5 Minute Urbanism - Melbourne - with Mikael from The Life-Sized City

[@Gzeebo]

The thing about Melbourne is that streets like Brunswick Street are treated as arterial roads during peak times, but at other times like a functional inner-urban street. You're expected to just get used to the shifting moods and adjust your expectations accordingly.

[@theEddieworld]

These solutions could work for so many of Melbournes "shopping streets", chapel st, syd road, smith st etc. even much of the cbd. When I was living in Glenferrie Rd i think they were actually going ahead with something like this so hopefully it becomes more common. There is also most likely going to be an underground train line going through the Fitzroy area in a decade or so. Maybe this could prompt some of this development!

[@clawscrab3497]

I'm Melbourne born and bred and I like Brunswick Street. I don't drive so I take the tram which is quite frequent, but like everything else, gets stuck in traffic...

[@penbennett6850]

Double points/ouch for living in Mel and being a traffic engineer (but I’m also a car free mum with a urban planning degree too). It is so frustrating being talked to as an outlier by some old and even young male engineers, and frustrating that intelligent transport planning is something that is, “too much change”. If not now, when? Nice to see the shout out to local advocates, who are doing some great work.

[@hangingwithmygnomes2067]

I really wish you could do a 5 minute urbanism in developing countries cities, many cities in India, Brazil and Indonesia are surrealy chaotic

[@ironlegnebula]

Russia, too. Goldmine for such content. Source - I'm russian.

[@ynysmones3816]

Lagos

[@goose1839]

While I appreciate this channel I think there is some larger considerations that need to be addressed . While this is a good change to Brunswick street I think it doesn’t address the fundamental problem. Australian cities suffer from too much suburban housing and land clearing from large real estate groups. This to me seems like the real problem, the “Australian dream” is touted as owning a suburban house, which is why all this street side parking exists. Our suburbs are too far apart and public transport is lacking so people drive to get to services. It is hard to exist in Australian cities without using a car. I’d love to see an episode on how to counter suburbanisation and how to bring low SES groups back into urban centres.

[@ElectricityTaster]

I think one possible solution to this is encouraging car drivers to be multimodal. Make an effort to concentrate services in a certain area over the next couple of decades and make drivers park just outside the city and switch to the foldable pedelecs they store in their car boot. Make it faster to do the mode switch than to attempt to go into the city

[@BluePieNinjaTV]

that's not very applicable to this situation. Brunswick street is in a quite dense inner-city location

[@goose1839]

​@@BluePieNinjaTV That's true but wasn't really the point of my comment. I was trying to say that it's great and all to redesign a poorly designed urban street, but that doesn't fix the underlying problem of poor design city-wide nor the systemic perverse incentives that stop these small level fixes and encourage bad design. Brunswick street isn't designed poorly only because there were dumb city planners, those planners cater to current bad design (driving centric lifestyles), and are swayed by more powerful interest groups (businesses and road users). Fixing those things is the real barrier to this better design being implemented.

[@JamesTsividis]

I'm seeing more apartments popping up. I really believe those will transform our city. As well as public transport to get people off the roads more.

[@blake-gl4wn]

People in hobart are just stuck in their ways and lazy. But suburban sprawl is also an issue. But many people drive 1km or 2km to a cafe and expect on street parking.

[@richardbaker2701]

My pleasant surprise when you mentioned you actually lived here in australia

[@EdwardJWhiting]

When I lived in Melbourne I used to ride my bicycle along the inner northern streets, including Brunswick Street. It's really scary: on your left you fear the car doors opening on you and knocking you over; on your right you fear the tram tracks. Tram tracks, especially when it's raining, are a death trap for cyclists with narrow tyres, but sometimes you find yourself compelled to ride on them. During peak times when the car parking becomes a clearway (with a bike lane), you get forced to ride through all the bumps and holes in the road. The inner northern suburbs such as Fitzroy are getting better for cycling however: in the side streets they have started to put in obstacles to vehicular "through traffic" but let the bicycles proceed unhindered.

