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ajsadauskas

@[email protected]

Australian urban planning, public transport, politics, retrocomputing, and tech nerd. Recovering journo. Cat parent. Part-time miserable grump.

Cities for people, not cars! Tech for people, not investors!

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

Keeping pet cats indoors would save millions of native animals and billions of dollars. So what's stopping us? ( www.abc.net.au )

Broader adoption of keeping cats safe at home would have large benefits for cat welfare, human health, local wildlife and even the economy. So, should cat owners be required to keep their pets contained to their property?...

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@trk @TassieTosser Knox City Council in outer-eastern Melbourne did exactly this: https://www.knox.vic.gov.au/whats-happening/news/keeping-your-cats-safe-and-secured .

The council did it because some of its suburbs (The Basin, Ferntree Gully, Upper Ferntree Gully, parts of Boronia, Lysterfield) border national parks and the Dandenong Ranges.

Younger cats can adapt to living indoors.

But the challenge was with older cats, who are used to roaming around.

The happy medium would be to phase it in over five to 10 years, where any new cats registered or adopted after a particular date have to stay indoors, but older cats can continue to roam.

ajsadauskas , to Asklemmy
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

I'm thinking seriously about getting Google out of my life, and trying NextCloud.

Looking to get a personal account through a managed provider.

Does anyone have any experience with it?

How does it compare to ownCloud?

Any hosts I should look at or avoid?

Any apps I should get for it, or avoid?

Any issues I should be aware of before I switch?

@asklemmy

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@denshirenji @asklemmy On photos, does NextCloud Photos or Memories play nice with Digikam or any other desktop photo gallery applications? And what about Immich?

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@geillescas @jajabor @asklemmy That, and also making files/emails/calendar events synced across your computer and your phone.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@lemmyreader Here's a starting point for a fediverse StackExchange: Make sure it's interoperable with Lemmy.

Now, you may not get the full feature set on Lemmy, but you should be able to interact with it from Lemmy as if it's a group on there.

Stop Killing Games Australian Petition - Open for Signature Until **20 May 2024** ( www.aph.gov.au )

This petition is part of the Stopkillinggames.com campaign led by Scott Ross (Accursed Farms), to end in Australia the practice of software licensors to render purchased software completely unusable at arbitrary points in time....

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Dangdoggo @Rentlar Or allow it to be downloaded in a DRM-free file format that can be used with other apps, platforms, or services...

Also , if connecting a server is an absolute necessity and you are not longer going to maintain it, release the server source code as open source.

ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

So despite climate change, Australia's federal government has just committed an extra $3.25 billion into building a toll road and a 20-lane freeway widening.

For those who wonder why Aussies think toll roads are a scam (https://aus.social/@[email protected]/112405373613706682), here's a great example of why.

"Pouring an extra $3.25 billion worth of federal funds into Melbourne’s North East Link is a good use of taxpayer money, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted, despite the project’s cost doubling just a few months ago.

...

"The North East Link – which includes 6½ kilometres of tunnels – will stretch from Bulleen to Greensborough. It will widen the Eastern Freeway by up to 20 lanes.

"Allan revealed in December that the 10-kilometre toll road had more than doubled in cost since it was first announced.

"The toll road was initially budgeted at $10 billion and reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed last year that the updated cost estimate was $26 billion."

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/federal-funding-to-boost-victorian-road-link-by-3-25-billion-20240509-p5ii7b.html

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@AllNewTypeFace Of course there were.

For commuters:

  • More densification around existing stations and tram lines instead of suburban sprawl.

  • Upgrading buses across Melbourne to a 10-minute minimum frequency and straightening out existing bus routes.

  • Rolling out high-capacity signalling and automatic train control across the Melbourne suburban rail network

  • Building Metro 2 from Newport to Clifton Hill would double the number of trains that can run on the Hurstbridge and Mernda lines.

  • Building the Doncaster Railway.

  • Building the Heidelberg to Box Hill section of the SRL first.

  • Extending the 48 tram to Doncaster and giving it dedicated lanes for more of its journey.

And then for freight, there's a bunch of things too:

  • Converting more suburban lines to dual gauge.

