riding bikes ROCKS

Today, something must have been in the air in Melbourne (Dutchy's old
socks? Euan's knicks? I don't wish to speculate) but the Eastern side
of the city was in just about total gridlock. Canterbury Rd was *not*
moving from Vermont to around Surrey Hills ... once I threaded through
the carpit, the rest of my ride in was gorgeous. Sunny, cool, hint of
tailwind ... and all the cars must have been stuck in the jam ..
because the traffic was really light from Surrey Hills onwards.

I saw the Eastern carpark chock solid from Hoddle to Doncaster Rd
(inbound) when riding out of the city at ~7am too ... amazing ... all
those cars, going nowhere, burning oil ...

Anyone know what caused it? I heard some truck crashed at ~1am on the
SE carpark, but that doesn't explain the mess on the Eastern or
Canterbury Rd? Pah... if they'd been on bikes .. it'd have not been an
issue. Imagine if the freeways were turned over to bikes? Mmmmmm Soon
my precious, soon ....

"Bleve" wrote in message ...

I saw the Eastern carpark chock solid from Hoddle to Doncaster Rd
(inbound) when riding out of the city at ~7am too ... amazing ... all
those cars, going nowhere, burning oil ...


The eastern also had traffic banked up from Blackburn Rd+ to Springvale Rd
outbound!.. something I've never seen before in the mornings..


cheers,
GPL

Bleve Wrote:
Today, something must have been in the air in Melbourne (Dutchy's old
socks? Euan's knicks? I don't wish to speculate) but the Eastern side
of the city was in just about total gridlock. Canterbury Rd was *not*
moving from Vermont to around Surrey Hills ... once I threaded through
the carpit, the rest of my ride in was gorgeous. Sunny, cool, hint of
tailwind ... and all the cars must have been stuck in the jam ..
because the traffic was really light from Surrey Hills onwards.

I saw the Eastern carpark chock solid from Hoddle to Doncaster Rd
(inbound) when riding out of the city at ~7am too ... amazing ... all
those cars, going nowhere, burning oil ...

Anyone know what caused it? I heard some truck crashed at ~1am on the
SE carpark, but that doesn't explain the mess on the Eastern or
Canterbury Rd? Pah... if they'd been on bikes .. it'd have not been
an
issue. Imagine if the freeways were turned over to bikes? Mmmmmm
Soon
my precious, soon ....


It took me 20 minutes to move 200 metres (by car) from Maroondah H'way
onto Springvale Rd this morning @ 7.20. It then took another 15 minutes
to get through some train boom gates with a perverse sense of humour ie
lets flash and stay down for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time, let one train
pass (evenutally) lift for 30 seconds and repeat. I suspect
malfunctioning gates to be the reason it took so long to get onto
Springvale Rd.

But even wierder - NO TRAFFIC ON SPRINGVALE RD heading towards Brandon
Park. A 20 minute trip took me 10. All the traffic was heading back the
other way towards Maroonday H'way (towards the freaked out boom gates).
Now.. that was freaky.

Got a text msg whilst sitting in the car from significant other saying
- you should have taken the bike dear!


--
warrwych

"Bleve" wrote in message
ups.com...


SNIP

Anyone know what caused it? I heard some truck crashed at ~1am on the
SE carpark, but that doesn't explain the mess on the Eastern or
Canterbury Rd? Pah... if they'd been on bikes .. it'd have not been an
issue. Imagine if the freeways were turned over to bikes? Mmmmmm Soon
my precious, soon ....

Yes a B double crashed at the beginning of the Domain Tunnel and one it's
trailers smashed across the concrete barrier also blocking the exit of the
Burnley tunnel. At least that is how I pictured it from radio reports. It
may have been the other way round or slightly different.

The Burnley tunnel had 2 lanes reopened at about 6am. The Domain tunnel had
one lane open sometime afterwards.

It seems you take out a major aterial road in Melbourne and it puts the
entire city into a gridlock.

Rhubarb wrote:

It seems you take out a major aterial road in Melbourne and it puts the
entire city into a gridlock.

Makes for a nice ride in on the pushy. More major arterial blockages
please!

Maybe one or two of the sheep in cars saw a bike riding past and
thought "wow, I wonder if I could do that?"

