Harry Potter, the Psychic Boss and the Laneways of Doom

In article ,
hippy wrote:

My experience indicates trucks are much better at dealing with me than
most drivers. They move over early and give me room.

You just have to hope that any car tail-gating them notices...

--
Shane Stanley

Absent Husband wrote:
Why is it so hard to leave the car at home and catch public transport??
I'm sure some people see itas some sort of step down the social
hierarchy if they decide to get a bus/train...

because parking in that part of the world at the train station is limited.
there are only a small number of stations out there and car theft is high.
parking the brisvegas cbd is ok and you get straight to your destination.
public transport around brisbane by train is ok, but transfering to a bus
blows your time out to double when you have to wait to transfer then deal
with traffic. brisbane has large areas of the burbs that have no public
transport at all[1]. its a car drivers town, or you don't keep your job =/

you're right about the social heirachy thing. its a chicken and egg thing.
without a decent public transport system, people wont use it. they won't
build a better on until people start using it.

brisbane city councils idea to fix the early AM (after midnight) transport
issue is to make the taxi zones bigger and put in a "queue manager" to get
folks into taxis faster... WTF?

cheers,

kim

[1] and don't tell me one bus to the city in the morning and
one bus home at 5pm is a public transport system.

Theo Bekkers wrote:
Shabby wrote:
Theo Bekkers wrote:
I don't quite get the 'pointless poluting status symbols' bit.

We could start on Conformodore drivers as well if you want Theo.

It was the singling out 4WD's as 'pointless poluting status symbols' that
got my goat. I don't see 4WDs as being any more poluting than the average
Falcodore or blocking anyone's forward vision any more than a bus or a
delivery vehicle.

I work in the Adelaide CBD. In the building I work in are several law firms and government departments.
As one comes and goes in the lifts, one over hears things.

The thing I often hear about is folks dissing or gloating about brand new vehicle etc...

the thing that ****s me to tears more than anything else is "mr X just buaght a new Prado for $75K!"
"and its not even a Landcruiser!"

everthing for these guys is about the vehicle as a "show pony".
these guys are so soft, they take the car/prado/pajero to be washed on the weekends.
pin stripe suits and all!! eeek!

anyhow, theres a couple of stories about a guy on the way to a company lunch in the barossa,
having to change a tire, but couldn't. his wife and 11 year old son did because they couldn't bear him crying ...

these guys have no skills outside of paper pushing and wheeling and dealling on the phone.

roll out a newer saner type of "pointless status symbol".

cheers,

kim

Theo Bekkers wrote:
Peter Signorini wrote:
You don't seem to get the point about the need for the type of
vehicle - delivery vans, trucks and buses are generally on the road
to do a task that demands their size. In suburban Melbourne there's
not much functional utility from a RAV4 that couldn't be handled by,
say, a Toyota Corolla. And what about the fuel consumption and visual
obstruction comparisons here?


In another post I pointed out that the RAV4 is a whopping 80 mm longer than
a Corolla. OK it is 215mm higher and, not to ignore, 90mm wider. Comparing
Toyota website specs the Top of the Wazza RAV4 gets 9.7 l/100 km whilst the
very frugal, also top of the line, Corolla manages 8.1. The cheapest manual
Corolla is the same length but uses only 7.7l/100 km. The cheapest RAV4 uses
9.3 but, Oh my Gawd, is 315 mm shorter than the Corolla. Feel free to browse
away.

the whole markeing image is for a half baked 4wd with no off road ability, expensive
tires, crappy power steering, crappy aircon, crappy seats, aimed at young women.

a friend of mine likened them to a boobtube, with the same level of support.

its just another glorified handbag. but a bloody ugly one at that.
but a boon for the RAA, chaning tyres has never been such a highly saught after skill.

cheers,

kim

Absent Husband wrote:

Why is it so hard to leave the car at home and catch public transport??

1) Getting to the the train station is usually a car trip in itself. It
takes a special kind of person to see the 30 minutes walk to the station
in the morning and 30 minutes walk home as really good to do.
Perticularly in humind, wet or very hot weather, and then there is the
need for a shower when you get to work.

2) You need to be able to get parking at your local train station and
just when they open enough parking for the locals, either a new suburb
is opened nearby (up to 10kms away) and they all want parking, or people
at other over crowded stations suddenly hear about the new car parking
at your station (usually because the fat arse thick brained railway
executives toot their trumpets and launch massive advertising to say so.

OR

B1 - having a clunker to ride to the train station turns out to be
expensives in lock and chains and replacement seats, handlebars, not to
mention tubes and puncture repairs.

B2 - your state bicycle group without consulting local members who do
ride their bicycles to the station, that the bicycle lockers are going
to go at all the other train stations and state rail launches a campaign
to chop off and remove all bicycle locked to railway fittings at all
stations that don't have lockers.


