Josephine Roper @jroper@transportation.social

We have so few wide bike paths in Sydney that I always notice them as an absolute luxury overseas. It’s so good to be able to ride next to someone and talk to them. It’s so normal - it’s what you expect walking, if you take a tram together or drive together.

The fish knows how to live

On the left, my partner’s grandpa’s place. On the right, the best bakery in Les Sables d’Olonne. Having found peak walkability, I can stop now.

That’s it for trains today, here’s a lemon ramen

Got the Shinkansen for one stop back to Nagasaki, as we have JR passes so it’s the same price. 8 minutes vs 24 minutes on the Seaside Liner. Speed doesn’t look that different out the windows but it spends a lot more of the distance in tunnels. Shows how that kind of straightening, and not having stops, contributes to the effective speed of high speed rail. (The driving time would be similar to the slow train).

Sadly, they are building a new freeway next to the train line, instead of perhaps upgrading it from a single track, once an hour service…

On the way back we took the train from Aino to Isahaya, which is basically a glorified bus, 1 car. Apparently the most expensive train to maintain per passenger in the world? Or was it Japan? Latter seems more possible (I have not verified this at all)

A walk in Aino (non train interlude)

Bikes at Isahaya station. Have seen very few locked bikes in Japan!

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because I don't like the argument that stops would be too close together because of a fixed '400m catchment', which is outdated and not representative of mode choice decisions & experience for shorter trips.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