Nah .. they'd just turn the stereo up louder and whinge about traffic
and petrol prices!

On 2005-12-13, Bleve (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Today, something must have been in the air in Melbourne (Dutchy's old
socks? Euan's knicks? I don't wish to speculate) but the Eastern side
of the city was in just about total gridlock. Canterbury Rd was *not*
moving from Vermont to around Surrey Hills ... once I threaded through
the carpit, the rest of my ride in was gorgeous. Sunny, cool, hint of
tailwind ... and all the cars must have been stuck in the jam ..
because the traffic was really light from Surrey Hills onwards.

The weather was perfect.

Slight tailwind for me too, although I was feeling a bit too tired to
get mich speed up.

And my commute had bugger all cars on it.

--
TimC
"Thanks to the joint efforts of OpenOffice, Mozilla, and a few others, Emacs
officially entered the category of lightweight utilities." -- kalifa on /.

On 2005-12-13, warrwych (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
It took me 20 minutes to move 200 metres (by car) from Maroondah H'way
onto Springvale Rd this morning @ 7.20. It then took another 15 minutes
to get through some train boom gates with a perverse sense of humour ie
lets flash and stay down for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time, let one train
pass (evenutally) lift for 30 seconds and repeat. I suspect
malfunctioning gates to be the reason it took so long to get onto
Springvale Rd.

Not just a station nearby with a broken down train?


I watched and laughed when we arrived at Pakenham on Saturday. A
freight train with 5 engines and a bunch load of freight .... um
.... trucks? .... passed very slowly. Then eventually the last one
passed, and the train stopped, with just a foot of truck hanging over
the road, so the boom gates stayed down for ages more.

And of course, one car went around the boom gates, and a bunch
followed. I hoped for a commuter train to come flying along the other
track -- that would have been pretty funny in a sick way.

--
TimC
Disclaimer: Due to feline interference, this post may contain typographical
errors.

Bleve Wrote:
Today, something must have been in the air in Melbourne (Dutchy's old
socks? Euan's knicks?

*Haughty cough* I'll have you knoe my knicks get washed after every
wear ;-)

I don't wish to speculate) but the Eastern side
of the city was in just about total gridlock. Canterbury Rd was *not*
moving from Vermont to around Surrey Hills ... once I threaded through
the carpit, the rest of my ride in was gorgeous. Sunny, cool, hint of
tailwind ... and all the cars must have been stuck in the jam ..
because the traffic was really light from Surrey Hills onwards.

Nepean Highway was pretty much at a standstill from Centre Road in. I
was in a real hurry too, overslept so was late for a meeting (which got
cancelled luckily) so I was taking more risks than usual i.e. lane
splitting left most and second leftmost lane. Actually in those
conditions I find that safer 'cause vehicles keep away from each other
better than they keep away from the kerb.

Had a few vehicles make a definite move out of my way as I was
charging down the road, keeping a more or less steady 30kph going. Was
bloody great :-)


--
EuanB

"Bleve" wrote in message
oups.com...

Rhubarb wrote:

It seems you take out a major aterial road in Melbourne and it puts the
entire city into a gridlock.

Makes for a nice ride in on the pushy. More major arterial blockages
please!

Maybe one or two of the sheep in cars saw a bike riding past and
thought "wow, I wonder if I could do that?"

Nah .. they'd just turn the stereo up louder and whinge about traffic
and petrol prices!


Nothing quite like leaving grid locked cars for dead.

And no doubt whinge about cyclists taking up the road they pay for!

"GPLama" wrote in message
. ..
"Bleve" wrote in message ...

I saw the Eastern carpark chock solid from Hoddle to Doncaster Rd
(inbound) when riding out of the city at ~7am too ... amazing ... all
those cars, going nowhere, burning oil ...


The eastern also had traffic banked up from Blackburn Rd+ to Springvale Rd
outbound!.. something I've never seen before in the mornings..

B-double truck overturned on the Monash Trollway. All in-bound lanes blocked
until about 7.00am , so everyone from down Glen Waverley way heads up to
take the Eastern or Canterbury Rd. And Blackburn Rd rail boomgates were
stuck down so no-one could get through to the Eastern very easily.

It's fun to ride the bike on these days.

Cheers
Peter