Fitzsimons Lane Update - Fitzsimons Lane and Main Road Eltham

About a month ago I received a brochure on the Fitzsimons Lane Update in the mail. I'm interested in changes in the area which may impact me so I watch out for changes. Even though this brochure states there's been extensive community communication, this was the first time I'd heard of the changes and that appears true of others I spoke or heard from.

I've broken this post into three. One for the Fitzsimons Lane and Main Road roundabout Eltham, one for Fitzsimons Lane and Porter Street Templestowe and one for Williamsons Road and Foote Street Templestowe. This is so if there's any comments people can make comments on the specific intersection.

Details of the project are available from the Major Road Projects Victoria website at https://roadprojects.vic.gov.au/projects/northern-roads-upgrade/fitzsimons-lane

Last night I attended an open meeting where people could meet with and discuss their concerns with MRPV staff and see more detailed plans. I had an excellent conversation with a staff member and whilst I felt happy with the answers, in hindsight I can see issues that concern me. I can see others had their own issues and concerns.

My aim here is to share the issues I feel exist with the current roundabout and how this has changed with the proposed design. Over the 30 years I've lived in Templestowe I've used the Eltham roundabout hundreds if not thousands of times. The following are the issues I've had.

1. Turning left into Main Road from Fitzsimons Lane heading north and going west. There are two slip lanes going into Main Road. The main issue is drivers in the right hand slip lane drive into the left hand lane of Main Road and cut off drivers in the left slip lane. To fix this broken lines should  direct the second slip lane into the second lane of Main Road.

The new design fixes this issue by providing marked lanes. The left lane goes into the left, the right into the right the center goes into two lanes, one for straight ahead and one for turning right. This fixes the issue so drivers know which lane to go into. However, I can see drivers not knowing ahead of time which lane they should be in and trying to move across cutting off other cars. At least overall its better.

2. I've heard a number of people coming from Main Road Eltham which then goes into Fitzsimons Lane having this issue. There's three lanes at this point in Main Road at the roundabout. The left lane goes into Fitzsimons Lane, the middle lane into Fitzsimons Lane or continues on Main Road, the right lane continues on Main Road. The problem isn't here it starts further back. Driving along Main Road there's two lanes, as the lanes split into three the left lane becomes the only left into Fitzsimons Lane. This is  unexpected and people travelling on a two lane road, Main Road, that continues on a two lane road, Main Road, don't expect the lane to change. What should happen is the two lanes on Main Road goes straight on to Main Road and the left lane should open up with dashed lines. That way people knowing move into the left lane. The issue becomes because people have ended up in the left lane they cut across the people in the centre because they think they continue on Main Road, but they cut across people in the centre lane who are now going into Fitzsimons Lane creating a conflict and potential for a crash. This is very poor road design.

The new design fixes this issue with lanes continuing as they would be expected to.

3. Heading east along Main Road to turn right at the roundabout into Fitzsimons Lane to continue on to Templestowe. The traffic here is often very bad, particularly late afternoon. The delay can be considerable.

If the new design aims to improve the traffic flow and works then this delay should be shorter. However since no information is provided in terms of expected delays or timing, to rely on trust alone is difficult. We can only hope the delay is reduced.

4. Exiting from the Woolworths Petrol turning left onto Main Road is often a matter of running the gauntlet. It really isn't good. The roundabout design means there's an almost constant flow of traffic and it is difficult to exit the petrol station.

The new design may make this worse because there's now a slip lane meaning potentially no breaks in traffic heading west to east on Main Road. This is worse than the current situation which is already bad.

5. Turning right from Main Road into Fitzsimons Lane there's often small issues. Cars don't stick to lanes. Cars from Main Road heading west cut into the roundabout when they should give way. To me roundabouts are a terrible road feature because people don't do what they should .

Most of these issues go in the new design as lanes are clearly designed and traffic is stopped by lights so people don't cut in front of others without clearly breaking the law.

Conclusion

Overall I see the new design removes two poor design issues (which could also be easily removed with fixing lane markings). To me these are very real safety issues. Replacing the roundabout with traffic lights would not be required to fix this issue. However, the main issue the traffics hopefully can improve is the delay on Main Road heading east to turn right into Fitzsimons Lane.

I really only turn left from Fitzsimons Lane into Main Road and from Main Road right into Fitzsimons Lane, so these really are the only issues I have clear experience with. I don't turn left often from Main Road into Fitzsimons Lane so this is not an issue personally to me. Exiting the Woolworths Petrol station is an issue. The time delay heading east on Main Road turning right into Fitzsimons Lane is a considerable delay. The new design should improve most of these issues.

