Josephine Roper @jroper@transportation.social

Hadn't been to Burwood for ages, forgot how lively it is, there's about a year's worth of food I want to try on the main street.

But also forgot about these pedestrian fences, or are they new? Such an ugly solution to what should be a positive 'problem' (a popular town centre where lots of people are getting around on foot).

@hx @dmoser @failedLyndonLaRouchite I don't like unsourced posts either. And the way at first glance the graphic looks like a recent finding from TUMI. My library only has the book in print and I'm not there rn, but I'm pretty sure the research it presents is the same as in this paper: Donald Appleyard & Mark Lintell (1972) The Environmental Quality of City Streets: The Residents' Viewpoint, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 38:2, 84-101, DOI: 10.1080/01944367208977410

@tom_andraszek That always sucks, sorry for you :/

@mszll It might be a small gradient difference and a factor related to the number of turns, the latter route has quite a lot (in their representation).

But in general yes their bike routes are not very good nowadays... in Sydney you sometimes get routed down Broadway because in Google's map it's a 'bike friendly road' - I think because bikes are allowed to ride in bus lanes.

I'm trying to switch to something OSM based but habits are hard to break.

@europlus They seem to get upset just at being lifted or moved while locked. I don't think they know if they're on private property (until someone else comes to rent the bike and reports they can't get to it).

@jake I just shared that blog post yesterday with some friends complaining about Google cycle routing :) Very handy resource. Is there anything glaringly out of date about it, like a new top option? Or just some specific comments might have changed.

@Sydney_Stations Same!There are some things we don't appreciate enough, like Opal, and delay information for trains is actually better than many places.

Travelling in countries where most train announcements are not translated makes it obvious that most are unnecessary.

One problem with my new shared bike reparking hobby is the antitheft measures.

Lime bikes lock only the back wheel, so you can roll them on the front wheel.

Beam bikes are light enough to pick up entirely, but they make squawking noises about their antitheft mode being activated. I think this mode turns off again after a while and someone can re-use the bike - but I'm not sure. I don't want to disable the bike by reparking it, that really would make it useless junk.

Anyone know more?

@hughagraham Hmm no I switched them both around the same time - was using jupyter & spyder for Python before. Using notebooks in vscode is a little clunky (feels like you can't see much on the screen) but still worth it for copilot for me.

@Lats lovely idea but yeah... the split management of roads between state and council strikes again... Great for them to put a positive vision up though.

Slowly building the group of friends who are willing to go #climbing by train :)

We get up to Blackheath a little later and theoretically miss out on some of this beautiful winter sunshine... but much more relaxed and enjoying the whole package of the day. And I still climb enough to be exhausted!

@hughagraham Same, it was copilot that got me over. I'm not primarily in #rstats and get my Python and R syntax mixed up all the time. Copilot takes cares of the simple stuff.

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.

@Nick @bikepedantic yeah, it's about change and adjusting to new things too.

Social norms for new modes will be built gradually, partly by people unconsciously observing thousands of good examples, so I think creating good examples is helpful, in a small way.

That being said, some shared vehicles are badly parked. I've taken to stopping and moving them off the footpath, rather than just complaining/taking a photo/riding past. If a wheelchair user can't easily move a share bike out of the way, all the more reason for an able-bodied person who sees it to move it preemptively. Doesn't mean it has to be tipped over angrily either.

sustainable transport hot take of the day: people seeing any shared bike or scooter parked in public space as ugly litter are just reflecting preconceptions and prejudice against new modes.

Like seeing any graffiti as ugly. Some graffiti is ugly! Some of it's great. My life improved when I dropped those blinkers and started being able to think 'damn the bubble writing on that carriage is amazing' not 'graffiti on the train, just another reminder of the shittiness of humanity'.

@walk_sydney Hmm no, all I can find is pop-up fully pedestrianised or pedestrian priority streets - mostly rues aux ecoles using planter beds dropped on the street.

@walk_sydney Ahh, sure I saw some in Paris but not sure if I have photos. Will have a look. Also, lots of painted footpaths in Japan but they aren't protected, or 'pop-up' in the sense of being temporary or new, it's just how they are.