Moggill Rd Congestion Study

What follows is a study I made some time ago into low cost ways of reducing congestion along Moggill Rd, a key through road that goes through Kenmore Brisbane near where I live.  The study is of general interest because many of the identified problems and solutions are applicable for a wide range of urban situations.

Is Harassing the Unemployed Justified

A key feature of the government’s approach to unemployment is the constant vilifying and harassing of the unemployed.  It may be a good strategy for diverting attention from government stuff-ups and appealing to voters darker side but there are no signs that it is reducing real unemployment , creating jobs, preparing people for more productive work or helping to share the available work in a fairer way.

Switching to public transport may be harder than you think

“Increase the use of public transport”  is an easy response to Brisbane’s transport problems.   However, once I realized that only 10% of car commutes went to the CBD the picture became more complex. Public and active transport was no longer the answer to everything.

CONTAINER HOUSES

Container transport results in a lot of containers ending up in places where shipping them empty to somewhere where they will be needed costs too much to be worthwhile.  One result has been the development of "container houses".  (Google “Container Houses Australia” and you can come up with something like 2 million hits."

INCREASING THE USE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT

This started off as a note about reducing public transport fares. However, once I started to put together the data needed to estimate what some of the proposals were going to cost the picture became more complex. Up till then I thought that, because about 65% of commutes used cars as their main method of travel to work there was plenty of scope for reducing transport emissions and congestion by getting most of these commuters to switch to public or active transport.

Running and Standing Costs for Various Cars - RACV Magazine July 14

The table below provides cost data for a variety of cars published in the RACV magazine July 2014.

Using Market-Based Approaches to Set Roof Top Solar Feed in Tariff Contract Prices

In the past rooftop solar feed in tariffs have been set by governments, government bodies such as productivity commissions and sometimes power retailers.  These FIT's have ranged from obscenely profitable down to unfair rip-off's.
Governments have also tried to use FIT price as a crude mechanism for controlling the rate of installation.  The result has been a rooftop solar business that has gone through a number of boom/bust cycles.