[@pervertt]

No need to tell me. I found out the hard way that 700 x 23C tyres and trams tracks don't mix.

[@BradyRay_333]

That street went from something that I would want to avoid, to a street I would go out of my way to visit.

[@lucindahartley2284]

I agree with you on transit issues - I've cycled up Brunswick Street thousands of times and it's treacherous. However Brunswick's decline is a lot more complex than traffic alone. I'm a Melbournian, and had our office for a long time on Brunswick Street. It's economy has been based on outlet stores which is one of the most disrupted by change. It's also a night time precinct, so many of the places are quiet in the day. A holistic approach to Brunswick Street would involve a mixed use planning as well as transit.

[@Egg-mr7np]

Australia has the crazy idea that main roads should go through shopping streets. Partly a hangover from 150 years ago when it was a more rural country and there was only one main street available.

[@td23asus]

I loathe street side parking. Walking down my street in metro Melbs with all the cars parked on the side of the road, thin and really awful pavement, bikes diving in and out of parked cars trying to avoid motor and tram through traffic... Get rid of the goddamn street parking! Houses in these areas have space to park their cars on the property, there is parking on side streets nearby and using that freed lane for wider pavements and a dedicated bike lane would be great. I have a car and totally understand the issues involved in having less parking space but there are parking lots dotted about the place for a reason, and the amount of parking on the side streets is minimal.

[@jasonschubert6828]

Proud Melburnian here. Wait, did I say proud? I meant absolutely disgusted. I have been seeing our governments and councils going in the wrong direction here for years, claiming they are "green" whilst raking in the money on parking charges and fines. I did "like" your video because it is a fantastic example of what we are doing wrong that I can now direct everyone to. Of course these streets and Melbourne in general will probably be dead for decades to come due to the current government's incompetence, and I truly believe the only way I will get liveable streets is to move to another country that already has them. Thanks very much for your effort anyway, Mikael. One of my goals in life is to one day sit down and have a beer with you.

[@ashaman8567]

These videos should be sent to the politicians in these cities.

[@spikarooni6391]

Melbourne has the most frustrating road infrastructure systems I've ever seen

[@gregoryvassilakos9972]

Bike wheels getting trapped in the groove for the rail of a tram track is a serious hazard. It's best to keep bikes off tram tracks unless crossing at a right angle. I'd advocate for the bike lane being alongside the tram tracks, not on top of the tram tracks.

[@nolank97]

Thats exactly what i was thinking. I dont see how its possible to have a shared bike/tram lane

[@copenhagenizeblacktown]

There are gap filling technologies that exist which depress when a heavy tram wheel moves over it, designed to make bike riding near tram tracks safe

[@JamesTsividis]

Thanks for helping us in Melbourne. Having more train services and train lines coming from the suburbs will really help that street be less busy.

[@nothingelsefits]

I would love for it to be walkable between Gertrude, Brunswick and Smith St. All of those streets could create an even more lively area without cars. If the council decided to keep two streets each way (Nicholson St/Hoddle St and Johnston St/Victoria Parade) for cars in that area, I doubt the travel times would change for drivers as it's often gridlocked anyway.

[@jonathanirons231]

Beautiful as ever. Can we stop calling it “car parking”. It’s a shoddy euphemism for taking up public space with private property. Car parks aren’t parks.

[@toddlithgow]

'vehicle dump'

[@jdillon8360]

car storage?

[@curiosity341]

lol Mikael confused if it is a bike lane or parking at 4:06 ....little did he realize it tripled as a tram stop - Johnston street - Stop 16

[@SirFrancisBaconn]

Yay! I've been waiting for this one!

[@wernerrietveld]

A street in Melbourne without trees.... I would open a skin doctors practice over there. Or an ice-cream shop, because it must be unbearably hot there in the summer months.

