Melburnist's braindump

Victoria Police Chief and support for cyclists

Thu, 27/02/2014 - 13:54 Alastair Taylor

Victoria Police's Chief Commissioner, Key Lay, has cut through a frequently used counter argument by motorists that cyclists don't pay for the roads they ride on. As reported in The Age today , Ken Lay quashes the motorists supercilious argument by stating "Our roads are paid for by our taxes and...

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GMUG2013 - Thanks to all

Sat, 02/11/2013 - 10:38 Alastair Taylor

Just a quick note to say thank you to our presenters - Laurence Dragomir, Adam Borowski, Sarah Backhouse, John Carfi and William McDougall - for donating some of their time last night to provide their insights. Thanks also must go out to the City of Melbourne for selecting us to hold an event as...

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A conversation with the Planning Minister

Sun, 13/10/2013 - 14:20 Alastair Taylor

On Friday afternoon just gone, Nick Harrison, Laurence Dragomir and myself meandered down to 1 Spring Street and had a conversation with Planning Minister Matthew Guy on a range of current planning and city development topics. These ranged from: Plan Melbourne's impact and relationship with...

UTA's EcoDenCity initiative and Victoria's Reformed planning zone parallels

Wed, 02/10/2013 - 00:02 Alastair Taylor

The Editors and regular writers of UrbanMelbourne.info generally try to get one large editorial piece out per day and today, if you haven't noticed, there's been somewhat of a takeover. Today's piece by Tony Peric outlines the EcoDenCity initiative driven by the primarily Sydney-based Urban...

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Fishermans Bend: dare to dream

Mon, 23/09/2013 - 16:38 Alastair Taylor

As Nick Harrison has written today , Fishermans Bend is destined to be a true game changer in terms of urban density in Melbourne and our entire country. On one level it speaks volumes for the vision the powers-that-be have for the central core of our city and on another it is somewhat historic...

Focus now shifts to November 29, 2014

Fri, 06/09/2013 - 12:41 Alastair Taylor

With Tony Abbott's Public Transport adverse policy costings released yesterday, there's no point in hoping for a brain fart on the same scale as Kevin Rudd's last week on the Minister for Cities. The Federal Government will continue to dangle the purse strings and it will be up to the states to put...

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"Apartments are not suitable for raising families" - oh really?

Sun, 25/08/2013 - 15:45 Alastair Taylor

Monash University's Dr Bob Birrell gave that quote to The Age , in full: ''Apartments are not suitable for raising families. There's a plenty of alternative options outside the apartment stock for people who are thinking about or who are raising a family,'' he said. ''All of the demographic data we...

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More simple yet fundamental questions for East-West

Sydney comes up with a smokey plan to deck over its rail lines

Mon, 15/07/2013 - 21:44 Alastair Taylor

Originally cited on this SSC thread, it appears the powers that be are getting serious on the other side of the Murray. And it's a smokey idea as well. Despite rail being the best mass-transport option in any large city, like a wide freeway, surface rail lines are barriers and for the most part...

Memo Vicroads - move the travel time indicators on the Monash

Sun, 14/07/2013 - 10:31 Alastair Taylor

Since the opening of Eastlink, I've found the lack of travel time indicators and advanced road hazard / traffic warning boards before the Monash / Eastlink interchange citybound very odd. Here's an enormous road built to move traffic North-South through the whole East of the city and is a...