Kelvin Eldridge

Please feel free to add your experiences of this intersection using the comments.

eBay order from China cancelled due to coronavirus.

Today an order I'd placed for a small item from eBay was cancelled and the money refunded. The supplier left the following message.

Hi friend.
Recently, due to the occurrence of infectious diseases in China, we cannot live normally and cannot work normally. we can't get any item because all the factories in China were out of work now,they can't afford our order,so i have to cancel this order,thanks for your understanding and patience.you can buy it agian if you really need it.
I hope you and your family pay attention to safety and good health
Best Wishes

I completely understand, as we all do, the problems occurring in China at the moment with the coronavirus and that is likely to occur across the world.

This order was placed around a month ago and one thing I didn't notice was the Order Update. Normally when I place an order I get an Order Confirmed and then, perhaps the same day or the next, an Order Update, which is letting me know the item ordered is on its way. Then in around 4-6 weeks I'll receive the item.

However, with this order and another small order, what I didn't notice was the order update didn't come. There has been none. That now indicates an issue with supply. This order was cancelled after nearly four weeks. The second order has not received an order update and that's been around 1-2 weeks.

The real problem isn't that orders need to be cancelled, but that it's taking so long before the order gets cancelled. The suppliers are most likely sitting on the orders as long as possible before they cancel them, just in case they can get supply.

One item I did place an order for from China at the same time is on its way, so it's not all orders, just some.

Given the normal long delays it getting items from China, adding an additional 2-4 weeks before knowing whether or not you'll get the item ordered probably means it's prudent to rethink your purchases. Unfortunately that's not good for the suppliers in China, but it is understandable what's happening.

Kelvin Eldridge.

South Australia red light camera, speed camera locations now added to Speed Camera Locations site.

The Speed Camera Locations site started out of my own interest with the red light and speed camera locations for Victoria. Since then I've added red light and speed camera locations for New South Wales.

Whilst it can take some work, I decided why not see if I could add red light cameras and speed cameras for South Australia. That work is now completed enough to provide red light camera and speed camera locations for South Australia. There's still some work to be done, but I feel it is better to provide the basics and then flush out the rest as time permits.

For example of work that still needs to be completed I find the number and value of fines really helps to locate where the most people are making the same or similar mistakes. For example quite a few people were booked in the Melbourne CBD area when the speed limit across the area dropped to 40 km/h. Yes the government does provide a few weeks notice but many people for months, if not years are not aware of the change. If you're not familiar with the roads in an area it's easy to make a costly mistake.

I hope others find the South Australian red light camera and speed camera locations useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/sa/

Red light camera fine shows driver in the intersection. A common misconception or wrongly fined.

As part of creating the site www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au I've learnt quite a few things that I and others often don't understand or know, and as a result, we can end up getting fined.

I read quite a few people on the internet who believe they were in the intersection when they incurred a red light camera fine.

The following is one such example. The person in question wonders whether they should take this court as from their understanding, they'd already entered the intersection. The cars had to stop as a car from the opposite direction went through the yellow light delaying them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AusLegal/comments/8wo64f/red_light_camera_fine_shows_me_in_the/

Here is a link to the two photos taken for the red light camera fine.

https://imgur.com/OOsobaz

For convenience the following is a copy of the first photo showing the car past the stop line.

This situation is extremely common and I'm sure most of us have been in this situation.

The first car is well into the intersection and there's enough room for a second car in the intersection, or is there?

The location is the intersection of Balwyn Road and Whitehorse Road, Balwyn. The camera is a wet film camera.

Keep in mind everything here is just my thoughts. I'm not qualified in any legal way so my opinion is just that and yours is just as valid.

I always believed once I was over the white stop line I was in the intersection. From what I've read this isn't the case. The intersection is the imaginary lines where the two roads cross such that cars could collide.

The stop line is actually quite a distance back from the intersection. There's a pedestrian crossing area before you reach the intersection.

For convenience this link is for the detail page from my Speed Camera Locations site. Using this link you can quickly see further details using Google Street View, Google Maps and a dash cam video.

We can see using the Google Maps aerial view more detail.

The line of the pedestrian crossing nearest the intersection is close to the intersection, but not quite at the intersection.

The distance from before the stop line to the intersection side of the pedestrian line is approximately 5.4m. The width of the two lanes on Whitehorse Road the cars are turning into is approximately 8m.

The SUVs turning I'd estimate to be around 4.7-4.8m.

There's physically not enough room in the intersection for two cars to turn right from Balwyn Road into Whitehorse Road.