[@Tom-kl9jf]

sure is :)

[@jesserowlingsify]

Haha it's Melbourne not Brisbane! It's hot but it's not nearly as bad as other parts.

[@MrTheWaterbear]

I love the fact that you paid attention to the fact that Aussies locomote on the left side of the road ;) Very nicely adjusted in your model, where most Danes wouldn't think to consider it. Yay for being an international citizen!! ^^

[@peterbreis5407]

I always liked Melbourne's grid layout, because it isn't boring because it changes, has alternating widths, the larger are well treed, but is is fathomable. My dream solution always was to have 2 grids overlapping. One grid is for pedestrians, housing and trams which live inside outsize large boxes looking inwards and a second grid for the cars to keep them outside the living spaces. I used to have a boss who was a Staff Architect but was both colour blind and totally insensitive to spaces, so of course had to have the final say on all of those. Most town planners I have met seem to have a God View of landscapes (lines on paper) and zero feeling for what happens to the inhabitants of their creations. Hence they plan car parking and the means of getting from one car parky to another.

[@apainintheaas]

I think that if I had to change it, I would start the same as your first fix, but take away the option of driving cars over the tramway and make it a grass tramway instead instead. It instantly adds a lot of green to the area. And looking at the street, I think that this is possible while still increasing the sidewalks a bit.

[@piros100]

maybe I'm just too amateur of a biker, but I'm not sure if it's safe to put the bike lane on the tram rails. it's still really vividly in my head when one of my friends at college had a huge accident, her bike's wheel got stuck in the tram rails and she fell, of course her wheels were totally bent too... is there like a special kind of tram rail that is compatible and safe for bike traffic or bikers just have to be extremely careful there? btw. this happened in Budapest 10+ years ago, and the infrastructure was extremely outdated back then (still is...)

[@AntonytNasralla]

The issue here is the Melbourne planning at large is based on the outdated 20th century car system. We are constantly spreading the further our from the city to new suburbs 20km where torii don't have public transport, where they have to travel 1.5 hours by car to get to work.

[@MrMakabar]

20km is not a big problem for cycling. You really only need a good uniterupted bike path and you can ride your bike to the city center easily within an hour.

[@repelsteeltje90]

MrMakabar That’s right, distances up to 20 km are very doable on a bike (or an e-bike). Plus: cyclists get their exercise on the journey, while car drivers have to spend extra time at the gym if they want to maintain the same level of fitness - and spend even more time driving there. Plus: the average car driver has to work up to a month per year just to pay for his/her car, while the cyclist only has to work for a few days for his/her bike. Cars seems faster, but in many cases they take a lot of time.

[@jdillon8360]

Thanks Mikael. As a Melbournian who lived in Denmark for a year, I share many of your points of view. Australia definitely could do so much better in many areas. The tram network is good, quite extensive, but as you pointed out, terribly slow to use. The problem, of course, is too many cars. Anyway, hopefully the situation improves soon! Cheers!

[@TheLostProbe]

6:30 you want to know why that is? because you specifically focused on the city center. Brunswick Street is in Fitzroy, which is absolutely NOT the city center of Melbourne, it's a suburb. drop the yellow street view guy into the CBD of Melbourne and you're just as likely to come across a tram as in Strasbourg and Bordeaux. even in a more tram-centric suburb like St Kilda you're far more likely to find a tram than in Fitzroy

[@LoveToday8]

Whew. Nail on the head with beauty and poetry vs traffic engineering. I live in Chicago and it's so frustrating how much control the state department of highways, I mean transportation, *currently* has on our urban streets. Channels like yours show there's a better way and our streets are not static.

[@tgrace019]

It would be interesting to hear you dive into some of the politics behind why cities remain "stuck" as you say. In the US, the inability to redesign/design cities well has a lot to do with local politics. I realize that would be a tall order as every country/city has their own unique political struggles, but I think it's important to at least hint at...refusing to change is not arbitrary, it's driven by the need to keep a certain political and/or financial status quo.

