What I've been reading lately

Just an archival catch-up of recent The Beach House Weekly—my Paper.li auto summaries—of an interesting few weeks in science, space and Australian politics.

From rockets to meteorites, Roxon to Rudd, novas to Nobels, planet hunters to metric hunters.

25 March 2013
18 March 2013
11 March 2013
4 March 2013
25 February 2013
18 February 2013
11 February 2013
4 February 2013
28 January 2013
21 January 2013
14 January 2013
7 January 2013
31 December 2012
24 December 2012
17 December 2012
10 December 2012

Intriguing to look back through actually. Something in there for everyone.

Can a solution for Canberra's Bunda Street Shared Zone be salvaged from these proposals? My submission.

The ACT Government is planning to redevelop a key roadway in the Canberra CBD called Bunda Street. At present this corridor is heavily choked during weekdays, with numerous pedestrian crossing points, almost continuous streams of pedestrians moving between major destinations, and car drivers who simply can't get it into their skulls that this is a really dumb place to try to drive through at lunch time...

It's not clear from the documentation on the Community Consultation website, and the terms of reference for the design competition are not given, but the public announcements made by the Government at the launch time indicated that a Shared Zone solution was desired.

Following is my submission. I've also taken the opportunity to pass on my thoughts about the design of the rest of the Civic Cycle Loop that is currently under construction (has been for many months, dragging on endlessly...).

You can also comment on the proposals—by 5pm Monday 4 March 2013.


GTA consultants: The Bunda Street shareway.

The GTA concept is the most faithful implementation of the Shared Zone concept. However, it fails to incorporate footpath and roadway blended seamlessly, with traditional kerbing removed. Only through such treatment will car drivers realise they do not have right of way and treat it as a traditional roadway. The proposal to raise the "roadway" to the footpath height will present flooding risks. The solution is to instead remove the kerbs and blend the entire corridor from facade to facade into one unbroken line, with central drainage.

This new paving treatment should go from building to building and not stop at the lot line as is happening around Moore Street, leaving jumbled paving treatments. Implement a benefited area levy to cover additional costs if necessary, with agreement of building owners.

The idea of actually placing tables and chairs in the choke points is silly and dangerous and fails to recognise that there will still be cars and cyclists on this corridor.

The stick-on stencilling could be subject to early failure and expensive maintenance.

The concrete embossing is interesting but it is likely the indents will hold dirt etc as well as presenting a significant trip hazard for people in heels. Overall, this treatment may be overpowering over such a large area.

There remains a risk that cyclists and pedestrians will not respect or notice each other enough, with incidents highly likely. A segregated bikeway would resolve this.

Spackman Mossop and Michaels: The separated cycleway.

My readings over the last month or so...

Another catch-up of my readings via various sites and social media forums, for anyone interested (but mainly just for my own record), through the Paper.li automatic magazine tool.

There's something in here for everyone...

Week to 26 November
Week to 19 November
Week to 12 November
Week to 5 November
Week to 29 October
Week to 22 October
Week to 15 October

"Dumb Ways To Die" has gone totally postal...

When this gorgeous little twist on the old-fashioned public safety advisory message by Melbourne rail company Metro popped up on tweets from overseas friends last week before virtually anyone in Australia had heard of it, I knew it was going to be a big viral hit.

Just how big I don't think anyone quite expected. It was posted on YouTube on 14 November, and has already blasted through 15 million views!


There has been a lot of talk lately about how the media industry is (not) coping with the incredible rate that the community is embracing new media. But there's been very little talk about how it's also changing the face of marketing. This is a pearler of an example of an advertising agency and a client that both "get it".

Big up to them!

I wonder what's this red button do...?

Want a sustainable light rail solution for Canberra? The choice is now dead simple...

Well if you want a sustainable solution to Canberra's commuter transport woes, your options for your voting in tomorrow's ACT election just became dead simple.

ABC666's Ross Solly has reported that the Liberals' Alistair Coe has ruled out the light rail option on the radio this morning.

It's what we've all been waiting to find out. The ACT Greens committed to starting construction of light rail as soon as possible. ALP promised to build the Civic—North Canberra—Gungahlin route. But we've had nothing but empty squib words from the Liberals about yet more studies... Until now—just one day before the election!