That means the second car, the car in question, was not fully in the intersection. There's no way to know if the car was actually partly in the intersection, or not in the intersection at all. Being over the stop line is not the same as being in the intersection.

There are two pieces of information people need to consider.

1. The placement of the sensors in the road.

In this case it's hard to see where the sensors are in the road. The sensor closest to the intersection is just passed the stop line towards the intersection. It looks like the second sensor my be under the stop line.

If the car was partly in the intersection, based on the length of the typical SUV the car would have been past the sensor and wouldn't have been detected. This may mean the car wasn't as far forward as the driver thought they were.

What this person did is something I'm sure most of us have done.

Perhaps since the white SUV in front is blocking the ability for the second car to proceed, the second car shouldn't have proceeded past the stop line. However that depends on the definition of blocking.

From what I've learnt creating the Speed Camera Locations site is that we need to think carefully how we drive, and in particular, at intersections where there's a red light camera.

Many people turning right at this intersection may consider there's enough room for two people to be in the intersection at the same time. There isn't.

Many people turning left will pull forward to turn left into the left lane nearest the kerb around the corner, particularly if there's pedestrians crossing. This isn't a good idea as it is very easy for the rear of the car to be over the sensor. The distance from the sensor to the intersection appears to be around 4.5m and that's less than a small car's length. It is better to move further forward as though you're turning left into the second lane.

We shouldn't have to drive like this, but it's the only way to ensure you don't get fined. The fine is considerable and the time and effort of contesting a fine is considerable, including the risk of additional costs if you lose. For most people it isn't worth the time, effort and risk of contesting a fine, even if you think you're in the right.

Did this person do anything wrong? The government thinks so and in the end, unless something changes, that's what gets enforced.

For us as drivers we need to be more aware, more careful. Perhaps improve our driving skills, perhaps adjust our driving style to minimise potentially being fined.

Be aware of where red light and speed cameras are located. A small error in judgement can be very costly.

If you don't already, move further forward into the intersection when turning left or right. In particular, make sure the rear of your car is completely in the intersection. If you're at an intersection with a camera, keep in mind those road sensors can be quite a distance forward of the stop line, and in one case, I've seen one in the intersection.

I hope these thoughts help others. It's certainly helped me to learn from others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Update: 14/02/2020
Victorian Road Rules 2017
On page 172 of the PDF (page numbered 156) using section 128 Entering blocked intersections, it states: A driver must not enter an intersection if the driver cannot drive through the intersection because the intersection, or a road beyond the intersection, is blocked.

One question I'd have is whether or not the road is considered blocked if there's already one car in the intersection waiting to turn. The car is giving way so it's hard to say if this would be considered blocked.

On page 514 of the PDF (page numbered 498) the dictionary definition: intersection means the area where 2 or more roads (except any road related area) meet, and includes—(a) any area of the roads where vehicles travelling on different roads might collide; and (b) the place where any slip lane between the roads meets the road into which traffic on the slip lane may turn—but does not include any road related area;

On page 512 of the PDF (page numbered 496) the dictionary definition: enter an intersection or crossing, for the driver of a vehicle or a train, means enter the intersection or crossing with any part of the vehicle or train;

For the car in question there's one thing it is hard to prove conclusively with the photos. Where the car was located before it moved. That is had the car entered the intersection, even partly, because the above definition of enter means with any part of the car.  If they were partly in the intersection then this I'd suspect means they'd entered the intersection. However, if you look at the picture closely the first car is quite far into a turn when the camera went off. If the red light changed, and half a second had elapsed (the time before the first photo is taken), then the front of the car in question is marginally in the intersection.

Measuring our small SUV the distance from the front of the car to the front of the tyre where it would meet the road is 80cm. This could potentially place the front of the car in the intersection., the white line is just in front of the front tyre.

The things missing is the time when the photo was taken after the light had changed to red, the position and how the in-ground sensor works.

In Victoria, if I'm right, the photo is not taken until at least half a second after the light changes red. If the cars moved off after this time and photo would be taken instantly, and that is the position of the car as it just moved, shows the car is most likely in the intersection.

However, if you think about the in-ground sensor, this sensor is placed just in front of the stop line. Which the car had to move over or off for the camera to take a photo, then the car may have been further back when it took off. That is the car was not in the intersection (the intersection as defined the the road rules dictionary). If the car was further back, there's plenty of room for the car to have simply stayed where it was and not proceed into the intersection. Yes the car would be past the stop line, and yes the car is potentially blocking pedestrians, but the person would not have been fined.

