Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

[jeemak]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Docklands is a very strange place. It's pretty cold, and sparse though for some reason I think it has a strange Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or GATTACA (yep, sci-fi boofhead and jock boofhead all at once.....) feel to it, like it could become an inner city wasteland, or a haven for the modern elite.

GD - Perhaps we're worse off for sustainability due to the shocking amounts of plasma/LCD TV's we all own and the sheer number of us? I'm not too surprised by that comment TBH.

As for the rest of your rant, I will say that the attitude of people on the roads has deteriorated significantly since I started driving in 1997. I'm an account manager that is lucky enough not to have to spend a heap of time at client meetings around metro Melbourne, unlike the good old days where I'd have to do over 25 sales calls a week. The lack of courtesy we show towards our fellow drivers is deplorable. It's hard to get a simple thank you wave for an act of kindness on the roads these days, such as letting four or five cars through in a tight one way street. I think this lack of courtesy contributes to an overall level of frustration that endangers drivers and cyclists and I don't blame anyone for not wanting to ride to work, or on the roads generally speaking. Rather than telling us how stupid we all are and showing us disgusting horrific images of people getting maimed on the roads all the time, the TAC might see some positive results through diverting funds to awareness programs surrounding courtesy on the roads.

This ranting stuff is pretty fun huh.

A lot of the things we rant about are classic examples of first world problems. Doesn't meant they aren't important in their own ways though.

[Murphy'sLore]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

I was sitting in the Botanic Gardens at the weekend, enjoying a picnic with friends and kids, watching a multi-cultural wedding by the lake (also hearing the not-so-distant roar of race cars from Albert Park, but that's another story...), perfect sunny day, when a group of Buddhist monks stroll past...

It just felt like a quintessential Melbourne moment.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Docklands is a very strange place. It's pretty cold, and sparse though for some reason I think it has a strange Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or GATTACA (yep, sci-fi boofhead and jock boofhead all at once.....) feel to it, like it could become an inner city wasteland, or a haven for the modern elite.

GD - Perhaps we're worse off for sustainability due to the shocking amounts of plasma/LCD TV's we all own and the sheer number of us? I'm not too surprised by that comment TBH.

As for the rest of your rant, I will say that the attitude of people on the roads has deteriorated significantly since I started driving in 1997. I'm an account manager that is lucky enough not to have to spend a heap of time at client meetings around metro Melbourne, unlike the good old days where I'd have to do over 25 sales calls a week. The lack of courtesy we show towards our fellow drivers is deplorable. It's hard to get a simple thank you wave for an act of kindness on the roads these days, such as letting four or five cars through in a tight one way street. I think this lack of courtesy contributes to an overall level of frustration that endangers drivers and cyclists and I don't blame anyone for not wanting to ride to work, or on the roads generally speaking. Rather than telling us how stupid we all are and showing us disgusting horrific images of people getting maimed on the roads all the time, the TAC might see some positive results through diverting funds to awareness programs surrounding courtesy on the roads.

This ranting stuff is pretty fun huh.

A lot of the things we rant about are classic examples of first world problems. Doesn't meant they aren't important in their own ways though.

All of this!

Driving here is definitely a big pet peeve of mine -- clearly 90% of drivers are pretty good, but the selfish, dangerous 10% really do make it annoying. It's a good place to practice zen.

Docklands is shocking from an urban design and architectural perspective -- it's just terrible. In my post I said it looked beautiful from a distance at night, and that's as good as it gets. In terms of density etc. it's like it was designed by a first year student, or worse, greedy developers (oh wait). Actually I know some of the guys who worked on the Docklands project(s) and have had pretty heated discussions with some of them -- I mean, some of them are my mates, but bigger greedy developer bastards you will not meet.

Re: Plasma TVs -- funny aside: The carbon tax is by no means perfect and has plenty of problems and I'm pretty ambivalent about it (says something about how bad it is if myself, who did some work on the Garnaut report, doesn't even like it) but I find it hilariously ironic that people who can afford 60-inch carbon monsters like a Plasma complain about the 10 cents extra they'll have to pay on their loaf of bread, as did a cashed-up bogan mate of mine the other day. We have some amazingly lovely, generous, smart people sharing the same body as incredibly insular, stupid and narrow-minded people here. Melbourne (or Australia) in a nutshell I guess!

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Anyway, of course there is a lot to love about the place. yarra bend, the amazing gardens and the overwhelmingly good in this part of the world. I don't mean to be overly negative. and of course, whitten oval!
Lots of different experiences in a diverse place.

One article today illustrates how challenging outer melbourne can be.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sparse-transport-adds-to-health-woes-20120321-1vk8d.html

The traffic problem, that people above have talked about is getting to be a bit of a concern.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Rather than telling us how stupid we all are and showing us disgusting horrific images of people getting maimed on the roads all the time, the TAC might see some positive results through diverting funds to awareness programs surrounding courtesy on the roads.

You mean by hitting us with a wet lettuce leaf? Wouldn't work. People (and I am generalising here!!) aren't smart enough (or courteous enough) for that to have an effect. Society (again, generalising) is very much "Me, me, me" these days.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

All of this!

Driving here is definitely a big pet peeve of mine -- clearly 90% of drivers are pretty good, but the selfish, dangerous 10% really do make it annoying. It's a good place to practice zen.

I was in a bingle last Thursday night, rear-ended as I gave way to the right at a roundabout, and the other driver's logic included such pearls as "You were going along and then slowed down", "You could have driven through" and "Why did you stop?"

[boydogs]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

I left Melbourne in March 2010 after living there all my life because I couldn't afford a house within an hour of work. Down there it's amazing if you add up all the time spent travelling & stuck in traffic, looking for a park, queuing up at the supermarket, the post office, the bank, the doctor etc etc., just how much of your life is sucked out by the overcrowding.

I now live within 10 minutes of pretty much everything and love it.

[jeemak]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

You mean by hitting us with a wet lettuce leaf? Wouldn't work. People (and I am generalising here!!) aren't smart enough (or courteous enough) for that to have an effect. Society (again, generalising) is very much "Me, me, me" these days.

So how do you presume to reduce the frustration on the roads? I think better standards in license testing is key, but what about the people that already have their license?

Do we just give up on them, or do we show more advertisements to everyone that are borderline torture porn? That'll clam us all down, yeah?

The public transport situation isn't going to get better any time soon, well not enough to take the ever increasing pressure of the road network, as the population climbs the more people will be relying on the roads. We need to do something to make them a less dangerous and volatile environment. The volatility and danger isn't only caused by speed, alcohol and drugs, it's about time we woke up to that.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

So how do you presume to reduce the frustration on the roads? I think better standards in license testing is key, but what about the people that already have their license?

Do we just give up on them, or do we show more advertisements to everyone that are borderline torture porn? That'll clam us all down, yeah?

The public transport situation isn't going to get better any time soon, well not enough to take the ever increasing pressure of the road network, as the population climbs the more people will be relying on the roads. We need to do something to make them a less dangerous and volatile environment. The volatility and danger isn't only caused by speed, alcohol and drugs, it's about time we woke up to that.

In other cities I have lived in ( Seoul, tokyo, Nanjing, Singapore, Barcelona ) you don't suffer any serious penalties for not having a car, even if you live out further.
In the suburbs here, you can't even buy chewing gum if you don't have a car.
There is no small shop culture or urban planning based around foot traffic in the outer suburbs.
So you might be enticed to give up your keys if you live in the inner city, but you will still need a car anyway when you return home.
(I once met this Somali kid who made a fortune in Cragieburn by knocking on people's doors selling toilet paper and other small items. )