Can you be less "car-centric"?

It gets worse - I took a couple of Ventura buses last week and there were several passengers not wearing masks.

I spoke to the drivers about it but, despite the DHHS poster onboard stating that mask wearing is mandatory on public transport, each driver said they are not allowed to ask passengers to wear masks.

A couple of young men were actually carrying their masks but did not wear them for the 30 minutes I was on the bus. Two other men didn’t appear to have masks at all.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t move to another carriage like on the train. This was on two buses from Cheltenham to Springvale.

 

Last year I was definately less car centric. Hardly drove at all. During Melbourne lockdown I was working from home, shopping online and hardly ever needed to adveture out from home. Who knows how the future will look like?

 

I'm actually worried I may forget how to drive...is this a thing? And don't say it's like riding a bike because I think I've forgotten than too

 

This'll solve your commuting problems - all on a 30 second charge time

Gen3 car to be quicker and lighter, with fast-charge pitstops.

 

^^^ awesome.

That'll blow Hydrogen power away I reckon.

 

Muscle memory will kick in I'm sure. I hopped into a manual car the other day after driving an auto for years and the skills where still there and I didn't bunny hop at the lights. A hill start had my heart rate going 150bpm but I didn't roll back into the car behind me or stall so I was pretty happy and took off without a hitch.

 

BTW I'm going to build a project house this year on 147sqm lot that has no onsite carparking. Will certainly challenge the Perth mindset if they can cope with it.

 

I think manual driving is a dying art... and any kind of car driving will be obsolete at some point in time. Not sure when...

 

After uni, I lived in London then Hong Kong and didn’t have a car in either place. In London, I could hire a car if going away for the weekend and in Hong Kong public transport and taxis were cheap. When I moved to Sydney, I lived in Darlinghurst, so walked to work and did not bother to buy a car. I hired a car when going away for the weekend and renting out my apartment car space paid for the occasional car hire costs.

Once I moved to the ‘burbs and had a family, I got a car and now we have two. A Kia Carnival and a small hatchback. The hatchback is usually the first choice due to lower fuel consumption and ease of driving. The carnival is used when the hatchback is already out or when we need the seats/space (five kids). Would like to move to one car but difficult with five kids and eldest now doing lessons so car demand is increasing......

 

This is the way I see it going far in the future.

1) All human driven cars will be banned from main roads.

2) Automatic gear boxes will be obsolete. They will only be available in emergency vehicles where a human-override option is needed (ambulances, fire trucks?).

3) Human driving cars will still be allowed on private race / recreational tracks, where manual gear boxes will rule. No one enjoys driving an automatic gear box, I get bored to tears. If you're going to human-drive recreationally, it has to be fully manual. I mean who wants to zip around a race track with an auto gearbox? Can't see it being a thing. I see it being either full driverless or full manual in a recreational setting.

 

When I was a kid, I remember that my dad used to tell me Automatic gearbox cars were unreliable (80s). Mum and Dad got their first automatic car Toyota Camry SV20 (1992) model and heck, the gear shifts were way smoother than either of them can shift in our previous Honda Accord 1980.

I drove that Honda 5 speeder as a P plater for like 3 years from 1999 to 2001 when it became obvious that in summers it was unbearable (had no air con) and I was like why am I paying this much insurance and fuel when it was obvious the car was worth less than this per year. I upgraded to a automatic car the next year and never looked back.

The last time I've ever driven a manual was maybe 2008? I had to borrow my cousin's RAV4 which was manual. Damn, I don't miss the manual...way too much traffic these days especially in the CBD. Stopping and first gear then stopping again just doesn't work for me any more.

An colleague of ours who worked in mechanical engineering (he used to work for Holden) told us yes, pre 90s auto gear boxes were not very effective or reliable. By the mid 90s though he reckons that the tech was mature enough to be reliable but then efficiency and towing weights were lagging manuals. By the mid 2000s however, he reckons the autos efficiency and towing capabilities were already eclipsing any manual gearbox given really you can't get beyond 6 gears on shifter like practically...

As for automatic driving, my uncle scoffed at it back in the mid 2000s I remember watching an episode of Top Gear and they had this Lexus sedan equipped with the auto parallel parking and did a test. It didn't perform very well - it either said too close to park and the guy manually demonstrated it could get in with ease or when it did park it wasn't very accruate (i.e. way too close to the road traffic). How tech has advanced since with Tesla and stuff!!!

 

If you talk racing. Nothing is gonna beat a paddle shifters maybe it traditional torque converter which actually quite good now days especially in bmw lexus or dct

Racing is about 10/10. No human can shift faster than a computer. And cars now are so fast 9/10 people can't handle 3 pedals, race cars is even faster.

For enjoyment is different story

 

And to Aldi and back is a different story

 

If you want a plumber, electrician to come to your house or any other service like a social worker or doctor than a car s needed.

 

There we go, took me almost a year to get a car but finally got the right one and the bike is being prepared for sale. As much as i enjoy riding my motorcycles in extreme weather, I doubt that I'll be missing traveling home in 4 or 40 degrees weather when i don't have to!

 

Not this buyer

Buyer splashes $750,000 on the 'last ever' Holden Commodore made in Australia | Daily Mail Online