Of course Coe tries to spin a line around the cost of building light rail, and yes: rail is expensive. But it is an investment, rather than an expense. The reason for this is all the other expenses that light rail avoids or defers. Primarily among them of course is the massive cost of building more roads for ever-increasing car commuters.

Light rail on a pedestrian-friendly Hibberson Street, Gungahlin - can't you just see it?

ACT Greens launch plan to deliver light rail for Canberra

Regular readers would know that I believe that Canberra's transport woes (and resulting budget woes) can be helped in large part by embracing a combined light rail/bus public transport solution. So I'm very happy to be a part of the launch of this policy today by the ACT Greens.

We are sick of old party promises made just before each election. The ALP commissioned and received a cost-benefit analysis by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that showed that the ACT would be in front by more than a billion dollars if it built a light rail network. To my mind that says to not go ahead is to actually be fiscally irresponsible with the ACT Budget. But the ALP just put the report on the shelf.

It's time Canberra got the transport solution it deserves and needs.

Here's today's official media release:

The ACT Greens have launched a key election initiative that would see a light rail public transport system built in Canberra, with the first tracks laid in 2015. Greens Transport spokesperson, Amanda Bresnan MLA, launched the plan which will see the first funding commitment to light rail in Canberra. “Canberra is ready for light rail. It’s achievable, a sound investment, and the best available option for the long term liveability and sustainability of Canberra,” said Ms Bresnan. “After more than a decade of Government talk, this ACT Greens initiative will ensure action, making the financial commitment to finally see a light rail system built. “The Greens plan commits the initial $200M of capital funding, which can join financing through private partnerships, land development opportunities, and Federal Government funding. "Light rail is experiencing a renaissance in cities around the world for good reasons. It has many advantages over buses, including speed, reliability and appeal to passengers.

Is Elon Musk our real-life Tony Stark? Now he wants to build bullet trains!

Seriously? Is Elon Musk just the coolest billionaire in the world?

This guy made a motza out of Paypal. Then he turned he attention to Tesla - making electric-powered sports cars, followed by SpaceX, flying nicely now after a successful launch to the International Space Station. All companied worth in excess of a billion dollars.

And now this guy is toying with the idea of a superfast rail link between LA and San Francisco, running some three to four times faster than Japan's famous Bullet trains, via DVice:

Do you support light rail for Canberra's public transport? Here's a dead easy way to have your say.

Canberra Loves 40 is a local lobby group representing a coalition of community groups all supporting the ambitious ACT target for reducing greenhouse emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2020.

They have set up a really simple way that you can voice your support for their campaign to get the ACT Government to get serious about light rail as a solution for Canberra's public transport woes.


Just jump over to this web page, plug in your postcode, and up will come a list of your current local ACT MLAs. Select those you want to email, modify the draft email text if desired, then click Get On Board, and the rest is done for you. 

Then enjoy this short video by the group of what a light rail car could look like down Northbourne Avenue - it was shown on the big screen at the latest Raiders game at Bruce Stadium - great to have the Raiders on board with this campaign!

Catch-up on The Beach House Weekly reading summaries

The weekly Paper.li digital magazine tool dropped off for a while and they lost the ability to call up archive copies by week.

It's sorted now, so here's a catch-up . Likely this isn't of much interest to anyone else - more for my own record. But feel free to check them out if you like!


What I've been reading and/or writing about:
July 2
June 25
June 18
June 11
June 3

Canberra Airport's second Sydney airport snow job continues...

(See what I did there?)

The latest glossy piece of heavy-weight paper to come out of the Canberra Airport contains yet another spin piece about how critical it is for the operation of the Sydney Airport that the Canberra Airport remains curfew-free.

"Canberra Airport is the only curfew-free airport within reach of Sydney..."

They go on to claim a recent example of nine flights being diverted from Sydney to Canberra due to bad weather, so they could wait out the weather, refuel and return as supposed evidence to back up their argument:

"This event was a clear demonstration of Canberra Airport's important role as a backstop for Kingsford Smith Airport. Canberra's curfew-free status is critical to that role." - Managing Director Stephen Byron.

Wrong...

ACT Greens statement on Gungahlin to Civic Public Transport Priority Study release - comical list of prior promises...