  • Converting more regional Victorian lines to standard gauge

  • Electrifying regional rail and freight services

  • Building more multimodal facilities near existing rail lines.

ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

The toll road scam: A government-made monopoly you pay for.

Here's a funny-because-it's-true take on Transurban and the poor tax it imposes, from Punter's Politics:

https://youtu.be/FlKBakPAtiw?si=G39_0GcJzSB0SSA8

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@alcoholicorn It is when it has been privatised to a company that pretty much pays no tax (hi Transurban!), for roads that taxpayers helped to pay for, and those toll roads connect car dependent suburbs that have next to no public transport.

ajsadauskas OP ,
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@alcoholicorn Yeah, that's not how it tends to work in Australia.

What happens is a state government puts up a good chunk of time construction costs (as much as half in some cases), plus public land.

In some cases, the freeway already exists, but the state government wants one more lane built, because it thinks that will ease congestion (as happened with sections of the Tullamarine and Monash Freeways in Melbourne).

It gets handed off to Transurban, who builds it under a long-term operating agreement (30 years is common).

In some cases, the agreements have clauses saying railways that compete with the toll road can't be built.

As the end of the lease approaches, Transurban offers to build one more lane — in exchange for extending the agreement.

ajsadauskas ,
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@HubertManne @sqgl Yes, the linked article is about the Australian ABC, rather than the American one.

The two entities are not connected. The Australian ABC is a government-owned public broadcaster, while the American one is owned by Disney.

It's basically claiming a former Murdoch executive, who was appointed to manage the Australian ABC, is still working to promote his former boss' political and business interests.

ajsadauskas , (edited )
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@CEOofmyhouse56 🎶🎶 https://youtu.be/d3sRF6IaORQ?si=QaqXP32GGdGwdCDx

ajsadauskas , (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@unionagainstdhmo Definitely a bad take by Bernard there.

As for whether Crikey as a whole is any good?

Honestly, I think it and its parent company Private Media have been really poorly managed at times.

Many of the best reporters at the Nine papers and The Guardian used to write for Crikey and its sister publications at one time or another.

Some current and past Private Media journos/contributors are active on the Fedi, including @firstdogonthemoon, @paulwallbank, @stilgherrian, and @mpesce.

ajsadauskas , (edited )
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@franksting @paulwallbank @unionagainstdhmo @firstdogonthemoon @stilgherrian @mpesce Grundle is still around, and still writing for Crikey: https://www.crikey.com.au/author/guy-rundle/

ajsadauskas , (edited )
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@paulwallbank @franksting @unionagainstdhmo @firstdogonthemoon @stilgherrian @mpesce Crikey/Private Media really could (and probably should) be a much bigger company than it is, just it's been really horrendously managed.

Hopefully Will Hayward is doing a better job, because many of his predecessors have left a lot to be desired.

For most of its life, Private Media barely turned a profit, and that's been with Crikey subscriptions and SmartCompany basically carrying the various other websites that have come and gone over the years.

Many talented young journos have worked there, only to move on to the Nine newspapers or the ABC after a year or two.

You had the former CEO who one day was running cables through the ceiling of the old offices next to the Immigration Museum.

You had the other former CEO who loaded the organisation up with sales staff, only for them all to be made redundant within six months.

You had ideas that could have made money (spin out Patrick Stafford's SmartCompany tech newsletter into its own small business tech publication) knocked back, while vanity projects with no business model (remember Paul Barry's Power Index?) got the green light.

At one stage, Crikey used a heavily hacked WordPress as its content management system. SmartCompany and LeadingCompany used Joomla!, and StartupSmart used FlexiContent. All self-hosted out of a Port Melbourne data centre.

Despite owning a digital media company, the people in charge at the time didn't know enough about digital tech to know what a massive resource black hole this was.

(Eric Beecher had to bring in consultants to tell him!)

I could go on...

ajsadauskas , (edited ) to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

So the RTA's own modelling showed the Rozelle Interchange would be a traffic disaster—but generating more toll road trips for Transurban was more important.

"The [NSW Roads and Traffic Authority] finalised the first business case for the WestConnex tunnel project in June 2013, with the help of road designers from around the world.

"[Paul Forward, a former CEO of the RTA] said the initial concept did not include the Rozelle Interchange.

