Josephine Roper @jroper@transportation.social

Apparently I can post photos now, so a thread: Heading to see my cousin’s home on a Regional Rapid Seaside Liner, a good name for a train. 2 cars. Had facing seats like a subway, which seemed a bit unusual for an intercity train (we took it Nagasaki to Isahaya).

In Nagasaki, these red dots count down from the top to show how long pedestrians have to wait (and same on the green).

Obviously I’m lapping up one of the great national public transport systems, JR pass and endless snacks in hand, but it’s the little things too :)

Personal walking neighbourhoods from some of my survey respondents - WalkSydney followers (blue) and UNSW city planning masters students (pink).

Not a representative sample of Sydney, that's for sure! Got to start somewhere.

Petition for another light rail stop in Surry Hills: https://www.teamclover.com.au/wimbolightrail

I've signed mostly because I don't like the argument that stops would be too close together because of a fixed '400m catchment', which is outdated and not representative of mode choice decisions & experience for shorter trips.

Having registered my opposition to catchment analyses... here's a rough one anyway.

Went out of my way just to enjoy this nice new #bike crossing on Mitchell Road.

Still some awkwardness where the two-way cycling becomes one-way (behind the pedestrians) but it’s a very quiet street over there so it’s probably ok.

minor leagues #carryshitolympics - my partner is recovering from knee surgery with the aid of his new e-bike conversion. He brings the crutch to work because he still has trouble with stairs and getting up from seats.

And it’s a shame if it continues perceptions of car dominance, because parts of Adelaide are great to cycle!

Here we are heading in to the Fringe Festival through the parklands 🥰🥰

(it’s pretty ridiculous to have to wear helmets for something you can do wearing a summer dress, carrying a handbag, and in my sister’s case, heavily pregnant. But that’s another post).

How the sheer size of cars makes them seem more important than they are.

I’m visiting my sister in Adelaide and riding on many quiet streets like this. Often there are also other people on bikes, like that guy up ahead. Take the parked cars out of this streetscape and it’s ‘wow, everyone cycles in Adelaide’. But with them, they dominate the image of the street, even though there’s only 4 of them and 3 of us…

‘Fun’ fact: long distance train travel times haven’t improved in Australia since the 1970s.

Still enjoyed my train to Melbourne, the bus a bit less so, but it would have so much more appeal to more people if, say, Sydney to Adelaide was 12 hours total travelling instead of 21 (+2 hour connection in Melbourne).

Starting the slow trip to Adelaide!

Booked a day train and first class hoping to get some work done, but forgot these trains are too old to have power at the seats… hopefully can find some somewhere.

A classic Sydney ‘shared path’ (legalised footpath) and excessive advertising combo. If it were glass you could at least see if anyone was waiting at the bus shelter or riding the other way, as it is you have to ride at walking speed to negotiate this. (The road is 70km/hr death.)

The problem is not so much that these shared paths exist - I’d rather ride them than nothing - but that they’re counted in our kms of cycling infrastructure.

Another map of Sydney with another view of the National Art School. This 1879 'Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News' hangs upstairs in UNSW's Old Main Building. It's almost 2m tall and it needs to be, with the level of detail shown.

(Went on a campus walk with the People & Place cluster, checking out UNSW's oldest buildings - that is to say, from the 1950s - and many pieces of art I'd never stopped to look at before.)

Video on the other side of canal (can't put in the same post)

Rode to Earlwood for some solo climbing yesterday as am testing + but no symptoms. Nice to see the effort put into maintaining the bike path through Sydney Gateway construction. And the new path on the other side of the canal (new to me anyway) is great. Just that bit further from the road.

Oh yeah, this is what it looks like as a puzzle (used the box picture for clarity before). Now I've got to work out what to do with it.

Darlinghurst mapped: Google vs Public Sydney

Spent a few too many hours since Christmas doing my Public Sydney puzzle the slow way - without looking at the picture or other maps to help!

The complex in the middle here puzzled me - I had no idea what or where it was. Turns out it's the National Art School, in the marvellous historic buildings of one of our oldest prisons: https://nas.edu.au/history/

Anyway, it really brought home the different perceptions of a city via different maps (cont)

Christmas presents! My people know me ❤️

Though I did send some of them a link to @philipthalis’s puzzle in advance… gotta drop hints 😁

Bike parking at the pub! ... as long as you get there before this person 🙃

(In their defense, the rack was already bent, and the yellow paint is quite ambiguous as to what is meant to be going on)