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nathanpittman.bsky.social
Naththan
@nathanpittman.bsky.social
710 followers 110 following 550 posts
PhD candidate, writing about the art of government of transport planning: maps as manifestations of power, models as inseparable from plans, questions of what planning is as questions of what it should be, and good planners as bad planners.
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nathanpittman.bsky.social
I for one welcome our new Netro Trains Nelbourne overlords
Close-up of AI generated slop image from original post showing a typo in the word Metro
November 25, 2025 at 6:53 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Concourse open, no trains running.
Photograph of entrance to Parkville station
November 24, 2025 at 12:38 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Screenshot from the Simpsons, in which Lisa is watching a movie in class about sand. the caption reads I think where we’d be without sand sand sand.
November 18, 2025 at 8:06 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Parking is the one, true equaliser contemporary society. Even absurdly wealthy doctors and architects will start behaving like absolute lunatics - brandishing weapons, pet death threats, frothing at the mouth - over their "entitlement" to a parking space.
Screencap of an article from The Age. The text reads: The argument unfolded outside their Chester Road properties that share a driveway, part of which was caught on camera by a neighbour and shown to Perth Magistrates Court. Kennedy, 74, could allegedly be heard in the footage yelling at the 81-year-old doctor to “move your car you f---ing dumb bitch”, and telling her she couldn’t park there. Prosecutors allege that Kennedy then fetched a large knife from her car and was waving it around in Manners’ face while threatening her. Kennedy denies the allegation, instead claiming the item in her hand was a specialist architect’s tool called an angle finder ruler. Screencap includes a photograph of the two women in question.
November 5, 2025 at 1:26 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Meanwhile, in Melbourne…
Screencap of PTV app, showing departure times for Newmarket station towards the city on a Sunday night. There are two trains per hour.
October 19, 2025 at 10:49 PM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Free PT on the weekends during Soft Launch Summer as a “thank you” for years of disruption.

That’s nice, provided you don’t need to be anywhere on time on a Sunday morning.
Screencap of the PTV app, showing the city bound departures from a nearby train station on the morning of Sunday, 12 October. At this time of the morning trains every 40 minutes.
October 7, 2025 at 9:49 PM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
These downgrades to Victoria St are peak Melbourne.

We're moving the Peel St stop to Queen St, which reduces connectivity between the 57 and 58 tram, AND, the replacement stop at Queen St is only 140m away from the existing Victoria/Elizabeth stop.
map showing upcoming tram works on victoria street outside of the queen victoria market.
October 2, 2025 at 4:48 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Yarra Trams once again proving itself incapable of providing a consistent and reliable service.

Why subsidise this private company when it can’t even deliver the product it’s meant to?

And why isn’t this more of a political issue?
Screencap of PTV app showing departure board for a tram stop. Three trams are predicted to arrive at the same time despite being scheduled at seven minutes apart.
October 1, 2025 at 6:58 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
"I contribute less than a dollar a day to be permitted to store my private property in valuable public space and I'm infuriated that there's never any space available!!"
screencap of a city of melbourne website about their parking review in carlton. it reads: Residential permits We received 44 responses about residential permits. Respondents reported challenges related to the residential permit system. Example of feedback we heard about residential permits: 'We pay over $200 a year for permits and still spend 15+ minutes circling.'
September 19, 2025 at 2:44 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
A durrr i’m a Lexus driver and I therefore have the right to park my stupid Lexus on the footpath
Photograph of a Lexus parked on a footpath because they’re driving luxury so screw the poor
September 19, 2025 at 12:47 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
A major transport conference is asking for AU$950 for registration and they can't even be bothered to pay a designer or photographer to make a basic image for their website.
A machine-generated image of an urban stroad, featuring a vehicle that is possible a tram but possible a bus (maybe trackless tram), some cable cars that are not consistently suspended from the right cable, and a whole bunch of other AI nonsense.
September 18, 2025 at 11:56 PM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
It’s absolutely wild that a person can be such a shit driver that they kill a child who is nowhere near the road and the subsequent punishment is $2000 and a 24 month suspension from driving.