I'm sure some people see itas some sort of step down the social
hierarchy if they decide to get a bus/train...

And, you are finally on the platform, when

3) State Rails starts cancelling not one, not two, but three peak hours
trains in a row. And when a train finally turns up; Who said state rail
no longer transport cattle?

4) The train carraige is dirty, smelly and the air conditioning, if it
works, respondes to the wind chill temperature outside the train.

5) You suddenly find that the interconnecting bus at the other end are
running late and out of timetable order, so you have a 30 minute wait
for your bus.

6, 7, & 8 are 5, 4, & 3 in reverse order for the train home.


Oh, and did I mention the fact, that unless you work in the CBD, well
you are screwed anyway because public transport is all focussed on the
CBD.


but, somehow, I now find that I managed all that for 20 years.

Terry Collins wrote:
1) Getting to the the train station is usually a car trip in itself.

a) Move closer to the station.

2) You need to be able to get parking at your local train station

Solved with a)

And, you are finally on the platform, when

3) State Rails starts cancelling not one, not two, but three peak hours
trains in a row. And when a train finally turns up; Who said state rail
no longer transport cattle?

b) for book. Take one. Read it. iPod also highly recommended.
nerd Currently listening to Chaostheorie by Thomas P. Heckmann, one of
2020 songs, 16.5 days worth of music /nerd

4) The train carraige is dirty, smelly and the air conditioning, if it
works, respondes to the wind chill temperature outside the train.

c) Sorry about that - it must've been the curry at lunch.
My car doesn't have aircon.

5) You suddenly find that the interconnecting bus at the other end are
running late and out of timetable order, so you have a 30 minute wait
for your bus.

Solved with a)

Oh, and did I mention the fact, that unless you work in the CBD, well
you are screwed anyway because public transport is all focussed on the
CBD.

Sadly, true. Move closer to work?

but, somehow, I now find that I managed all that for 20 years.

Think of how much you helped good ol' planet earth!!

hippy
- kinda serious, kinda not (I didn't have a car or bike when I moved
here so it HAD to be walking distance from a train station. I don't
understand why more people don't do the same thing.)

hippy wrote:

Terry Collins wrote:
1) Getting to the the train station is usually a car trip in itself.

a) Move closer to the station.

Actually, the far, far, far better solution is to move to a town where
you can safely commute. Living in the city is fine when the big dollars
are flowing, but otherwise it sucks {:-).

Terry Collins wrote:
hippy wrote:

Terry Collins wrote:

1) Getting to the the train station is usually a car trip in itself.

a) Move closer to the station.


Actually, the far, far, far better solution is to move to a town where
you can safely commute. Living in the city is fine when the big dollars
are flowing, but otherwise it sucks {:-).

I've never understood why people live in citys.
From my house I can see Jarrah forest to the horizon. The river is
about 300 metres away, the Mundabiddi mountain bike trail goes literaly
up my street, the Bibbulmun walk track is about a 10 minute walk from my
house and there are two large dams within mountain bike distance from
me. I can also park my car right in front of the shop I want to visit
and not have to pay for parking. My town has a good hospital and the
local high school is one of the highest ranked in the state for getting
your kids into university. Why would I live anywhere else?

Marty

Marty wrote:
I've never understood why people live in citys.
From my house I can see Jarrah forest to the horizon. The river is
about 300 metres away, the Mundabiddi mountain bike trail goes literaly
up my street, the Bibbulmun walk track is about a 10 minute walk from my
house and there are two large dams within mountain bike distance from
me. I can also park my car right in front of the shop I want to visit
and not have to pay for parking. My town has a good hospital and the
local high school is one of the highest ranked in the state for getting
your kids into university. Why would I live anywhere else?

Um, because there's no IT companies there willing to pay for my bike
habit in the country?

The reason lots of people live in cities is because that's where most of
the oppurtunities are. I'd love to live in the country, but to do so I'd
cut my wage in half (or more) and the scope for growth/promotion (at
least in IT) pretty much disappears. Instead I'm going to cut my wage by
100% and ride around in another country

hippy

Plodder wrote:
Subarus and the like (similar to an
ordinary car) I don't refer to as 4WDs even when they have 4WD; more
accurately they are All Wheel Drives.

the nunber of mind bending offroad adventures i've had in an old beat up FWD subaru would prolly scare the pants of most urban
4WD owners. in fact, the places i've seen rear wheel drive kombis scares even me!

real 4WDs don't have power steering or airconditioning.

Of course the safety factor had to be taken into account, which made buying
an ordinary small car an even easier choice: less tendency to roll and more
manoeuvrable in traffic. I can't imagine why anyone with a synapse would buy
a 4WD for safety! Didn't anyone do physics at school?

PE probably, and probaby drama...
certainly not physics and history.

cheers,

kim