That’s exactly what we need on the road. 
Idiots who can barely drive now thinking they don’t need to.
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And if you do that in the Inner West LGA, your car will be towed to another street and you will be fined around $600-700.
The moment some idiot in a driverless car gets into an major catastrophe, they’ll have to outlaw them. Someone will do something stupid. I’m banking on it.
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Shock figures reveal Victoria’s road maintenance spending is well below national average
Victoria is falling behind in repairing its deteriorating arterial roads and bridges, with alarming new figures showing the state is spending well below the national average.
Over the past decade, from 2014–15 to 2023–24, Victoria shelled out just $25,098 per kilometre in road maintenance spending —$1578 less than the national state average of $26,676 per kilometre. While Victoria scrimped on its road network, NSW ramped up investment to $30,608 per kilometre each year — nearly $5500 more than Victoria. Queensland also outpaced Victoria, spending $27,282 per kilometre annually.
However, Victoria’s spending was ahead of Western Australia and South Australia, which also recorded below-average investments in arterial road and bridge maintenance.
The trend was revealed in a report commissioned by the state Coalition from the Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), which compared arterial road and bridge spending from state budgets and transport departments.
In May 2024 the Labor government unveiled its 10-Year Victorian Road Maintenance Funding of $6.6bn, which it claimed was the biggest investment ever in the state’s network, but experts slammed the move saying the actual annual funding worked out to be much less than previous years.
In May a record $976 million budget was announced for 2025-26, however it as revealed that the money was not just for road maintenance but also for mowing, slashing and spraying and replacement of thousands of signs.
Sunday Herald Sun reports today that Wurundjeri Way extension in West Melbourne will open to traffic on October 27. It includes a new bridge over Dudley Street, and a four-lane divided road to Dynon Road.
It was constructed as part of West Gate Tunnel project, but will be toll-free.
And I’m sure someone will drink drive in a Tesla FSD car thinking they don’t need to be under the limit and get caught at an RBT site, try to sue etc.
The government boosters for the WestConnex motorway used to argue that it would solve Parramatta Road’s traffic issues. WestConnex, they argued, would enable a reduction of traffic and speeds along Parramatta Road which was vital to its renewal. The new road came, the old sewer stayed. Business as usual for Sydney.
The government should return to that vision – of a repurposed Parramatta Road via a concerted strategy of land use and transport integration.
A stronger commitment is required to strategic mass transport investment vital to achieve the transformation the NSW premier and all the councils along the road want. Light rail turned George St from a commercial liability to a global asset, catalysing the creation of Australia’s most walkable boulevard. We can do something like this on Parramatta Road. The 8000 homes should also have limited car spaces or even get subsidies for using mass transit.
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my brother has a car with all the bells and whistles and i hate driving it. it has Lane Assist and also adaptive cruise control so it slows down it theres a car in front. its quite off putting and distracting to be honest
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I did have a laugh when I saw this. If you know you know
https://x.com/disco___cat/status/1974239383239720993?t=tcjr583PB48RCBRl82Vuig&s=19
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its funny cos i posted this on friday on a different forum:
I’ve been seriously looking into getting my first EV, and I think we’re finally at the point where it actually makes financial sense, even after factoring in the cost of a home charger, which can run up to around $3,000 depending on the setup (if it’s needed at all).
What’s really encouraging is how much the second-hand EV market has opened up. Just a couple of years ago, buying an electric vehicle felt out of reach for a lot of people. Now, you can pick up something like a 2-year-old MG ZS EV for under $25,000, which is a massive shift in affordability. That kind of pricing brings EV ownership within reach for everyday drivers, especially when you start looking at the long-term savings in fuel and servicing.
In my case, the numbers are starting to add up. During school holidays, I’m spending around $100 a week on fuel just running the kids to and from vacation care and various activities. My oldest needs to attend a specialist vacation care centre about 20km away due to her special needs, and I’m doing that return trip twice a day — so the kilometers rack up quickly. An EV feels like it would be a perfect fit for that kind of routine: predictable daily driving, mostly short distances, and plenty of idle time for charging at home.
I’m definitely leaning toward making the switch soon. It feels like the tipping point has arrived — prices are more reasonable, second-hand options are solid, and the cost of ownership over time looks like a big win.
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The big advantage is the cost of recharging compared to using public chargers, I think the charging at home cost is about 1/10th of a public charger. And you’ll extend the life of your battery in that it’s not recharging as quickly (11kwH v 60+ kwH).
The main thing would just be if you have a normal power point in a garage - if you’re not driving so much that you are draining the battery each day, normal wall power overnight gets you back to enough charge.
We get a lot of US context discourse around home charging, their 110v electricity means many more households end up needing some form of upgrade - but for many just getting to our 220v is enough. They also contend with freezing temperatures, requiring battery preconditioning to charge, which is irrelevant in most of Aus.
The only real climate related consideration is just that you’ll be using air conditioning a lot in the summer, and that’s still one of the big drains on battery efficiency, which is a big part of most of the EVs not getting close to their rated distances.
as a Queenslander, for me aircon is a necessity. I’m happy to pay 3k for a home charger for a few reasons, the main one being that during the school holidays my wife does around 100lm a day just ferrying my oldest to her specialist vacation care for special needs children. also, weekends are for road trips for us - down to the gold coast (about 80km each way) or the sunshine coast (120km each way) and waiting at a commerical charger for an hour for a full charge is a decent wait time
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