Josephine Roper @jroper@transportation.social

Visiting mum - got to be one of the nicest located bus stops in Sydney.

Ofc the bus only comes every half an hour and one of the neighbours has campaigned to remove it because they don't like the noise and hardly anyone gets on here (except mum). The vicious cycle of low frequency. But for now, it exists.

From Pete Dyson’s ‘Transport for Humans: Are we nearly there yet?’, which I haven’t yet read, but looked like a good read from the parts I flicked through at #utsg2023

Saw a classic example of excessive turn radius / curb extensions needed today - corner of Queen Margaret Drive and Kelvin Drive, Glasgow.

Kelvin Drive is 20mph in both directions, so just a local road. But set up like people are trying to turn into it at 50. I was quite nervous to cross the first time, but eventually realised hardly anyone was turning in.

Found some plans to fix it as part of a bike lane project a few years ago, but not yet implemented.

Took the train to Salzburg on the weekend to see a friend from Slovenia.

The historic centre of Salzburg is a pedestrian area controlled by bollards, but with some car access as you can see.

From what I can find: disabled people with a Euro-key can park inside, taxis can enter anytime (saw quite a few) and the bollards are down for deliveries before 11am. I guess before 11am the risk of confused/lazy tourists driving in is considered lower.

It seemed like a good balance.

Staying in Gilching, a sort of commuter village 30 mins outside Munich. I always find it interesting as a place that seems very bikable, but not that walkable.

First picture is the triplex we are staying in, middle building. Right is a duplex (I think), not sure about left. Sneaky density that looks like traditional houses.

Others show parts of my route to the climbing gym. On a bike it would be great - straight, flat and fast. On foot... eh, it's a little bit dull and far.

I took a bus 🧵

Train of the day: Paris to Munich, ~8 hours including local connections

Train snack: cake salée with nettles and brie, from my belle-mère, coconut, from the station

French boyfriend complaints: the reduction in train speed after crossing the border. “Germans are *paying* to go this slow?”

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.

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

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. #GetAroundPollutingLess

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

Some English description: https://www.stirworld.com/see-features-bruz-utopia-housing-by-champenois-architectes-explores-idyllic-community-living

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.

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!