured method when it comes to provisioning space and resources. Its not just about the odd corner cutting for pedestrians and cyclists but a consistent and determined effort to exclude them from any priority. Possibly one of the worst examples sits at the top of the city.

Service in plain sight

Cycling infrastructure doesn’t have to be exclusive or even delineated. Along wide roads with lower speed limits the sharing of space is natural without conflict. Melbourne has numerous service roads of exactly these characteristics paralleling major traffic routes, but it all falls apart at the intersections.

Pedestrian downgrade at Flinders St Station

Sneaking in reductions in utility and safety while claiming the opposite, politics at its worst. The recent redevelopment of the Flinders St Station forecourt facing onto Swanston St was promoted explicitly as improvements to protection by the City of Melbourne but the majority users of the intersection have been short changed with an absolute reduction in accessibility.

Escalator Queues and the Interlopers

Melbourne’s major train stations have moved to escalators and lifts as the way to and from platforms. While there are some rules for use posted on them, keeping to the left if not moving isn’t one of them.

Carry on Racing Lights

Although not the extreme example covered previously where bicycles were completely ignored in Melbourne’s intersection designs, most designs look the other way and still ignore the fundamental guidances on safety. There is a repeated assumption that all vehicles on the road will be travelling at the speed limit dangerously placing bicycles in conflict with pedestrians and cars. All in the name of increasing throughput and putting the publics safety as a lower priority. Almost everywhere you look its the same story and not changing.

Rehashed Morals

Autonomous cars are an exciting near-future technology that promise to out perform human drivers in many respects. Yet the safety side of it captured the publics imagination in the form of hypotheticals.

Two ways under the Railway

Unlike roads, its an offence to cross the railway tracks except at a designated crossing. While the high profile level crossing removals are underway its easy to forget that the rail lines have many more crossings set aside for pedestrians only.

The Real Cyclists of Melbourne

Stereotypes can bias thinking about any topic, and cycling has its own image which has been carefully cultivated by the interested parties. But real cyclists are mostly a world apart from the images pushed out by mainstream media and you can make your own generalisations from this collection of real people cycling in Melbourne city.