[@LoveToday8]

Very good point about car storage creating walls to shops and restaurants. I'll have to bring hat up more often anytime a business owner says they "need" car storage out front.

[@Alacritous]

That bike/parking lane is probably time shared during the day. during rush hour probably no parking and for bikes and parking at times of lower congestion.

[@drunkill]

correct, that parking is clearway in peak hours. Unfortunately when a lot of people jump on their bikes at lunch from nearby offices time it is not.

[@repelsteeltje90]

So the government allows you to bike only during rush hour? Wow. Imagine they did that to car owners.

[@Alacritous]

@@repelsteeltje90 no, I imagine the reasoning is that during times of lower congestion the cyclists don't need their own dedicated space.

[@keegancurry2593]

@@Alacritous There were still a TON of cars on the road during this "non-peak" hour street view. Anyone biking through would definitely still need their own space!

[@operandexpanse]

Brunswick street is a place I normally avoid, despite the fact that there are some awesome businesses there. It just makes me feel stressed. That’s why we chose to live on Swanston St in Carlton. Way better feel! We have avoided living in a lot of areas in Melbourne due to the cramped and stressful feel.

[@dzhiurgis]

Can you please do Auckland Queen street. Also I've never saw you mentioned electric scooters. Where do they stand in your mind? Finally, do you know any cities with hot climate (Melbourne is not super hot, but out there) where bikes succeeded?

[@16nine]

Seville went from 0.2% on bikes to 7% in only four years after a bike infrastructure network was put in. It's easily 45 degrees in the summer.

[@dzhiurgis]

@@16nine That is great to know, thank you for reply and great videos.

[@aleonflux1138]

It started to go wrong for Auckland when they decided to take their transport infrastructure cues from the Americans 60 years ago (build more freeways!). Oh well, at least they're trying to reinstate urban rail on a practical scale.

[@dzhiurgis]

@@aleonflux1138 Rapid bus (NEX) is quite good. I kinda prefer (electric) bus over rail - much cheaper and more practical. Needs more ferries too.

[@prodigalretrod]

Great video, especially appreciate the point made about parked cars taking up all that space for one person. I've lived on Brunswick St since 2009. Covid has improved the amenity somewhat because they gave over some parking spaces to outdoor dining, and because that proved so popular, the council decided to keep it that way. They were reluctant though, because "we need the parking revenue" (which is a pretty back-to-front rationale for having parking spaces), so afaik, the retailers lease the space from the council. The bike lane is horrible because you can't count on it, and you feel squeezed between traffic/trams and parked cars. I honestly feel safer breaking the law by riding the wrong way up the parallel side street. And as a pedestrian, it can take 2 light phases (ie. about 5 minutes wait) to cross Alexandra Parade at certain times of day (the timings seem to change at peak vs off-peak) because the light turns solid red by the time you get to the island in the middle of the road. More pedestrian crossings and bike stands could be easily accommodated. The shared bike/tram lanes and widened footpaths with trees seems like a great solution, but it seems to be not just the councils but the retailers that are resistant to this kind of change.

[@kauevampiro7186]

I think we can use one side of the parking spaces to bikes and the other one to sidewalks

[@andrew7955]

Almost everyone who actually lives in the city of Melbourne and inner suburbs wants our streets to look like this. We want to use the trams, ride our bikes to the shops, and walk without being constantly on edge. But as you say, the parasites are destroying our urban fabric. I can't blame them honestly, so much development in the outer suburbs is both car-centric and has essentially zero employment opportunities. They have to come to the city to work AND the only way in is either by car or bus that travels like a baby was given a pen and scribbled on the map.

[@RedSntDK]

Now that you have looked at an Australian city, it would be fun to see what Sam Bur has to say about it. He's an aussie town planner who mostly does Cities Skylines content here on KZbin: kzbin.info EDIT: He's from Queensland though, not Victoria.