...

"In 2014, an expert review group was formed to assess these plans.

"Mr Forward said it was at this point that TfNSW bureaucrats began to question the connectivity provided by the design.

"The RTA's former director of traffic Chris Ford told the inquiry that 15 alternative designs were modelled.

"Mr Ford said the modelling found that another motorway leading to the Anzac Bridge would cause congestion.

"'The issues that we see today were very clearly established in the modelling in 2014,' he said.

"In November 2015, after Mr Forward and Mr Ford were dismissed, TfNSW updated the WestConnex business case to include the tunnel to the Anzac Bridge, despite the congestion concerns raised by the modelling.

"In 2016, Transport for NSW updated the business case a second time ... creating a tunnel linking the Iron Cove Bridge to the Anzac Bridge."

...

"In 2018, the NSW government sold its 51 per cent stake in the Sydney Motorway Corporation, the body responsible for operating WestConnex, to Transurban for $9 billion.

"Mr Forward said the final design would generate a larger number of toll trips than previous options."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-03/sydney-western-harbour-tunnel-warringah-freeway-traffic-disaster/103801818

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Gurre @fuck_cars The road lobby's big answer to the mess they've created with the Rozelle Interchange is to build a second road tunnel under Sydney Harbour.

Engineers at the inquiry into the Rozelle Interchange fiasco have already testified that will only create traffic jams elsewhere on the road network: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112383313109173146

Just one more lane, bro!

ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

"It's going to be a bloody disaster": Tell me again about how the second road tunnel under Sydney Harbour won't make congestion worse?

"Civil engineer Les Wielinga, a former CEO at the now-defunct Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), made the fiery comments at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the bungled Rozelle Interchange.

"The Western Harbour Tunnel, which is under construction, will allow drivers travelling between the inner west and the North Shore to bypass the CBD.

"Entries and exits to the tunnel will lie at the Ernest Street interchange in Cammeray and near the Falcon Street interchange at North Sydney.

"'It's going to be a bloody disaster,' Mr Wielinga told the upper house committee on Friday.

"Paul Forward, another former CEO of the RTA, told the inquiry he was concerned about the project's design.

"'You've now got three motorways coming out into this short area, and whilst I would recognise there are some exit points, some off-ramps, those motorways are now all going into the Lane Cove Tunnel,' he said.

"'A large number of lanes are going into two lanes at the Lane Cove Tunnel. Sounds familiar?'"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-03/sydney-western-harbour-tunnel-warringah-freeway-traffic-disaster/103801818

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@crispyflagstones @yogthos Someone is named @dansup who also created @pixelfed, the app is called Loops, you can follow his progress here: @loops

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@LostXOR @yogthos @NoIWontPickAName @technology There's a few other steps they could potentially take.

The first would be to block any financial institution in the US, or that deals with the US, from sending any payments to or from ByteDance's accounts.

They could also freeze any assets currently held by US financial institutions.

Second, if they can get Apple, Microsoft, and Google on board to help do their bidding, they could pull the ByteDance app from the Apple and Google Play app stores.

That includes removing it from any apps where it's already installed. Globally.

They could also request that TikTok is removed from Google and Bing search results.

On top of this, they could do what you suggested, and ask ISPs and mobile carriers to block domains and IP addresses used by ByteDance.

And the US could apply diplomatic pressure on other countries to implement similar financial and ISP-level blocks and bans.

So, potentially, it's also blocked in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and elsewhere.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@shirro @MHLoppy @australia The irony here is that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a piece of US legislation that is regularly used to take down content globally. Even when it's posted by people who aren't Americans.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Ilandar Most major platforms are based in the US.

A DMCA request basically means the flagged content is taken down globally, not just for the US.

If the person who uploaded that content is not a US citizen, it still gets pulled.

Australian prime minister labels Elon Musk ‘an arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law’ ( www.theguardian.com )

Australia’s prime minister has labelled X’s owner, Elon Musk, an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law” as the rift deepens between Australia and the tech platform over the removal of videos of a violent stabbing in a Sydney church....

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@quicken @tardigrada Really great point.