ACT Transport Minister Simon Corbell released an important study study that has given estimates of time savings that would result for both public transport and car-bound commuters between Gungahlin and Civic, if priority bus lanes or light rail was built.

And viewed in isolation, this report and the words couching its release would sound very promising for a long-overdue solution to Canberra's worst commute.

Except that we've been here before.

The following release by the ACT Greens Transport spokesperson Amanda Bresnan includes a timeline of past reports and statements that really would be funny if it didn't read like such an indictment of the ALP Government, and such a litany of lost opportunity, lost revenue and increased costs/taxes.

Why it's safer to travel in groups...a funny public transport campaign

Just because they are funny...

Picks from my readings and posts over the last week - the Weekly Beach House Wrap.

Here's the weekly paper.li sieve of my week's posts.

What I've been reading and writing over the last fortnight- The Beach House Weekly Wrap

Via Paper.li, the usual summary of what I've been reading and writing over the last week.

And...it seems I forgot to post this last week, so here's the missed issue.

Podcars: could this be the future of light rail?

While our local ACT Government struggles to discuss light rail as a serious contender for commuter transport, other governments continue to get on with doing it. The Gold Coast's light rail is moving ahead nicely, Sydney's may be expanding soon.

And in India and at the Heathrow Airport, these nifty little 'podcars' are taking light rail to a whole new level of 'light'.

And Stokholm in Sweden is planning a much more extensive network, as this video shows:

The Beach House Weekly Wrap: some of what I've been reading the last week

Some great articles in this week's wrap-up:
The Beach House Weekly Wrap

Electric, and oh so sexy...

What else can you say but...WOW!

Since when does a Renault look so filthy gorgeous? Since when does an electric car look so filthy fast?

Yes the Tesla is pretty neat, but it has always been battery job wedged into a Lotus Elise.

This is a ground-up new design, kevlar shell, with top speed of 180kph, and amazingly an 80% charge in just 20 minutes.

You've got to love the direction cars are finally moving towards.

Source: dVice.

ACT Budget summary

Media release I wrote for GCC on local impacts of the ACT Budget:

The 2010–11 ACT Budget has been largely welcomed by GCC as a solid further step towards correcting years of lagging infrastructure, as the population surges past 41,000, on its way towards 100,000 people.

Transport

“This budget includes some very important projects for improving public transport services for Gungahlin commuters, over and above the most welcome continuation of the Gungahlin REDEX bus service” said GCC President Ashley Kerlin.

“For more than three years we have been asking for a major Park’n’Ride to be built at EPIC, for a ‘tidal’ bus lane down the centre of Northbourne Avenue, and a fix to the major congestion woes at the Phillip Avenue/Majura Avenue intersection.

A bike helmet with a rear view mirror

Now that's something that has to take off.

Any rider would know that a bike's mirrors are hard to use at the best of times, needing you to tuck your elbows in for a good view. Byut when braking, the rider's body comes forward, blocking almost all bike mirrors. It was in this way that my view of the car about to hit me (back in 1999) was completely blocked. Had I been able to see it coming and not braking, I could have powered away to safety.



This helmet uses a simple passive mirror system up over the head to a "mirror" just above the faceshield.

If I return to riding, it will be with this sort of helmet for sure.

China to build high-speed rail - all the way to UK

Just a few months ago, China completed an 1100km link of railway for trains running up to 350 km/h, and announced their plans to expand their internal network to some 18,000kms.

Now they have announced their plans to work with India to link their network right through 17 countries in Asia and Europe all the way to London's Kings Cross Station, and with lines through Siberia and Russia to Germany and through South-east Asia. The ultimate outcome, according to the Edmonton Journal, could be a rail link from London to Singapore.

I've heard David Suzuki talk about how people in developed nations are quick to blame the world's problems on "all those brown and yellow people" breeding away in  massive numbers. He makes the points that those people have some of the lowest ecological footprints in the world.

News like this is showing us that, while there are undoubtedly massive pollution problems in China and India, these countries are moving quickly - far more quickly than our own countries would ever move - to turn things around.

If only we could take a fraction of that enthusiasm and vision and implement it here... We can't even insulate house ceilings without stuffing it up.