The one unknown here is how sensitive the in-ground sensor is and when it sets off the camera. Is it possible for a car slightly past the sensor to set the camera off? Only VicRoads engineers could answer this question. If the car was on  the last sensor or past the sensor (but still causing some inductance) the distance is around 4.1m (using Google Maps). The car being longer than 4.1m means the car may have already been in the intersection.

I was hoping after all the further information I'd be able to say with confidence whether this car should or shouldn't have been fined. Unfortunately I can't say because I don't know 100% how the in-ground sensor works. If the rear of the car was over the last sensor, the front of the car in the intersection, and the car took off, could that set off the camera? I simply don't know. If that is the case the car should probably not be fined in my opinion.

If it was me I'd certainly want to test that sensor to see how sensitive it was. If the rear of the car can be over the sensor (meaning the car has entered the intersection) when it takes off, and this sets off the camera, that potentially means people are getting fined who shouldn't be.

The following picture is from Google Street View and shows two cars in a similar situation turning. The difference is the first car isn't as far forward and the second car is also not as far forward. The second car is also a smaller car.

The first in-ground sensor is clearly visible. It is located on the stop line. The second in-ground sensor is slightly forward of the stop line but not visible as it is under the car. There is not much space between the two sensors. I'd certainly want to test the last possible position the sensor could set off the camera. Note the red car in this photo is not in the intersection and has not entered the intersection (even partly) . Given the space we leave between cars, even if the red car moved closer to the white car, the red car would still not be in the intersection. The red car would then be forward of the stop line and blocking the pedestrian area, but not in the intersection.

Update: 15/02/2020
There's two further points that I find interesting. In the comments on the Reddit post the person indicates they think they're in the intersection once they are over the stop line. This is not correct as this isn't how intersection is defined.

The second, is if you look at the white car in front turning, when the picture was taken the white car had moved considerably across both lanes of the stopped oncoming traffic. This photo would indicate the white car has moved a reasonable distance. The second grey car you'd then think would have also moved a reasonable amount since it was following the white car. Not necessarily but we could assume this to be the case. They grey car must have moved at least some distance to set off the camera. If that is true then the grey car may have moved considerably as well and if this were the case the grey car was more than likely at or over the white stop line, and given the distance to the intersection and the length of the car, the grey car was most likely not in the intersection, even partly.

In other words, it is most likely the grey car did move into the intersection and continued through the intersection after the lights had changed to red.

The two main points I was aiming to make with this example were:

1. The intersection isn't where the white stop line is. It is where vehicles travelling on two different roads might collide.

2. It is important to realise the in-ground sensor that triggers the red light camera is further forward than you would think. The second sensor is usually past the stop line towards the intersection. I've seen one sensor in the intersection (a T intersection). If you go over, are on, or even possibly very near the sensor, moving the car forward could set off the camera. If in doubt, it is probably best not to move the car once the traffic light turns red.

How long does it take to upload videos to YouTube?

Many people upload videos to YouTube and find it takes much longer than expected. In today's age internet is fast, so people can often wonder why things take so long. Recently when uploading a large video file I wanted to know roughly how long it would take to upload the file. When I find I need to do a certain calculation on a regular basis, I'll write a web app to help me and make the web app available to others who may have a similar need.

When uploading a video there's two variables. The upload speed and the size of the file. The size of the file can be obtained by looking at the properties of the file. In this case my file was 15.2GB.

The second variable is the upload speed. To get an estimate of the upload speed you can use the site fast.com, which is a Netflix service to measure your internet speed. Using fast.com my upload speed was 3.9Mbps. Now all I needed was to perform the calculation.

To perform the calculation to work out how long it takes to upload a video file I wrote the web app Megabits to Megabytes which is located at www.MegabitsToMegabytes.com.au. The result in this case is around eight and a half hours. That's certainly quite a long time.

Today I checked some other internet service providers. On a  50Mbps NBN service the upload speed was 17Mbps. A Telstra mobile service test at two locations, one a busy shopping centre had an upload speed of around 2Mbps and in a residential area around 30Mbps. The speed can certainly can vary considerably depending on the service and the location. Knowing your internet speed and file size at least lets you know how long it will roughly take to upload a video.

Or should I say in theory. It also depends on the service you're uploading the file to. If the service you're using is slow, then the upload could take even longer.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MegabitsToMegabytes.com.au

Petrol price alert - Petrol prices in Melbourne increasing to 173.9 cents per litre for unleaded petrol

Last night I noticed the first of the Woolworths Petrol stations increasing their price to 173.9. Checking other services stations and there's spots where prices have started to increase. It looks like the current petrol price hike is starting.