If Albo really wanted to send a message to Musk, here's how he could do it:

  1. Ask all federal Labor MPs to stop posting on X, and start posting on Mastodon.

  2. Order all federal government departments and agencies to stop posting on X, and start posting on Mastodon.

  3. Bribe the states to do the same.

"Hi Queensland, guess what? We just found a billion dollars under the couch for a shiny new Olympic stadium. Hi Tasmania, likewise for your new AFL stadium. And look Victoria, here's a few billion for the airport rail link — we'll cover the cost difference to put the airport station underground.

"But only if you direct all your MPs, departments, and agencies to switch to Mastodon."

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Ilandar @quoll You mean like the US government's Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@skribe @danbeeston @Salvo The other option would be to set up an official gov.au Mastodon instance, and give each government department, agency, and Parliamentarian an official account.

People can then have their choice of instance, whether that's community run or private (e.g. Threads).

In the longer term, there might be scope for some other government institutions — particularly universities — to set up their own instances as well.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@shirro @tardigrada
Not just would, but has.

Here's the "free speech absolutist" Elon Musk, in his own words, in 2023:

"The rules in India for what can appear on social media are quite strict, and we can’t go beyond the laws of a country … If we have a choice of either our people go to prison or we comply with the laws, we will comply with the laws."

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/29/tech/elon-musk-twitter-government-takedown/index.html

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Baku @beeng Or Boronia.

Because when you say the name, you think of... Boronia.

ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

How to remove a freeway...

The decision to build freeways instead of rail in the post-war years, along with the low-rise single-zoned suburbs it promoted, has been an absolute planning disaster.

But the mistake can be fixed, and freeways can be removed.

City Beautiful's Dave Amos @citybeautiful has an interesting look at some of America's endangered freeways, and how communities can get them removed:

https://youtu.be/XOpjDSUmPtU?si=F7SHc-uDLJkKd9Gu

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Naich @ardi60 Totally agree.

I mean, Windows is just such a weird proprietary distro.

It doesn't use the latest Linux kernel, or even a mainstream POSIX-compliant alternative like BSD. Instead, you have a strange CP/M-like monolithic kernel — I think they used to call it DOS — that's been extended to behave more like VAX and MP/M.

It also doesn't use either X11 or Wayland as a display manager. Instead, you have an incredibly unintuitive overblown WINE-like subsystem handling the display.

Because it doesn't use Linux, Wayland, or X11, you are limited in the desktop environment that you can use. There's really limited support for KDE, despite the best efforts of volunteers.

Instead, there's a buggy and error-prone proprietary window manager that ships with it by default. A bit like how Canonical tried to ship Unity as it's default desktop environment with Ubuntu.

And confusingly, they've named that window manager Windows as well!

That window manager lacks many of the features an everyday Gnome or KDE user would expect out of the box.

It also doesn't ship with a standard package manager, and most of the packages ship as x86 binaries, so installing software works differently to how an everyday Linux user would expect.

There's also only one company maintaining all of these projects. It insists on closed source, and it has a long history of abandoning its projects.

And sure, if you're a nerd who's into alternative operating systems, toying with Windows can be fun.

But if your grandpa is used to Linux, frankly he'll be utterly bamboozled by the Windows experience.

I'm sorry to be glib, because Windows does have some nice ideas.

But.

Windows on the desktop just isn't ready for your average, everyday Linux user.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@ramble81 @BrikoX In Australia, if you work full time, your employer is required to deposit 11% of your income into a retirement savings account, known as a superannuation (or "super") account.

Most people use a member-owned industry super fund, but you can also opt for a super account from a for-profit private financial institution (but the fees can tend to be higher).

In most cases, you can access the money in your super account once you turn 65 (but there are some conditions where you can get early access).

The Australian government also offers a (government provided) aged pension, but it's quite low.

ajsadauskas , (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Longmactoppedup What you're looking at here are the economic ideas of a late-19th century American economist named Henry George: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George

At its furthest extreme, the argument is that land and licences to exploit finite natural resources (potentially including the rights to mine minerals and emit greenhouse gasses) should be taxed heavily.

For property, the tax should only be levied against the underlying land, and not any buildings or improvements that add value. So you get taxed on what the price would be if it were a vacant lot (the unimproved site value).

