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Things that have been said about cars before but I feel like saying them again 

Some pretty streets without street parking I've seen on this trip 😍

Though the Japanese ones are much more pleasant to walk or cycle than the French ones. Perhaps partly design - speed limits and the French street having a tiny footpath, implying that pedestrians should stay there, versus small Japanese streets often having either wide painted footpaths or no footpath - but a lot of it is just the driving culture.

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At least the interminable Eurostar line has a pleasant view of Gare du Nord

Aside: you can play spot the dog here, and compare to the number of humans waiting. Whenever the topic of pets on public transport comes up in Sydney, people seem to imagine every carriage full of fur. But in places it’s allowed, I usually see proportions like this - perhaps 1-2% of people with a pet. And this is off peak - long distance lines at 11am on a Thursday. I imagine on commuter services it’s even lower.

One of the food ones (they are chosen at random from a list of half a dozen or so, it appears).

Translation: For your health, practice a physical activity regularly. www.[eatingmoving].fr

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Something surprising for me: French TV showing sustainable transport messages below car ads! No idea if this actually does anything, but certainly a different government mindset, can’t imagine it in Australia.

Also they only appear for 3 seconds so they’re hard to photograph, sorry for the blur. Unlike the equivalent food ones (in reply) which appear for the duration of the ad.

Translation: For short journeys, privilege walking or cycling.

Visited a friend in an interesting deck-access/breezeway-type building near Rennes yesterday, 'Utopia', Bruz.

Some English description: stirworld.com/see-features-bru

The courtyard seems quite dominated by the footbridges at first, but there was plenty of light at the base when we visited. Probably lets more light to the internal windows on the ground floor than a conventional corridor design. Will be interesting to see how the plants are doing in a few years.

Only flaw my friends said...
(1/2)

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.

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.

Trains of the day a few days ago 

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

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Trains of the day a few days ago 

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).

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Trains of the day a few days ago 

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…

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Trains of the day a few days ago 

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)

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Trains of the day a few days ago 

A walk in Aino (non train interlude)

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Trains of the day a few days ago 

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

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Trains of the day a few days ago 

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: teamclover.com.au/wimbolightra

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 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 - 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.

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