With the current average gate price (think wholesale) at 126.2 this would put the price jump as one of the largest for years at nearly 50 cents (47.7 cents) above the average gate price. Something doesn't feel right. When prices were jumping 25-30 cents above the average gate price there was a lot of noise coming from the government. This time nothing. Doesn't really make much sense but that's the way it is.

For us consumers all we can do is manage when we buy or petrol. Now is the time to start watching the price of petrol and fill up around half way through the price hike part of the cycle. It's currently Wednesday so there's a good chance the price hike will complete sometime next week.

What appears to be happening however, is as the remaining petrol stations increase their prices, prices in some areas may have already dropped by perhaps 10 cents a litre, so shopping around if you need petrol can make quite a difference.

My approach is to keep an eye on the petrol prices around me, factor in when I'll be driving, how far (such as a longer trip around Melbourne) and fill up when I feel the time is right. Yes a pain, but it saves a few hundreds dollars a year. In addition I'll watch and wait and lock in the lower price using the 7 Eleven Fuel app. That way I get nearly another week at the lower prices. By then we're often around half way through the cycle and prices have dropped by half the hike. The longer you hang on at this point the greater the saving. Of course often we can't change our need to drive, but sometimes we can slow it down a bit.

With prices well under the 128 mark in quite a few areas, this has been a lower price than we've had for a while.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Nothing - A sixty minute video of nothing.

Every had an idea that seemed silly at first. Nothing is one such idea. A video of nothing for sixty minutes. Nothing on the screen, no sound, nothing.

At first I thought the idea was a waste of time, but then I started to think, perhaps that could be useful when testing computers or mobile phones. I checked the internet and 10, 12 and 24 hours of nothing had been done, so I thought what about an hour. That's a good period of time.

So I decided to go ahead and do Nothing, a video about nothing.

Remember those days when you'd quickly minimise the screen so your boss or others didn't see what you were doing and it wasn't work.  Have the Nothing video running in the background and now you can switch the screen quickly and when asked what you're doing, the truthful answer is Nothing.

At times when I find it hard to sleep I picture black, my mind drifts and I picture black again, but it's hard to picture black. But if you watch Nothing and then close your eyes, it is really easy to picture black.

A black screen makes it look like a computer or mobile is off, when it actually isn't.

Having a black screen running in the background puts your focus much more on what you're working on in the foreground.

The Nothing video makes a good timer. You know what an hour is up. You can check the elapsed time at any time, but it doesn't distract you.

Apart from the many puns I came up which gave me no end of amusement (that's worth it in itself), I'm sure others will have ideas with what they can do with Nothing.

You can find Nothing at https://youtu.be/UOCrsrvadS4, or should that be something!

Kelvin Eldridge

Top red light speed camera for NSW is located near Newcastle.

I must say I didn't expect the top red light speed camera in NSW for 2018/2019, when measured by the number of fines, would be located not in Sydney, but near Newcastle. The location for the top red light speed camera in NSW for 2018/2019 is at the intersection of Griffiths Road and Turton Road, Lambton.

As I was reviewing the data for the Speed Cameras NSW / Red Light Camera NSW one thing stood out that I felt worth investigating. If you look at the top red light speed cameras for NSW by value of fines, the location in the 6th position has the most fines by number. It really stands out. I decided to review this camera and location to see why it possibly gets so many fines.

To the credit of the NSW government the data provided is very good and quite detailed. Here's a summary for the 2018/2019 year for the camera at Lambton for the number of fines.

Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - 10 km/h and under: 6,937
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 10 km/h: 2,803
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 20 km/h: 112
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 30 km/h: 20
Motor vehicle exceed speed limit - over 45 km/h: 1
Proceed through red traffic arrow: 8
Proceed through red traffic light: 304
Total number of fines: 10,185

From the above we can see most of the fines were for speeding as opposed to going through the red light. Around 68% for under 10 km/h and 28% for over 10 km/h.

As to why people were speeding I have some ideas, but really they're just my thoughts and not research based. Your opinion is just as valid so I'll leave it up to you to ponder.

For those interested in this intersection and red light speed camera the following link is for a YouTube video. I start the video at the 13 minute mark near the roundabout at Newcastle Link Road and Transfield Avenue, Wallsend. The red light speed camera is around the 16 minute mark.

This video is sped up so if you want to watch it in near real time I'd suggest changing the speed in the YouTube settings to 0.5 and muting your sound.

YouTube video of location at 13 minute mark.

YouTube video at 16 minute mark just before red light speed camera

In the video you'll noticed at the 13:28 mark the speed limit changes from 90 to 60. 