Meanwhile, all other taxes on productive wealth generation — income tax, company tax, GST, etc., should be completely abolished.

Advocates generally combine this with a universal basic income.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism

The logic is that taxing finite natural resources will cause them to be used more efficiently, and the benefits distributed widely throughout society.

Meanwhile, activity that creates wealth or adds value should be encouraged, and that means it should go untaxed.

When land and resource taxes are combined with a universal basic income, what ends up happening is that people with a lot of expensive land or who use a lot of natural resources pay a net tax.

Meanwhile, people who use few resources get a UBI that's higher than their tax bill, and therefore a net credit.

What it offers is a way that free market libertarians can respond to climate change and other environmental issues.

That being said, even if you don't agree with the full Georgist program, there is still a decent case to be made that more of the tax burden should be filled by taxes on land and natural resources.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Railison Exactly.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@unionagainstdhmo @Kachilde Also depends on how narrow the loss is.

A "hanging chad" election that goes to the Supreme Court (like Bush—Gore) is basically a Trump win at this point.

A landslide wipeout like Walter Mondale in '84 to Biden is possibly the best outcome.

A relatively close Biden win, and there almost certainly will be violence.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Ilandar But it's really not.

The US has voluntary voting. Typically only a little over 50% of eligible voters turn up to vote.

That means even if the GOP managed to get 50% of the popular vote, that's just 25% of eligible voters.

Let's assume that 50% of those Republican voters are core loyal Trump supporters.

Okay, well that's just 12.5% of the US population.

A considerable percentage, no doubt. But for context, around 14% of the US population is black.

Now if 75% or more of the population isn't voting Republican, then a landslide is absolutely possible.

And if that landslide is not just in the presidential race, but on many down-ballot races as well, you're going to start to see the non-Trumpists in the GOP distance themselves from Don pretty bloody quickly.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@ordellrb @eugenia The other place the motherboards of old phones could be repurposed is in embedded processors.

Most home appliances feature embedded processors and motherboards these days. Many commercial and industrial buildings and structures feature a range of embedded sensors.

In many cases, a repurposed three-year-old or even six-year-old iPhone or Samsung Galaxy motherboard is overkill in terms of being capable for these kinds of applications.

Especially if they're reflashed with an embedded device-focussed operating system, such as QNX.

Instead of making new motherboards for embedded devices, why not repurpose old consumer tech instead?

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@mcSlibinas @etbe Really good point.

The development time and cost is an overhead. That's divided between the number of units you produce.

If the programming costs are $100k and you produce one unit, then that unit costs $100k.

But if you flash the same software on to 1 million units, then it's just 10 cents per unit.

Worth remembering that millions of people junking their two-year-old iPhones and Samsung Galaxies at roughly the same time.

I think the broader underlying issue is that our economy is optimised for labour productivity, rather than making the most out of finite environmental resources.

It really should be the other way around.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@mcSlibinas @etbe Worth noting that in the six months after Apple releases the thinnest, best iPhone ever each year, it would receive several million two-year-old iPhones as trade-ins.

So you could theoretically reflash several million units of nearly identical hardware with embedded Linux (or QNX), remove the batteries (and screens?).

You would then have several million near-identical motherboards ready for second life embedded in appliances or sensors.

ajsadauskas , (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hello1000 @ylai Yeah, the Dutch have solved this one already. It's called a bakfiets: https://youtu.be/rQhzEnWCgHA?si=jc9mn4E_0SYhG78q

As for cycling in the snow, here's @notjustbikes on why the Finns can happily cycle in the snow but Canadians can't: https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU?si=9OWyiLYq3kgEsfAU

ajsadauskas , (edited ) to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

The saga of Waverley Park — Melbourne's car-dependent suburban AFL stadium with a planned seated capacity of over 150,000 (not a typo!)

A really good run down by @philip on the plans by the AFL (and its predecessor, the VFL) to build the world's largest stadium in outer-suburban Melbourne.

Unfortunately, a planned railway line past the stadium to Rowville was never built. That meant a massive 25,000-spot car park as the only real means to get there.