[@mkuc6951]

And if you want to live nearby Brunswick st in and old run down cottage, $2.5 million AUD / 1.7 Million USD.

[@Nicolassegoviart]

Hello Mikael, do you think that I could send to you a picture of the new bike lanes in Mexico City so you can analize them in the next episode. They are doing lots of work in dedicated lanes but also in mixed trolley-bike. Would really like to know your opinion.

[@TriniFietser]

If you think Australia is bad, there isn't a word for Trinidad and Tobago!

[@StewartMidwinter]

Mickael, I propose a new term for those cars that are slowly killing off neighbourhoods: CARASITES

[@ajwasthere]

A very simplified solution that does not care about the infrastructure surrounding the existing streets. Nobody should be doing any extended riding on Brunswick St they should use Napier St.

[@tristandavies9597]

"bike infastructure on the tram lane" clearly you've never tried riding down a tram line in Melbourne and had your bike wheels get stuck in the rails that happen to be just the right width to trap you when crossing lanes 😅 Would love to see your take on the frustratingly close to good Swanston Street shared bike path/tram stops

[@16nine]

I have ridden bikes in tram cities all over the world, with varying rail gauges. Including Melbourne, when I used to ride an old bike from St Kilda into the City back in the day. Like I said, it's not optimal, but if we're trying to improve capacity on this street, it's a possible solution, like we see in many European cities.

[@repelsteeltje90]

Tram rails are a problem in Dutch cities as well. However, people get used to them and adapt their riding style. And we have experiments going on to find solutions (for example flexible tubing between the rails that cyclists can’t compress, but trams can)

[@gwyllymsuter4551]

Sadly, all of Australias cities is much like Melbourne. Sydney had trams and pulled them out back in the 50s, now putting them back at great expense however all they've succeeded in doing is pandering to a paranoid safety industry. It is officially the slowest tram system in the world. So slow in fact, that its actually faster to walk down George Street. Oh I'd love to see you highlight this one 😂

[@sercancelenk7131]

Tram tracks can be made safer for cyclists. Simply with a rubber lip that goes down as a tram approaches to the particular section. In absence of any trams, tracks don't present any hazards to cyclists this way.

[@JohnFromAccounting]

On-street parking is wrecking my local shops in suburban Melbourne. They need to ban it wherever there are main street shops.

[@RomuloFF]

Can Mikael or anyone here please explain me about those right turn on some intersections, where the car waiting needs to have a go to turn while many other cars are coming the opposite lane and fast? I've been recently to Melbourne and I have never seen something so scary in my life. Is it common in Australia or particularly to Melbourne? How is it considered safe or where the sense in all of that, especially considering that on some streets this turn option is not an extra lane, so the slower car on the right is obligated to go to the faster speed lane where cars are usually going on a higher speed and will make it difficult this necessary action.

[@Crow2525]

Are you talking about being able to go where there isn't an turning arrow, but there is a green light? They're reserved for roads where there is no dedicated turning lane or quiet streets

[@RomuloFF]

@@Crow2525 no no. I'm talking for example from the intersection Williams Rd & Malvern Rd: goo.gl/maps/WfrS2cXwM36byuiP8

[@BluePieNinjaTV]

@@RomuloFF it's pretty simple really, the turning car either waits for a gap in traffic, or drives into the intersection and when the light turns yellow, the cars coming the opposite way stop and then you turn.

[@mrtea7562]

You cant ride bikes anywhere in Australia except trails made for exercise in the bush.Those tiny bike lanes are is just a lazy box ticking measure and riding in them would be a good way to break your back.

[@mattmunn71]

Remove the trams, remove the bike lanes. Brunswick St is part of a system of parallel streets. It's impossible to drive a car on any of the parallel side streets, they can be used for bikes. 400 meters either way there are major tramlines one side (Nicholson) is even separated. from cars. Car parking is a disaster in Fitzroy generally, I don't see an answer until self driving cars can leave you curbside then park themselves somewhere else.