If you check Google maps and Street View, the view taken February 2017 the speed limit dropped to 70. In the view in May 2018 this had changed to 60. It is interesting to note in 2017 the speed limit for this red light speed camera was 70 km/h, although what the speed limit was a few years ago isn't really relevant, but I still find it interesting. The real result in terms of safety is when you take the change in speed limit and then check the corresponding road statistics for this section of road. Have the fatalities and injuries reduced, or have the fines simply increased with no corresponding benefit?

2016-2017 Fines: 1,872, Value of Fines: $443,896

2017-2018 Fines: 4,505, Value of Fines: $885,124

2018-2019 Fines: 10,185, Value of Fines: $1,898,150

For the section of road after the Main Road and Newcastle Road roundabout, heading east along Newcastle Road/Griffiths Road, to after the Griffiths Road and Turton Road intersection, the following are the crash statistics for 2014-2018.

2014 Non-casualty (towaway): 20, Minor: 4, Major: 19, Serious: 7, Fatal: 0, Total: 50

2015 Non-casualty (towaway): 10, Minor: 7, Major: 9, Serious: 5, Fatal: 0, Total: 31

2016 Non-casualty (towaway): 8, Minor: 5, Major: 7, Serious: 8, Fatal: 1, Total: 29

2017 Non-casualty (towaway): 6, Minor: 7, Major: 9, Serious: 0, Fatal: 0, Total: 22

2018 Non-casualty (towaway): 9, Minor: 5, Major: 7, Serious: 1, Fatal: 0, Total: 22

Keeping in mind the speed of the section of road was reduced in late 2017 from 70 to 60, the total number of accidents hasn't changed, there's an increase in non-casualty (towaway), an increase in serious, but there is a decrease in minor and major accidents. It would be interesting to know what happened in 2014-2015 as that was a period of significant change.

I hope others find this information interesting.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/

Speed camera locations / red light camera locations in NSW now show number of fines and value of fines.

It's taken many thousands of copy and pastes, but after a few days of work, I've now added the number of fines and value of fines to the NSW map on the Speed Camera Locations site at www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/. Selecting a camera will take you to a detail page where you can see the number of fines and value of fines for fixed speed cameras and red light speed cameras in NSW.

Knowing the number of fines and value of fines in an easy to view format, helps people to know which cameras are collecting the most revenue because more people are making the same mistake. Generally that means there's more chance one of those cameras may catch you when you make the same mistake.

The majority of people drive according to the road rules, some don't, but most do. Most of us however make mistakes and if that's recorded by a camera, it can be very costly indeed. Knowing where more people make mistakes can help you identify what mistakes they may be making and help each of us become a better and more compliant drivers.

From my own experience in the past, I know for example after driving on a higher speed roadway such as a country road and then dropping down to a lower speed limit, your perception of speed is really put off. It is very easy for your speed to creep up even though you have no intention of speeding, but the result is the same. You get a speeding ticket. Whilst taking videos of red light cameras/speed cameras in the CBD area of Melbourne, where the speed limit is 40 km/h, it was exceptionally easy for the car's speed to creep up. You really have to focus far more on your speed than in the past which is a concern, as it takes your concentration off the road.

I've read with speed cameras and red light cameras there can be an increase in injuries from rear end accidents. For a few of the cameras I read about in NSW, this was sometimes the case.

There are quite a few differences between cameras in NSW and Victoria and it really is interesting to know. For example in NSW there is more warning of an approaching camera and best of all, you're  advised in the warning sign what the road speed limit is. In Victoria it's often hard to tell what the speed limit is for a road and often there's no speed limit sign for quite a distance before a camera.

In NSW there's quite a lot of fixed speed cameras (including in school zones) on regular roads, whereas in Victoria there's mostly red light speed cameras with only a few fixed speed cameras on freeways.

In Victoria if you're flashed by a camera facing you it's unlikely it's you being booked. In NSW there's many speed cameras (and one red light speed camera) that will record an offence from the front of the car.

In Victoria most cameras record one side of the road in the direction the car is travelling and from behind. In NSW many cameras can take pictures covering both directions from the back of the car, or the front of the car.

What is amazing is that even though in NSW there appears to be far more warnings and information provided to the driver, there's still a huge number of people being fined.

When I read the statistics on the number of fines, what concerns me for us as drivers, is in our parents' day, if I recall correctly, there was a tolerance of 10% when it came to speeding fines. If you read the statistics, if that tolerance remained today, most people would not be fined (possibly greater than 80%).

Hopefully the updated NSW map of fixed speed cameras and red light speed cameras highlighting the number of fines and revenue for each camera is useful to others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/

Eastlink Southbound Video and Eastlink Northbound Video.