This person should never, ever be allowed to drive a car again.
He convicted Zuhaira and fined her $2000. He also ordered the disqualification of her licence for two years and for her to complete a safer driving program.
September 3, 2025 at 7:15 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Would it really have killed you to hire an actual artist/designer to produce your billboard graphics, Royal Melbourne Show?
A very AI generated billboard for the Royal Melbourne Show.
August 29, 2025 at 2:32 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Amazing. Some time ago I lodged a request for a red light camera at the Flemington Road/Elliott Ave intersection at the top of Royal Park.

Much to my surprise, the DoJCS agrees (pending approval of funding 😒)
Thank you for your correspondence requesting consideration of a road safety camera. The Road Safety Camera Site Selection Committee (the Committee) chaired by Victoria Police with membership from the Department of Justice and Community Safety and Department of Transport and Planning (VicRoads) have recommended the installation of a new road safety camera site at the intersection of Elliot Avenue and Flemington Road in Parkville on 13 August 2025. Locations recommended by the Committee are analysed further by the Monash University Accident Research Centre to determine the optimum place for the camera/s to provide road safety outcomes. The Department of Justice and Community Safety includes the location in the prioritisation list for new road safety cameras and seeks funding. If funding is provided a tendering process for the installation of the cameras will be undertaken.
August 27, 2025 at 7:55 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
A "motorist" is killed and the headline rushes to proclaim the victim's innocence...

A "cyclist" is killed, but isn't afforded the same innocence, and is even reported as "standing or pushing his bike on Moreland Road" (tsk tsk you shouldn't have been there)...
screencap of the age article headline: Innocent motorist killed after stolen car involved in head-on crash in Toolern Vale Text: Two people are dead and a man has been taken to hospital after a head-on crash in Melbourne’s outer north-west. State highway patrol officers were in the process of stopping another vehicle on Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road in Toolern Vale just before 10am on Sunday when a stolen Holden Cruise drove past them at high speed. screencap of the age article headline: Cyclist killed in Coburg, hit-run driver at large text: A cyclist has died following a hit-and-run collision in Melbourne’s inner north, and the driver, who fled the scene, continues to evade police. The man, who is believed to be in his 40s or 50s, was standing or pushing his bike on Moreland Road in Coburg at about 6.20pm on Sunday when he was struck by an unknown driver’s vehicle, police said.
August 25, 2025 at 12:30 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
Yarra Trams having an absolutely normal one with their complete inability to maintain a consistent ten-minute headway.
Screencap of PTV departure info for a tram stop in inner Melbourne. The tram is timetables to leave every ten minutes, but the real time info shows departures in 15, 18, and 19 minutes, with the 3:04pm service departing before the 2:54pm service.
August 23, 2025 at 4:42 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
I, for one, welcome our new Melbourne Central platypus/dulaiwarrung overlords.
Decal of dulaiwarrung/platypus at Old State Library station.
August 6, 2025 at 7:36 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
It's also $252m for a 2.7km tramway that entirely duplicates the existing King Street buses, about 100-150m to the south, which have the same frequency and travel time as the trams.
Screencap of Newcastle's PT network map, focused on the light rail corridor between Newcastle Interchange and Newcastle Beach. The map shows a parallel corridor of bus services running just south of the very expensive light rail project.
August 4, 2025 at 12:20 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
it's truly alarming the extent to which the "drive" website manufactures consent for absolutely stupid car brained nonsense, like raising the speed limit, or like saying how roads are safer in one paragraph and then immediately acknowledging the increase in traffic violence over the last few years
screencap of text from "drive.com.au" article, which reads Will the maximum speed limit in Australia ever be raised? Zane Dobie Speed limits in Australia have been an increasingly hot topic over the past two decades. With the introduction of advanced safety systems, improved roads and faster vehicles, the maximum speed limit has remained the same. RELATED: Why Australians are still driving around without insurance In fact, a Facebook page recently ran an informal survey that found over 90 per cent of users support increasing the national freeway speed limit to 130km/h, with 19,000 people voting yes and just 2200 voting no. "If you have answered no to this, you should proceed to your local VICRoads, etc and hand in your driver's licence. Because you can't drive," said one commenter. "No. Because half of the drivers can't handle a car at 60km/h," rebutted another. "Daylight, yes, from sun down to sun up, no. Wildlife is an inhibitor to safe travels, mainly due to the verge areas having trees and bushes too close to the roadside edge. In the Northern Territory, where legal, you can see for literally kilometres," said a motorist. This debate is nothing new; the 110km/h speed limit was introduced in 1967, then later spread nationally in 1974. In the four decades since then, a handful of 130km/h zones have been added in super-rural areas surrounding the Northern Territory and Victoria, but major freeways still have speed limits of 100km/h or 110km/h. Yet, Australia seems to be going backwards, lowering the speed limits instead of raising them. Sydney city underwent a change in 2024 that saw the roads capped at 40km/h, a significant increase from just 4 per cent of 40km/h roads in 2004. Melbourne City Council also dropped the speed limits on some roads to just 30km/h early last year, and Western Australia has seen a massive push to drop the limits on over 1800 roads. But why, with safer cars and better roads, are we seeing a drop in speed limits
July 21, 2025 at 4:56 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
People-led ✅

