Josephine Roper @jroper@transportation.social

Technology Holy Wars are Coordination Problems - https://gwern.net/holy-war

Reread this by chance, noticed a clear analogy can be drawn to battles over transport technologies, not just software. My choice of bicycle and yours of an SUV are not independent choices - one of our ecosystems becoming dominant will make life harder for the other's choice. The conflict for space, and why the stakes are so high, is more obvious in the transport sphere. But gives an interesting new perspective.

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.)

@walk_sydney oh just switched my brain on to the Bs. Which bridge is B4 exactly? IMO there are 3 active transport bridges 'missing' in the Wolli Creek area: one paralleling the train line from Wolli Creek to Tempe, and two paralleling the sewer line on each side of Earlwood.

(I wrote a piece about those two once, though I've moved on from these particular accessibility metrics, the idea is the same https://blogs.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures/blog/2021/08/impact-of-pedestrian-network-barriers-on-walkability-a-cooks-river-case-study/ )

@bikepedantic oh thank you, I was starting to think it was just me and didn't know how to find out what was going on.

@walk_sydney It's very radial.

Personal bias here but a key 'inner orbital' would roughly parallel the 370 bus route - which is popular enough to have <10min service all day: Annandale - Camperdown - Sydney Park - Green Square - UNSW - Coogee.

And/or a further south C4-C5 connection, which would mostly entail replacing the Gardeners Rd 'shared path' (footpath) with a real bike lane.

Oh and the (apparently underway) Sutherland-Cronulla link has potential IMO.

@Transportist Thanks, got it.

@timrichards true, there's an element of timing the secondhand market. More on the buy side for me (mine's worth nothing to sell).

@timrichards still carrying an iPhone 6s here. I really really want a better camera, but just can't justify it when the phone still works fine. May upgrade to a 2020 SE this year, but can't think of a compelling reason to do it at any particular time.

@jedsetter you have blown my mind, I didn't know about that option... but no unfortunately. If I'm reading it correctly and it only goes down on Mondays.

@Transportist @jedsetter Ah yes I see. Almost 200m additional walk. Yes happy to do one on behalf of WalkSydney. Do I draft it and send it to them/you?

@Transportist @jedsetter Do WalkSydney comment on cycling plans? I don't have strong opinions on the walking part of the design. The walking problem in that area, as I see it, is making east-west walking to the stations/town centres and the beachside more attractive, and these north-south paths will be largely recreational and seem well enough designed for that purpose.

@Transportist @jedsetter I was leaving a comment on the map, but it's quite holistic (design goals of directness, 30km/hr speeds, avoiding discontinuity vs design with multiple 'dismount' pedestrian crossings) so might change to a submission.

@jedsetter It's still rather more recreation than transport focused. Good thing it's open for comment now. Bay St crossing particularly needs details.

@jedsetter your letter reads just like the ones I wrote. The prospect of working on this project broke any desire I had to stay in the construction industry, and one of the tragic things about it is the powerlessness of the community - there is no room in the 'consultation process' to reconsider building the thing, only to tinker around with what the noise walls look like... But perhaps it was comments like yours that led to this improved bike plan, so that's something at least.

Want to go to Adelaide for the Fringe by public transport. Struggling to decide between:

Day train to Melbourne, night bus to Adelaide - cheaper, fairly flexible, not great sleep

Or night train to Melbourne, day train (Overland) to Adelaide - more comfortable if I get a sleeper but roughly double the price, and the Overland only runs twice a week.

Thoughts?

needless to say flying is cheaper than both and takes 2 hours instead of ~24, but I'm stubborn.

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.

@danhill Something about circles of trust… have to trust other users of public transport to behave appropriately, but trusting them to control their dogs seems a step too far. We trust runners not to sprint around corners and knock over old ladies, but not e-scooter riders. Perhaps with good reason in the short term, as change requires people learning new norms. But maybe fear & rigidity is also a response to general lack of control in the often hostile city. Sorry, bit off topic!

@danhill That research is such a clear way of demonstrating it. I’ve been thinking about other types of “status quo bias” in transport lately. Eg fear of escooters on footpaths (vs the much larger vehicles separated from us only by a tiny curb), Sydneysiders being very against the idea of pets on public transport (which seems to work fine in other cities).

github copilot works with R way better than expected, for a language that isn't mentioned as supported 😯

Going to enjoy my two months of rapid coding (before getting turned into paperclips or free trial expires, whatever comes first)