As I was taking videos of speed cameras for my site www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au on the Eastlink and surrounding area, it occurred to me that some people may like to see the video of the full length of Eastlink in both directions. If this interests you, can find the Eastlink videos on YouTube using the following links.

Eastlink Southbound Video - From Springvale Road, Donvale, through the Mullum Mullum Tunnel down to Seaford.

Eastlink Northbound Video - From Seaford, through the Melba Tunnel to Springvale Road, Donvale.

Hopefully you'll find the videos useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Red light speed camera locations in NSW

The Speed Camera Locations site was built to cover Victorians, to help people who had erred and received a red light camera fine or speed camera fine. By finding out more about the location, understanding what may have led to the fine, we can modify our behaviour to ensure we reduce the chances of receiving a future sign. Not everyone who gets a fine is a lead foot out doing the wrong thing. The majority of people are like you and me.

I couldn't help feel the same technology could be used for our neighbours to the north in New South Wales. We all drive on similar roads, make the same mistakes, so perhaps the technology I've put together for Victorians could also help those in NSW.

As can be expected it will take some time to determine and map all the speed camera locations and red light camera locations in NSW. Rather than wait for all cameras to be determined I've made the NSW section of the site live with the first type of cameras. Red light speed cameras have now been uploaded for the red light speed cameras in NSW.

The next type of cameras, fixed speed cameras in NSW is currently being worked on and will be progressively uploaded.

You can find Red Light Camera Locations NSW and Speed Camera Locations NSW at www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au/nsw/.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Petrol price alert: Petrol prices in Melbourne increasing to 175.9

A couple of days ago I noticed the Woolworths Clarinda petrol station put their unleaded petrol price up to 179.9. I thought this was a bit steep as the average gate price was going down. The average gate price is currently 133.9 for unleaded petrol. To go up nearly 45 cents seemed a bit steep based on previous prices hikes.

Today a number of petrol stations have put up their unleaded price to 175.9 which we can now expect to be the current hike price.

It's hard to say if prices will go up before this coming weekend for the first wave of holiday makers returning from holiday, but it's almost certain the prices will be up for the following weekend for the rest of the holiday makers.

For a couple of years the price hike was between 25-30 cents above the average gate price, but recently that has increase to around 40 cents per litre. Since nothing been said by the powers to be about excessive price increases, we can only expect the price hike each time to now be around 40 cents per litre.

It's time to keep an eye on prices and fill up as and when required. Then if you're using the 7 Eleven fuel app, wait until you feel you can lock in the low price for another week. Last month I managed to save over $17 for a tank of petrol using the 7 Eleven fuel app. Makes the $2 saving I make using discount vouchers look tiny, but every bit helps.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

New kilograms to pounds web app now available.

Recently I needed to convert kilograms to pounds, or so I thought. But actually what I really wanted to do was to convert kilograms to pounds and ounces.

Using Google you instantly get a kilograms to pounds converter which isn't always what you want, particularly if you want pounds and ounces. I decided this was an opportunity to create a simple calculator which converted kilograms to pounds and also kilograms to pounds and ounces.

The Kilograms to Pounds calculator can be found at www.KilogramsToPounds.com.au

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Qantas Anniversary Celebration Giveaway - scam

This morning I received an email which I thought was worth sharing. The reason is unlike other scam/fraud emails, the offers in this email weren't too far from being what you'd expect, given all the promotions happening at the moment. That's a long way from the scams where you could get part of millions of dollars from a prince wanting your help to transfer money out of the country.

In the past the ridiculously large sums were used to find the easily tricked people. If you thought you could make millions, you were easily tricked. However, this email pretending to be from Qantas makes the offers good, but not unrealistic. The more realistic an offer appears, potentially the more likely reasonable people may fall for the scam.

Don't be fooled, this is a scam.

There's quite a few clues. One being the email address the email is from. The other is the link you click on, but it is hidden by a URL shortening site, which makes it easier for people not to realise the scam.

For me it's easy. I copy the link, then I open the search page I've created for myself (www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchGoogle/). I type in "virus" which takes me to a site that I can paste the link I've copied. That site then lets me know the link to takes me to malware. Final proof the email is a scam.

The lesson here is no longer, "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't", doesn't apply. The lesson is, "even with offers that sound reasonable, you still need to be very careful".

Kelvin Eldridge

Petrol prices in Melbourne hiking to 175.9

A couple of nights ago I noticed the first signed of petrol prices starting to hike. The price hike will take the price of petrol to 175.9.

The average gate price on Wednesday was 135.6 cents per litre so a hike to 175.9 is what would be expected based on recent price hikes.