While most of it has been demolished and redeveloped for housing, the oval itself still used by Hawthorn Football Club as a training and administration centre.

https://youtu.be/LvvLwiRCx4s?si=x2QvxepgPtBtJZfx

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@philip @fuck_cars And a little post-script: It's now 2024, Waverley Park is now long gone, and the long-promised Rowville railway still hasn't been built.

Here's some background info on it from Melbourne's Public Transport Users Association ( @ptua and @danielbowen ).

https://www.ptua.org.au/myths/rowville/

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@nictea @philip @fuck_cars Pretty much the whole City of Knox (a large chunk of outer-eastern Melbourne) is 1970s and 1980s car-centric suburbia at its worst.

The only rail in the whole area is basically Bayswater and Boronia stations on the Belgrave line. And trains only run every 30 minutes, aside from the morning and evening peak.

Other than that, you have the SmartBus from Ringwood to Frankston, the Rowville SmartBus, and a bunch of infrequent suburban busses.

And the stroads! There's literally a stroad called High Street Road (which is quite possibly the stroadiest name ever invented).

And all of them — Boronia Rd, Stud Rd, Wellington Rd, Burwood Hwy, Wellington Rd, Dorset Rd — are a nightmare during peak hour.

There's whole housing estates with detached residential homes where the only practical way to get anything is to drive.

If anyone says Melbourne does planning well, take them out to Knox (you'll need to drive) and they'll come away with a different opinion.

ajsadauskas OP , (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@nictea @philip @fuck_cars Even the 903 SmartBus only runs a 15 minute timetable during the day, which is less than the minimum 10-minute service busses should be running.

And other services in the area, like the 737 (Croydon to Boronia to Knox to Glen Waverley to Monash Uni) is a 40-minute-plus frequency during most of the day.

And people wonder why more residents in the outer suburbs use public transport...

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@awelder @jedsetter @nictea @philip @fuck_cars You often hear from Melburnians that it's the world's most livable city, and how the CBD is laid out nicely in the Hoddle Grid is laid out compared to inner-city.

And how Melbourne's inner-suburban tram network means it has much better public transport than Sydney.

And it's true. Colonial Melbourne, funded by its gold rush, did a much better job at planning than early Sydney.

But after the World Wars, it's a very different story.

Sydney is at least constrained by Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park to the north, the Royal National Park to the south, and the Blue Mountains to the west.

That means the only places for new sprawl are either northwest past Rouse Hill, or southwest around Campbelltown and Camden.

As a result, there's a lot more pressure from developers to densify.

Meanwhile, Melbourne just has the Dandenong Ranges to the east and Port Phillip Bay to the south.

As a result, even right now, you have new housing estates past Pakenham, Melton, Wyndham Vale, and Craigieburn.

As for sprawling Australian capitals, I think Perth has definitely been punching above its weight since the 2000s mining boom.

There's now continuous McMansions sprawl right down the Coast from north of Joondalup to south of Mandurah.

And there's new subdivisions that are closer to Bunbury than they are to the Perth or Fremantle CBDs.

ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

So WestConnex was totally going to solve traffic in Sydney by adding more lanes for cars. Just a few teething problems on the Rozelle Interchange and it'll all clear up, they said.

I wonder how it's going?

"Gladesville and Drummoyne locals say gridlock is worsening in their suburbs following changes to improve traffic flow through the notorious Rozelle Interchange, with drivers using local streets as “rat runs” to dodge congestion."

Oh dear...

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/rozelle-interchange-fix-has-created-rat-runs-in-the-suburbs-20240319-p5fdim.html

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@fosstulate @zero_gravitas "The ABC has analysed the figures to reveal when and where you’re most likely to be searched, who is most likely to be targeted and how proactive policing pushed search levels to unprecedented heights.

"What we found is that search patterns vary significantly by location. Lower socioeconomic, migrant and Indigenous areas are often searched at higher rates, despite searches being no more likely to find anything.

...

"Police conducted 9 searches per 100 indigenous people in NSW in 2022-23, compared to 2 searches per 100 people in the general population.

...

"The state’s specialist Proactive Crime Teams are part of the broader push towards proactive policing.

"They conduct more than half of searches in some police commands, including Liverpool (59 per cent), the Inner West (54 per cent) and Campbelltown (53 per cent).

...

