The Perth Thread - Part 4

[quotemokc]

Why are there so many crashes on the freeway all of a sudden or is it just being reported on more?

Everyday there is a major crash, right now at 8pm the Mitchell is closed southbound before Burns Beach Rd.

 

[HitTheNailOnTheHead]

Why are there so many crashes on the freeway all of a sudden or is it just being reported on more?

Everyday there is a major crash, right now at 8pm the Mitchell is closed southbound before Burns Beach Rd.

Adding close to 1/4 of a million people in a few short years doesn't help. The 'free'way is hardly ever free now. More like a carpark. People spending more and more of their life on it. Many of them probably falling asleep from the boredom.


This was what it was like before I was born ... early 1960's.

1972


2009


2026

 

[HitTheNailOnTheHead]

Is it just me or is there a distinct lack of flies around for this time of year?

Yes I was thinking this the other day. One of the kids left the flyscreen door open for half an hour and I was about to say something about it when I noticed not one fly had entered the house. Went outside and couldn't see one fly anywhere. I know that sustained periods of high heat can dessicate any organic material where they've laid their eggs, killing the larvae but I don't think we've had a particularly hot summer. Only a few days have we reached 40 from memory.

Maybe something mysterious is killing them. Much prefer them to be wiped out than bee populations that's for sure. We are experiencing exactly the reverse of what was predicted by the experts.

Warning as worst plague in 40 years descends on Aussie city: 'Driving people crazy'

It's already started, but it's soon set to get even worse.

au.news.yahoo.com

 

[Ljp86]

Is it just me or is there a distinct lack of flies around for this time of year?

I hadn't noticed but now that you mention it it does seem like it.

And here's me thinking it was because I had a fly massacre early in the season.

Dung beetle breeding has significantly reduced fly numbers from around 40 years ago in Perth and the south west. Flies are obviously still around, but not in the numbers they were previously.

Are Perth’s flies getting worse? Yes – but they’re not nearly as bad as they could be

It’s that time of the year again, and experts say West Australians must get used to the new buzzy normal as temperatures continue to heat up.

www.watoday.com.au

 

[JackOutback]

Adding close to 1/4 of a million people in a few short years doesn't help. The 'free'way is hardly ever free now. More like a carpark. People spending more and more of their life on it. Many of them probably falling asleep from the boredom.

View attachment 2533174
This was what it was like before I was born ... early 1960's.

View attachment 25331761972

View attachment 2533181
2009

View attachment 2533184
2026

You’re not seriously suggesting that you could cruise down the freeway in peak hour in 2009 but now they’ve ’added people’ it’s a carpark? Peak hour congestion has absolutely existed for my entire driving life and if anything, the smart freeway has eased it up a bit. Pain in the arse to get on the freeway sometimes but actually flows OK once on.

 

[HitTheNailOnTheHead]

Dung beetle breeding has significantly reduced fly numbers from around 40 years ago in Perth and the south west. Flies are obviously still around, but not in the numbers they were previously.

Are Perth’s flies getting worse? Yes – but they’re not nearly as bad as they could be

It’s that time of the year again, and experts say West Australians must get used to the new buzzy normal as temperatures continue to heat up.

www.watoday.com.au

The more recent article I linked to (December) said that fly larvae had been able to thrive largely unchecked, as the cooler end of spring/start to summer had kept dung beetles from performing their usual clean-up across pastures and bushland.

 

[HitTheNailOnTheHead]

You’re not seriously suggesting that you could cruise down the freeway in peak hour in 2009 but now they’ve ’added people’ it’s a carpark?

I'm not suggesting the 2009 photo was taken in peak hour. In fact I'm pretty sure it wasn't. I know the 2026 picture was definitely not taken in peak hour. It's early morning around 6am. You're not suggesting adding hundreds of thousands of people to our population hasn't affected our freeways at all are you? The figures aren't split for Perth and the rest of WA but WA had 1/4 of a million more total vehicles registered in 2025 compared to 2019 and about 80% of that would be the number for Perth alone.

Peak hour congestion has absolutely existed for my entire driving life and if anything, the smart freeway has eased it up a bit. Pain in the arse to get on the freeway sometimes but actually flows OK once on.

The smart freeway works OK at keeping traffic on the freeway flowing when it holds the traffic trying to enter for a decent interval. When it flashes from green to red and back again quickly it causes more issues than it would if they just had it switched off. Traffic entering and merging doesn't get up to freeway speed until later (because the lights are halfway down the entry ramp meaning they have less of a "run up"). This actually slows down the flow at the merge point. When it's holding traffic for a decent interval there is still this issue but it affects traffic already on the freeway less because less of these cars are entering at this lower speed.

 

[Forward Press]

Perth isn't a small city and we love our cars, so there is simply no way we can ever return to 20th century freeways where peak hour was just a minor hassle adding a few minutes to our commute.

Baldivis didn't exist 20 years ago effectively and now there are 40,000 residents there and they would use the freeway to get to the city because the alternatives simply aren't viable. Our sprawl has now reached Two Rocks and is looking to go past Mandurah and our Perth metro area is almost as big as Tokyo itself. This is not sustainable, but people want that big block by the coast and so here we area.

If you want to reduce pressure on roads, you need to build up a public transport network, increase the density of housing or decentralise businesses but none of them is something that Perth people have a desire for. Until it becomes palatable, this will continue to get worse.