[@MATT-qu7pl]

Wow, this street is a mess. I thought Minneapolis had bad streets.

[@richardbaker2701]

It’s awesome to see an unbiased and fairly harsh critique of Melbourne’s urbanism. Australia is actually worse than the US in terms of urbanism so Melbourne is always held up as the shining star of Australian cities but they often seem a bit too content to rest on their laurels

[@leopoldopetrieska6564]

5:27 that aussie accent lol

[@Mooza1]

Thank you for pronouncing Melbourne correctly. Melburnian's are weird, I know some who will choose to drive over taking public transport even though it adds an hour to their commute and costs more. You haven't considered emergency vehicle access and a few other things. But interesting regardless.

[@stopsallmelb]

Where are you going where car travel takes longer than public transport? Let alone an hour longer?

[@azmd888]

I don't know why I have never heard this kind of conversation about the cities in my country. I know it's hot and humid all year around, but at least try it out at some parts of the city. Traffic congestion here is unbearable.

[@repelsteeltje90]

Another financial benefit: property values will go up in liveable streets

[@giancarlomartini2133]

Brunswick street...wow that was a nightmare. Such a messed up design.

[@michaelbeiyt]

Here is a nice one from the german political satire show "Extra 3" about the beloved SUV: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKnbkq1um7yCis0 If your German is a little rusty, you might want to skip the first 2min. The rest of the clip is a bit more self-explanatory.

[@MrTheWaterbear]

I'm curious how you would fix the terrible stretch of Jagtvej that runs alongside Assistens Kirkegård. The bicycle path there is way too narrow to be safe! It's not even that this stretch of road carries an unusually large number of cyclists or anything - but for the cyclists who do use it, the fast traffic alongside makes it a dangerous proposition to overtake another cyclist. They have some lovely big trees right next to the bicycle path, but those trees are encroaching on the sidewalk in a horribly ugly way and are just too large in radius to make cyclists feel comfortable next to them. It subconsciously makes the cyclist stay further out towards the middle of the path, leaving even less space for overtaking. And can we please get rid of the awful drainage covers on the bicycle paths? Everyone tries to avoid them, and on narrow and precarious paths like the one I've been talking about, these surprise wobbles can make your heart jump into your throat if one is performed at the instance you are trying to overtake someone >< I love many things about my daily cycling commutes in Copenhagen, but that stretch of bicycle path is dysfunctional. I would love to see your reimagination of it!

[@Gilotopia]

You should make a commentary on Bucharest. It's the perfect time because a new mayor was just elected that promises changes to this attitude. Your comments might actually reach his ears. The old mayor made a mess widening streets, ruining neighborhoods with car overpasses. Look at what they did in my area: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYmvmWOZrbd4rqs Turning a street with wide pedestrian shopping sidewalk, 4 lanes of traffic and gardens into a 10 lane monstrosity with an overpass and narrow sidewalks.

[@nolifelongboarding]

for fucksake do lahore pls

[@zoesaverage]

I agree with everything you have said, especially regarding pedestrian safety on this road. It's almost impossible to cross safely. There are hardly any pedestrian crossings, you just have to wait for a break in the traffic. As a little bit of context, this is some of the best urban public transport and design in the whole of Australia. If you go 10 km out of the city there are no trams, hardly any buses, just a bit of rail. The rest of Victoria/Australia is much worse. So yes by some standards this is not ideal, but it could be a lot worse (i.e. 98% of the rest of Australia). However, mate, you need to tone down the snark. People don't want to live like this. You can still make a convincing argument without sounding like you a shitting all over the people who planned and live with this. I enjoy Not Just Bikes channel/content because their content is succinct and shows the difference by comparison, not by telling people they should be fired for ever having an idea. Kindness and humour go a long way to winning people over when educating and challenging their ideas.

[@jesserowlingsify]

Some people like the snark.

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

Problem with some parts of the world the snow and ice comes and the bicycle infrastructure is pointless in those times. Businesses cannot cater to bike traffic for almost 6 months out of the year so it is not practical to depend on bike traffic for revenue.