"Statewide, in 2022-23, First Nations people made up just under 18 per cent of all person searches, according to figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

"Among proactive crime times, that figure surges to 40 per cent, according to an ABC analysis of NSW Police data.

"Only 3.5 per cent of the state’s population is indigenous.

"Among proactive crime teams, the share of searches of Indigenous people leaps to more than 80 per cent in some regional areas, including the police divisions of Central North (94 per cent), Oxley (85 per cent), Orana Mid-Western (86 per cent) and New England (83 per cent), all in the state’s west.

"Within Greater Sydney, Indigenous people made up more than half of proactive crime team searches in the police commands of Mt Druitt (61 per cent), Nepean (53 per cent) and Campbelltown (51 per cent)."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-18/how-proactive-policing-quotas-sent-nsw-police-searches-soaring/103579210

ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Sydney has opened up consultation on a strategy to reduce car traffic and make the city more walkable

"Driving in central Sydney will become harder under a plan to make the city more comfortable for pedestrians.

"The City of Sydney wants to narrow roads for wider footpaths and push for lower speed limits to discourage drivers from the CBD and transform Sydney into a walkable city.

"The council will also install more pedestrian crossings and prioritise people over cars... five times more pedestrians than motorists on the average street, yet just 40 per cent of road space is allocated to footpaths."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/greener-safer-calmer-the-plan-to-discourage-drivers-from-central-sydney-20240312-p5fbr7.html

Some key points of the strategy are:

We will ensure that there is sufficient space for people to walk.

We will improve connectivity for people walking by ensuring there are frequent street crossings that give people priority and that align with people’s walking routes.

We will ensure that footpaths and crossings are accessible so that everyone can use them.

We will plan our city based on 10-minute neighbourhoods so that people are able to meet their daily needs easily by walking.

We will make it safer for people to walk by reducing vehicle speeds.

We will reduce traffic volumes on surface streets and manage through-traffic in residential neighbourhood streets to improve both safety and experience for people walking.

We will work to make all people feel safer while walking around our city.

We will work to improve compliance with road rules, especially the lesser-known rules that benefit people walking.

We will make our streets and public spaces comfortable and inviting by ensuring that they
are green and cool.

We will make sure that there are frequent opportunities for people to stop and rest, use the toilet or have a drink of water.

We will make our city more pleasant to walk in by reducing noise and air pollution from
traffic.

We will make all streets interesting to walk along by ensuring that built form has active, permeable frontages that invite engagement and curiosity.

We will use design, activations and installations to create neighbourhood-based community and encourage people to interact with their streets.

Full details here: https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/policy-planning-changes/your-feedback-walking-strategy-action-plan#strategy

Unfortunately, the car-brained leader of the local business lobby isn't on board:

"Business Sydney executive director Paul Nicolaou welcomed efforts to make the city pedestrian-friendly... But Nicolaou said it was difficult to see how making Sydney a predominantly walking city would benefit businesses such as retailers."

(Worth repeating that 80% of people on an average city street are pedestrians, so it already is a predominantly walking city.)

Anyway, if you think the plan's a good idea, make sure you let the Sydney City Council know by emailing [email protected]

@fuck_cars

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@fullfathomfive @jedsetter @fuck_cars Really important point.

While it's open for submissions, it's worth putting in a submission pointing out where there are oversights the strategy around accessibility, and some of the ways they can be fixed.

And some of those issues (for example, more accessible public transport) will need the City of Sydney to work with external departments and agencies (such as Transport for NSW) to fix.

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@thegiddystitcher @helenslunch I think hashtag feeds being overrun with vertical videos is an excellent point. (One I hope @dansup considers!)

But beyond that, I think vertical videos through Loops on the Fedi are likely to be far less obtrusive than they have been on other platforms.

What's so annoying about them on Instagram and YouTube is that the algorithm automatically drops vertical videos into my feed.

And there's lots of them in my feed, often on topics I'm not interested in.

They're not there because I'm interested, but because they serve the commercial interests of the social media app's owners.

Hashtags aside, on the Fedi, they'll only appear in your feed if you follow a Loops account you're interested in, or someone you follow finds one interesting enough to share.

And if people on your Mastodon server all find them really annoying, there's always the option to just block the Loops servers and be done with it.

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