Well the greens banned my horse and cart cos the horse made too much methane (and didn’t like me whipping it) and until they invent teleporting to work I guess I will drive my car.

Watson said :

I’m faster with the car and I just don’t have the same motivation I have in the mornings. But once I’m doing it, I’m fine and actually enjoy it.

Well, I live in Gungahlin, so it is possible for me to be faster on a bicycle than in a car. Definitely faster than a bus though!

keepitup said :

Overheard said :

Unfortunately the best bus route system available to humankind still doesn’t work for people who have two to three employers/clients in any one day, and just don’t have the luxury of the time for public transit.

Right on . . but those employers/clients that you speak of are usually in the ‘burbs, so parking isn’t a problem.

I don’t know about ‘usually’, but one of my employers is in the Parliamentary Triangle, and the other is in the parking schmozzle that is City West, so I’m doubly blessed. Today instead of turning up early, I left it late and ended up doing laps of OPH looking for a vacant spot. Finally jagged a two-hour spot and then had to move the car later. I have had days where I’ve had to use three time-delimited parking spots, which is not brilliant for productivity. Or my carbon footprint.

A lady in the CT article said she lived in Theodore and it took her 2 hours to get to Barton by bus, which is why she parked and drove. Lacking any real fact checking by the CT, I googled the Action routes for Theodore.

Even if she lived right at the far edge of Theodore around Chippindale CCt, a bus (11 or 111) takes less than an hour.

Even if she changed at Woden, for a Barton service, i doubt her 2 hour claim – in peak hour. Outside that – its possible.

Actual Theodore bus users feel free to chime in.

damien haas said :

A lady in the CT article said she lived in Theodore and it took her 2 hours to get to Barton by bus, which is why she parked and drove. Lacking any real fact checking by the CT,…

I think I see where your logic flow came a cropper…

My schedule tomorrow is not overly unusual. From home in inner Belconnen to City West for work 9-11am, then a meeting in the city from 12-1pm, client in West Belconnen from 1.30-3.30pm, then radio in Manuka from 5-7pm, after which I wouldn’t mind having a bit of a life. I suspect the transit and wait times might equal my actual productive hours.

I could be wrong.

Either way, I’ll be driving the fossil fuel guzzler with a party of one.

puggy said :

Watson said :

I’m faster with the car and I just don’t have the same motivation I have in the mornings. But once I’m doing it, I’m fine and actually enjoy it.

Well, I live in Gungahlin, so it is possible for me to be faster on a bicycle than in a car. Definitely faster than a bus though!

I’m definitely faster in the morning. I had an awesome ride in today at 8.30. Made it without my foot touching the ground once and I zoom overtook hundreds of cars that were barely moving on the Federal Highway. And even if traffic is flowing when I ride, I save heaps of time not having to look for/wait for a car park.

But I’m usually slower than the car on the way back. It evens out though.

Overheard said :

My schedule tomorrow is not overly unusual. From home in inner Belconnen to City West for work 9-11am, then a meeting in the city from 12-1pm, client in West Belconnen from 1.30-3.30pm, then radio in Manuka from 5-7pm, after which I wouldn’t mind having a bit of a life. I suspect the transit and wait times might equal my actual productive hours.

I could be wrong.

Either way, I’ll be driving the fossil fuel guzzler with a party of one.

If we follow postalgeek’s excellent categorisation, you will see you fall into the ‘martyr’ category. The recommendations aren’t aimed at you. And – again according postalgeek’s theory – if you’d make an effort to encourage the slobs (I’m one of those) to leave the car at home instead of throwing the baby out with the bath tub, your parking problems will be over.

Watson said :

qbngeek said :

Well isn’t life sweet for some people. I fit into all those categories, I drop the 2 kids off, drop my wife off, drop my best mate off, then go to work. I park about 1.5km from where I work and walk the rest of the way to save on paying for parking and the walk is almost quicker than getting in the congestion to get to the carpark.

Then I do it all again on the way home.

If I get a bus it would take just over an hour and I would have to sit in a bus that is too hot or too cold, with people I don’t know as opposed to being in my car which is nice and comfortable and usually has people in it I want to see (with the exception of my wife )

I would love to not drive to work, but thats not happening unless the greens convince my boss to let me work from home.

I did state I was only playing devil’s advocate!

Anywho, you are clearly car pooling, so good on you.

I do think it is good to think about ways to avoid turning our town into something that looks like one giant carpark though.

Well they could always build an apartment block with 500 units in it and then people could walk to work. In fact they could build a bunch of apartment buildings and stop the sprawl. These people need to realise that as long as Canberra is a low density “garden?” city, public transport will always suck. And that’s ok, as long as there are car-parks. If there are no car-parks, then the whole Canberra model sucks. So make your minds up people.

Paid parking has just started in the gravel area next to Minter Ellison – does this mean DFAT staff will have to pay FBT on their free parking? If so, when will it kick in?