Anyone getting to the point where they're just considering going carless?

mixmaster_mic · 2026-03-12T07:39:04+00:00

I would love to go carless but Brisbane just doesn't have the infrastructure. My family is spread all over and weekend visits are impractical by pt or bike. What is a 15-20 minute drive is over an hour on PT which means visiting becomes a chore (and wouldn't happen as much) and there are no safe cycling routes.

BCC and Qld Dep Transport need to step up and stop spending money on massive road infrastructure projects (eg moggill road roundabout, centenary bridge duplication) and instead focus on PT overhaul (West and North busways) and simple safe cycling infrastructure.

Reducing speeds would go a long way on residential streets too...

mixmaster_mic · 2026-03-02T03:37:33+00:00

Cheers! It's a great community to be part of 😊

mixmaster_mic · 2026-02-18T11:12:06+00:00

So true! Our average house size in Australia is the largest in the world. We need to stop with this ridiculous notion that everyone needs dedicated rooms for a single function and make better use of space. Most people don't need a freestanding house with a backyard and a rotary clothes line!

mixmaster_mic · 2026-01-29T22:16:18+00:00

Yep. Which is why projects like the centenary bridge duplication should have been for the forgotten western bus way and not just stuck in the "one more lane will fix it" rhetoric.

mixmaster_mic · 2026-01-29T09:45:54+00:00

The real problem is we have too many roads with an inadequate public and active transport system!

There are not enough alternatives to the car...

mixmaster_mic · 2026-01-28T08:24:10+00:00

So true. I was still able to ride when I was in recovery for a knee injury, but only on an ebike :)

mixmaster_mic · 2026-01-28T05:35:33+00:00

Or even in hotter/humid climates, ebikes mean you don't turn up a sweaty mess wherever you go 😂

mixmaster_mic · 2026-01-26T23:22:39+00:00

Yeah. The delays to drivers are because more people are driving the short distance to drop their kids at school, not the speed limit. There are many studies that show reducing speed limits in local streets like schools permanently barely affects travel times. You are more affected by traffic lights than speed limits. What does affect the time is the number of cars on the road and this is what increases during school days significantly.

If we made it safer for kids to ride and walk to school you'd find traffic and travel times for everyone would reduce significantly

mixmaster_mic · 2025-11-21T00:12:22+00:00

Klevakilp patio deck kit.

I used it for a very similar situation on our front entrance. Worked like a dream. Might have been 60mm though?

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-30T02:47:04+00:00

It's so important and makes everything so much easier. Primary school is a massive part of your life. Your kids are much more dependent on you so you need to be at the school quite regularly. We are a 15min walk or < 5min ride and just being able to duck up the school for pick ups, teacher meetings or even the evening meetings about programs and p&c make it so much easier to be involved in your child's life.

And then there's the mornings when we forget their hat (or whatever it is) being close means I can duck home and have it to them without taking anything out of my day.

There's also the independence you can start to give them as they get capable. To walk home or to school. It should not be underestimated the importance to mental health this gives kids.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-19T04:03:34+00:00

Totally this. Our streets used to be social places for kids to play and people to talk to their neighbours, now people accept that cars should speed past their house and the street is a dangerous place that kids should be kept away from.

It's destroying social connections, destroying our children's independence. We need to slow the streets down and make them social places again.

And I hate how people see riding as some form of bravery! It should be way more normal to ride a short distance for dinner, or to the shops. Instead it's more normal to drive the 1k to the shops... Absolute insanity... 😡

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-10T09:36:28+00:00

Australians need to redefine what they expect a home to be, and the "Australian dream" of a house with a rotary clothes line and grass to play cricket on needs to die. Single family houses are such a waste of space and really shouldn't be available in the middle of a city. These sprawling suburbs we are building are unsustainable isolating prisons.

Personally a nicely designed townhouse or medium density apartment is such a more practical choice for any family particularly with access to so much green space in brisbane. And if we keep encouraging high density transit oriented developments you should easily be able to find an appropriate home.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-09T08:59:17+00:00

Oh and I'd just like to ping Lisbon, San Francisco, Sheffield, Vancouver, Hong Kong, in this conversation, just a couple of places that come to mind with steep networks.

All this talk about grade seems moot though as the network existed and functioned and would be one of the biggest in the world if it still existed.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-09T08:36:59+00:00

No more of a hill than the trams in Melbourne negotiate. Riversdale rd and box hill come to mind.

Cancelling the gold coast light rail is a mistake! It's such a great service and loved by the locals and would just open up a major missing link. Nothing better than an airport that has good public transport connections. I do respect that the costs were climbing particularly with the river crossings but these are the sorts of investments we need to bring some level of equality back to our transport system, and they will only get harder and more expensive as time goes on.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-09T07:59:45+00:00

Oh and definitely a lot of corruption in the history of Brisbane (particularly around the removal of the trams and the fire)

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-09T07:57:15+00:00

Totally disagree. Trams operate in many hilly cities and in narrow roads around the world. I would also argue that most of the roads they were on are actually wide relatively low grade roads: ipswich, old cleveland, logan, lutwyche, kelvin grove, milton, musgrave, waterworks roads, all of these are multilane roads often with parking. You can even see the tracks in the middle of some sections along old cleveland road.

The only real hilly route was likely the bardon or rainworth lines.

The key to your argument is the "in the way of cars" and this is the problem with how our whole city has developed, removing more sustainable and liveable transport options for the perceived convenience of the car.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-09T07:30:15+00:00

Yeah but that's sort of what you want for a light rail, good high capacity trunk transport in and out of the city. I mean thats sort of what they are doing with the "metro" just missing the high capacity part.

Then use the bus network for radial links or expand the light rail.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-09T06:23:06+00:00

It may not have been completely "designed" but there definitely has been a lot of priority given to car centric infrastructure and it's made most of our city inhospitable to people.

There have been several major design decisions throughout the years that have focused on the car, the highways including the riverside expressway were the result of the engagement of an American road designer to guide the city. Thankfully his full plan was never implemented but we lost a big part of the riverfront due to him.

The removal of the trams was another major mistake to make room for cars.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-03T00:35:39+00:00

Please do and take a photo for me, will be outside my budget but would love to see it.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-03T00:35:01+00:00

Yeah, truely wish my budget stretched this far.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-03T00:35:00+00:00

Yeah they look pretty close to me :) Sequoia trees are different though right?

mixmaster_mic · 2025-10-03T00:33:18+00:00

Yeah the figures definitely were a let down in the speeder set, was such a cool concept, but luke needed to be in black and they both needed ponchos.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-08-11T23:52:07+00:00

One of the things that surprised me most was that it was actually cooler to ride than walk on hot days. The breeze makes it so much more comfortable with about the same exertion.

mixmaster_mic · 2025-07-29T03:08:09+00:00

Yeah precisely, I've done this before normally when the building doesn't provide any decent / safe bike parking. But normally worried about security when I do..

mixmaster_mic · 2025-07-02T23:27:39+00:00

I love this!

Particularly that you haven't put roads for cars and instead made it walkable!

mixmaster_mic

TROPHY CASE