[@MrMakabar]

Just google Oulu and cycling. They are the northemost city in the EU and have 12% cycling in winter. It is in fact further north than Anchorage Alaska.

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

@@MrMakabar Insane!

[@repelsteeltje90]

You can just remove ice and snow from the roads, right? Many countries do that. I don’t see the problem.

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

@@repelsteeltje90 I used to bike to school in winter when I was a teen, many times I wiped out on frozen puddles. I was young so didn't care if I broke some bones or arrived in school covered in slush having wiped out into a slushy puddle.

[@LifeSizedCity]

Mikael has this instagram about cycling in the winter: instagram.com/vikingsbiking/. 75% of cyclists in Copenhagen cycle all winter. Copenhagen has a policy that all bike infrastructure has to be clear of snow by 8AM. Then there are cities like Umeå, Sweden and Oulu, Finland. And Mikael's work in Almetyevsk, Russia, as well: www.copenhagenize.com/2016/10/copenhagenizing-city-of-almetyevsk.html - where the city also clears the snow and ice from their cycle tracks.

[@WelcomeToSteph]

Haha you seriously underestimate Australians' complete disdain for bicycles. Nice idea but would not happen any time soon in this country.

[@WelcomeToSteph]

I'll also add that a lot of Australian cities emerged during the era of the car, after the hey day of trams, so less consideration given to cyclists and public transport in favour of cars. Sydney's tram network was one of the largest in the southern hemisphere and was ripped up in the 1960s only to be slowly reintroduced recently. Would love to see you have a crack at some Sydney streets!

[@ElectricityTaster]

More rants.

[@berenscott8999]

Brunswick Street is legitimately a major road into the city, it's a main route into the city from the Northern Suburbs. There are a few issues you got completely wrong, and the first being that this road changes between 2 lanes and parked traffic. During peak hour, this road is a 2 lane road on each side, with no parked traffic. You didn't notice the signs at the side of the road? The Street View is generally recorded during the best lighting of the day, which would be in the middle of the day, when the road has converted to parked traffic. Believe it or not, the trams in this city have gotten much better, you are talking about much longer and more powerful trams. The trams in Melbourne have been known to accelerate and brake at such a rate that people can easily slip over, especially when it's a little wet. People who think that trams in Melbourne used to be better, are so inaccurate, there are plenty of video's taken by drivers historically in Melbourne. Brunswick Street and a lot of other streets in this area are thriving. This region of Melbourne is one of the best places to live for public transport, you have multiple trams all running in parallel, there is a train line running to the east of this very road. The reason for the parked cars on this street, are there to provide an incentive not to drive on this road, and it works. This road is a slow way into the city, and you aren't meant to use this road, you are meant to divert down the Hoodle. If you take this road north, you'll see where it branches off to the east, passed under the train line, and wraps around to the Hoodle. Also, you are wrong about tram frequencies, this route in general has turn up and go frequency. Just looking at this one tram line, which is route 11, it has 3 - 4 minute frequency during peak hour. This is a good tram route, which has a light rail section not a kilometer north of where you decided to take screenshots. How come you didn't bother to show this part of the route? St Georges has dedicated bike lanes and tram lanes that are separate from the road. There are a lot of tree's along this route. The bikes know where to go, this route is very thick with bikes. During peak hour, the bike lane is against the side of the road, exactly where in one frame, you said it should be. Under the parked cars right? But, parked only outside of peak hour, in which the bike lane effectively moves to between the parked cars and the 1 lane of shared tram car. If you were going to complain about anything, it's that people use the trams in Melbourne way too much, and they are thick with passengers, crush loaded. They stop at literally all the stops, and the reason why you can't find a tram in any of the pictures, is that the street view vehicles deliberately avoid the trams in Melbourne, because car traffic gets stuck behind trams. It's the trams in Melbourne that slow all of the car traffic down, not the other way. The trams cause traffic. Street view drivers essentially avoid trams like the plague. The northern suburbs of Melbourne is an important thing to consider, you see, Melbourne mostly developed to the South East. Essentially the best land for farming in Melbourne, where most of the fresh water was, is to the East and south East. This region was very flat, and this pretty much is why Melbourne is so lobsided in that direction. What this causes is that the northern suburbs are much closer to the city, an easier drive directly into the city, and thus Melbourne has a large urban area to the north. The same priced housing to the north is 30 minutes drive into the city, compared to 70 minutes to the south-east. Thus, would you blame us for driving into the city? For 9 months, I worked in the south-east, and drove this route every day, and the traffic actually wasn't that bad. It works. There is the right balance between cars and public transport. Melbourne is pretty much at it's maximum capacity in terms of public transport and cars.