Grassroots ✅

Funded by American tech billionaires ✅
Screencap of Fin review article which reads US tech billionaires fund Australian YIMBY battle Emma McGrath-Cohen Reporter Jul 11, 2025 - 5.30pm An Australian chapter of the global Yes In My Backyard movement will use a $US500,000 ($762,000) grant from US philanthropic backers to fight planning laws they believe are preventing younger buyers getting into the housing market. Screencap of yimby Melbourne homepage, with prominent text that reads Yes In My Backyard Melbourne People-led. Grassroots. For housing abundance.
July 14, 2025 at 11:35 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
The planned OMR/E6 freeway (effectively a second western and northern freeway ring road) pales in comparison to the other, more expansive ideas that VicRoads/DTP planners have played with over the years.

This is a proposed 2040 arterial network, leaked to The Age in 2010.
Plan for Melbourne's freeways in 2040, as leaked to The Age in 2010 or thereabouts, origin most likely VicRoads. The map show the existing road network and other usual features, and is overlaid with prominently coloured lines that indicate the type of road as well as when it is expected to be "needed".
July 14, 2025 at 4:04 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
This is the correct take.
Letter to the editor published in the age. It reads: Protesters are not the problem with Gaza Your July 7 editorial, "Sunday's Gaza protest a glaring example of tone-deaf intransigence", ", repeats a well-worn pattern. Protest movements - from the Freedom Ride to opposition to apartheid and the Vietnam War - have always been demonised for what others do around them. Some contemporaries may have felt uncomfortable with their message - but few now doubt their moral rectitude. For nearly two years, Melbourne's weekly Gaza demonstrations have remained disciplined and non-violent, demanding accountability for Israel's unending campaign of mass killing, starvation, and destruction - and for Australia's complicity. As a lawyer, I'm left scratching my head at the suggestion this movement should self-censor because unrelated individuals allegedly committed criminal acts days earlier. That logie would have silenced every protest movement in history. And the cause of the protesters is backed by most countries around the world, the ICC and the UN. The slogans of the powerless - even when inflammatory - are not equivalent to the actual, documented crimes of the powerful. At minimum, 60,000 lie buried in Gaza's rubble, slaughtered by the IDF. Among them are children, aid workers, medical staff, and journalists who are credibly alleged to have been deliberately targeted. The real "tone-deaf intransigence" lies not in the streets, but in The Age's editorial offices, which remain unwilling to confront Australia's complicity in Israeli war crimes.
July 13, 2025 at 11:34 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
A bunch of the hoarding in Melbourne Central has come down and you can now peer into the concourse that connects to State Library station.
Low quality photograph taken by yours truly of the concourse connecting Melbourne central and the under construction state library station.
July 9, 2025 at 8:51 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
The speed limit on Royal Parade between the College Cres and Grattan Street has been changed to a much more sensible 40km/h (previously 60km/h).

This is great news for the thousands of people who use this street daily, making it safer for pedestrians, bike riders, PT riders, and car drivers alike.
Photograph of a road sign, Royalparade, Parkville, Melbourne. Sign shows a 40km/h speed limit with a yellow and black advisory new limit sign posted below.
July 3, 2025 at 12:56 AM
nathanpittman.bsky.social
I want Victoria Harbour to look like 维多利亚港
Screencap of wiki disambig page for Victoria harbour. Victoria Harbour (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term The main Victoria Harbour is in Hong Kong but may refer to: Australia • Docklands, Victoria, an inner city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria
June 29, 2025 at 11:59 PM