Friday 8 September 2017

Where can people go?

Saw this great illustration of how much cars dominate our public places.

The caption is spot on - "cities feel a lot less welcoming when you highlight the areas pedestrians aren't supposed to go like this".


Was talking to a person last night who has lived overseas where human beings are cars share the road more equally.

I wonder if the difference is due to our culture of cars.

Tuesday 14 March 2017

Faster than 300 cars

My wife and I left the game on our bikes. There are only two roads out of the South Pine Sports Complex and this was probably the biggest game ever held there.

Traffic to go home was at a standstill. The start of the dotted blue line is where we decided that wasn't for us. Part of the joy of being car free is never having to be in traffic jams. So we went on the grass path. It later became a concrete path, then a bikelane.

I reckon we passed 300 cars. Sometimes they moved slower than walking-pace. Mostly they didn't move at all.


At the red marker the queue meets a major road and each cycle the traffic lights allow about seven cars through.

So if we did pass 300 cars, the ones at the back of the queue would have waited for 43 cycles of traffic lights.

By this time, my wife and I had cycled to the train station and were most of the way home.

Sometimes people ask if I miss the "convenience" of a car.
Not if "convenience" means waiting for 43 cycles of the traffic lights.

PS. The map above shows the travel time assuming you are walking. This traffic was going much slower than walking pace, so I reckon the time was more like 40 minutes to 1 hour for that 1.7km.