 

[Scotland]

If we did this:

If you want to reduce pressure on roads, you need to build up a public transport network, increase the density of housing or decentralise businesses.

Then we wouldn't have this:

Baldivis didn't exist 20 years ago effectively and now there are 40,000 residents there and they would use the freeway to get to the city.

The extra rail helps, but most people don't use it. Not everyone works in the city and not everyone that does uses PT. It's still mostly a hub and spoke set up so if you live in Noranda and want to go to Greenwood you are probably going to drive rather than take two trains etc.

 

[Spirit Level]

Anyone get an unexpected hosing just then?

BOM certainly wasn't predicting that

 

[Spirit Level]

Why are there so many crashes on the freeway all of a sudden or is it just being reported on more?

Everyday there is a major crash, right now at 8pm the Mitchell is closed southbound before Burns Beach Rd.

It certainly seems a lot worse at the moment then I remember.

The standard of driving in Perth is shocking though so I'm not entirely surprised.

Need to do a massive license recall.

 

[Scotland]

It certainly seems a lot worse at the moment then I remember.

The standard of driving in Perth is shocking though so I'm not entirely surprised.

Need to do a massive license recall.

There were two in the tunnel last night. Was banked up at walking pace with "incident ahead left lane closed" on the warning signs. Took about 10 min to get through that then the signs kept saying the same thing then lo and behold maybe 500m further up there was a second prang. And of course with "left lane closed" in big letters people still moved into the left lane and sped up to then stop and have to merge back in to the centre lane ahead of the 10-20 cars that they passed.

 

[blueboy25]

Anyone get an unexpected hosing just then?

BOM certainly wasn't predicting that

Hosed down in the Northern sububs a few times this morning

 

[ioppolo]

Cloudy, rain, thunder consistently since 5am. Currently 23 degrees.

That 33 with clear skies looks a tad shaky doesn't it BOM?

 

[gaskin]

Cloudy, rain, thunder consistently since 5am. Currently 23 degrees.

That 33 with clear skies looks a tad shaky doesn't it BOM?

33? BOM told me 28 last night.

 

[Forward Press]

Cloudy, rain, thunder consistently since 5am. Currently 23 degrees.

That 33 with clear skies looks a tad shaky doesn't it BOM?

Weather predictions are just that, getting it wrong isn't proof that meteorology sucks.

 

[JackOutback]

Weather predictions are just that, getting it wrong isn't proof that meteorology sucks.

 

[bok_party]

Anyone get an unexpected hosing just then?

BOM certainly wasn't predicting that

Had clothes on the line over night

 

[ioppolo]

33? BOM told me 28 last night.

Depends where you are or have the location set to. I'm fairly rural SOR so it's always a few degrees more than the CBD forecast.

 

[Kram]

The US is cooked. They think guns are a need and healthcare is a want, and a tipped minimum wage of $2 an hour is OK. We rely heavily on migrant workers now (to our detriment), but their economy would collapse without undocumented workers let alone legal migrants.

Politics aside, the US has 38 population centres 500k or higher. We have 8. A third of the country live in Melbourne and Sydney. Boston has a population of under 700k, but in an apples for apples comparison it's equivalent to Melbourne and Sydney in metro area and population. The US has federal, state and local taxes, and the differences between regions are stark. Here most people don't generally move between cap cities because of cost. You live under the rules of the federal govt of the day and things don't drastically change with who is in power. California has become expensive, has high crime rates and is too influenced by Democratic policies for some people so a lot of them have moved to Texas, Nashville and Florida. People complain about Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allen but there hasn't been a mass migration out of Victoria.

In terms of housing we pretty much have cap city markets, some regional centre markets and holiday town markets that mirror them in price and the rest. You can get a block of land in Northam for $100k. Or a house in Merredin for $250k. Not many people want that, and there are limited opportunities in these areas for employment compared to cap city population centres.

Median house price in Merredin just went from 190k to 300k in 1 year.

Know somebody that just sold a 1970s brick 3 x 1 for 450k, neat enough but nothing special. Might say it's still cheap but when land is still basically worthless at 50k for a block it's a lot.

 

[Scotland]

Median house price in Merredin just went from 190k to 300k in 1 year.

Know somebody that just sold a 1970s brick 3 x 1 for 450k, neat enough but nothing special. Might say it's still cheap but when land is still basically worthless at 50k for a block it's a lot.

Is there enough work to sustain mortgages of that size in Merredin? It's what 3,000 people? Would be a fairly stable population I'm guessing compared to mining towns.

I think I made a good decision here (mostly dumb luck, I bought what I could afford at the time) but in reality the amount I've made in capital growth relative to the amount the whole market has made isn't actually life changing. I'm not looking to move or upgrade or anything and I'm glad. Have a couple of friends that have outgrown their first home with a couple of young kids and they are in a great position with equity, good income etc. and are getting crushed going to home opens. Can only imagine how ****ed it is for others.

 

[Beerfish]

I'm not sure if we ever do state funerals but if we do, Dennis Cometti should get one.

 

[gaskin]

I'm not sure if we ever do state funerals but if we do, Dennis Cometti should get one.

Agreed. I said the same to my dad yesterday.

 

[Scotland]

We do them yes, and absolutely it should be offered to the Cometti family.

 

[Beerfish]

Also, I'm finding this football match boring as batshit. As Morrissey once said, has the world changed or have i changed?