[@16nine]

I know that the lane converts, but that is such a ridiculous, last-century, car-centric concept that I happily ignored. It does nothing for the neighbourhood, only pushing parasites through. An effective tram network reduces car traffic so restricting car traffic, increasing frequency and level of service of the trams is what every other tram city worth their salt is doing.

[@jasonschubert6828]

The trams are too full? Doesn't that mean their are not enough trams? And if you seriously believe 3-4 minutes, here on Bridge Road they are supposed to be every 6, but you are very lucky to get one in 10, and probably more likely 15 to 20 (when 3 turn up together). Trams can slow cars down (although that goes both ways), however each of those cars has 1 person in it and the trams (according to your own words) are crush loaded, full of people. And the cars you talk about are the parasites Mikael mentions. How many of them _have_ to go into the city? What are they contributing to the suburb they are passing through? The answers (that our current situation has shown) are "not many" and "nothing". It sounds to me like you are one of the parasites, and ironically just prove why Mikael is right. If there is balance as you claim, why do only 9% of Melburnians travel to work via public transport.

[@berenscott8999]

@@jasonschubert6828 I guess what I am trying to say, is the parked cars are an attempt to slow the road down, such that the cars decide not to drive down that street? And 3/4 minute interval is definitely covered under the term "turn up and go", if that ain't good enough, then nothing is going to be good enough. Melbourne has been for a long period of time, been working to drive cars out of the city. Shopping streets get 40km/h restrictions, and they are annoying as hell. A good example of this would be the 86 tram along High St in that Northcote area. And the trams and slow speeds have driven cars out of this area. Obviously it's not perfect, but the thing is, these types of areas have very well defined spaces, they've been like this for a very long time, and this is exactly what Melbourne is. These are some of the oldest tram routes in the world, and they've stayed the same. The trams became longer, and we have bike lanes where we didn't used to. I guess that this is just how the urban area of Melbourne is, and you either like it, or you hate it. But, these areas are very popular, maybe it doesn't look like much from the outside, but this area is very busy with people. I also don't want to have a war between public transport, cars and bikes. There is a mix of all, and none of them get priority. The city has reduced it's car visits, but, you still need to service the city, you still need to run trucks in, buses. You still need to deliver and provide services. Nobody wants to drive a car into the city, once you make it so inconvenient, the only people left are those who have no option. And this is most of the traffic these days. The mix is good. There are a lot of feeder roads like this, and the traffic spaces itself out between them. And what's more, if it wasn't for this traffic, would anyone even know that half of these businesses serving the local area on this main road even existed?

[@drunkill]

@@jasonschubert6828 The state government is looking at building new smaller trams so the frequency can be increased on the routes which aren't busy enough to justify the new larger E class trams (as seen in the streetview in the video) Cars slow down trams, there are plans to introduce more tramways but that just turns it from 2 lanes of traffic down to one and it is still focused on cars, not other road/public space users.

[@intcheese]

The thing is, Brunswick Street shouldn't be a major road into the city. It's absolutely ridiculous that it still is.

[@UltraXD.]

Sydney is better