At the moment prices around Melbourne down to around the 130-133 mark. So far around 20% of petrol stations have put their prices up. Last time the price hike took some time to roll out, perhaps it will be the same this time.

It's time to keep an eye on petrol prices and fill up before the petrol price cycle peaks. Also don't forget to lock using the 7 Eleven Fuel app to give yourself an extra week of lower priced fuel.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Medicare Near Me?

Ever asked the question, "where's the Medicare near me?" I have and I'm sure many others have as well.

A few years ago you could find a Medicare office at far more locations than you can today. I seem to recall Medicare offices could be found in the local shopping centres. However, a few years ago that all seemed to change and now if we need to find a Medicare office, there's none where they used to be.

From what I can tell the Medicare offices were merged with other government offices. For example we now find our local Medicare office is located at the Centrelink office.

Since it was confusing for me I decided to create a web app based on the government's provided data dated the 9th of October 2019, and use the mapping software I've created, to provide a convenient map of the Medicare office locations near where a person is located.

If you need to find your nearest Medicare office then give Medicare Near Me a go. You can also go to the web site www.MedicareNearMe.com.au.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MedicareNearMe.com.au

Petrol prices in Melbourne are on the rise to 174.9 cents per litre for unleaded.

Late Wednesday night I noticed the first signed of petrol prices starting to hike. The price hike will take the price of petrol to 174.9.

For the past couple of years when the petrol price hiked it would consistently jump between 25-30 above the average gate price (think wholesale price), but now for the last few months the price jump is closer to the 40 cent mark. I'm quite surprised the media hasn't caught on and nothing is being said from the ACCC. The average gate price on Wednesday was 135.5 cents per litre so a hike to 174.9 is what would be expected based on recent price hikes.

At the moment prices around Melbourne can go as low as 127.9 at Woolworths Caltex in Patterson Lakes, less with a discount voucher. There's plenty of places in the low 130's. Woolworths tends to be better value with a discount value than Coles Express, but sometimes Coles Express can surprise you.

It's time to keep an eye on petrol prices and fill up before the petrol price cycle peaks. Also don't forget to lock using the 7 Eleven Fuel app to give yourself an extra week of lower priced fuel.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Videos for Speed Camera Locations site now listed on a separate page.

As I've been adding videos to the Speed Camera Locations site I've found a few ways to help let people know a video has been added for a particular location. For example, the red light camera / speed camera icon for a location with a video available has the lens coloured red.

You can also find on the detail page for a red light camera / speed camera a link to the video.

I kept thinking however, it might also be handy to have a list of locations where a video is available. As the number of videos available grows that list could also grow. To achieve this I've now added a Videos page to the Speed Camera Locations site.

https://www.speedcameralocations.com.au/videos/

I hope others find this useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
Speed Camera Locations
www.speedcameralocations.com.au

New red light cameras / speed cameras on Rosanna Road and Darebin Road / Banyule Road Heidelberg

Recently I've been updating the Speed Camera Locations site with more recent government data covering the 2017-2018 period. Previously the site covered 2014-2015 period. In addition previously the cameras were averaged when there were two or more cameras covering a section of road or intersection. Now if there's a camera covering say the left lanes and another covering the right lanes, the camera locations are separate. In addition for red light cameras instead of using the camera location, the location is being updated to be the stop line and the middle of the lanes covered.

I'd also recently noticed four upcoming (or pre-commissioned) camera locations. These are camera locations that may flash but tickets are not yet being issued. They will be in the near future. Two of the cameras were located on Rosanna Road and Darebin Street Heidelberg. One for northbound traffic and one for southbound traffic.

By pure chance I was driving along Rosanna Road, Heidelberg and saw the new cameras as well as videoing them using the dashcam. Not only were there two new cameras at the intersection of Rosanna Road and Darebin Street, but there were also two new cameras at Rosanna Road and Banyule Road, Heidelberg.

The new cameras have a modern design that I've not seen before. One person on the internet described them as spaceship looking. What I felt was odd was not only was there the usual arrangement of the camera and separate flash, but facing the car on the other side of the intersection was another pole and device. At first I thought could this be taking a front on picture. However checking the site for the group company site that provides the cameras (Sensys Gatso Australia) their demonstration video makes me think the additional camera is a radar which is used to locate the position of the car instead of the in-road induction loops. That means the road didn't need to be cut to lay loops into the road. In time I'll check to see if my hunch is right.

For those interested in more information, the contracts for the work for the cameras was worth around $900,000. That's about $225,000 per camera. In addition there's an interesting letter published on Facebook I found which I thought I'd share. You can see the letter by clicking on the pictures.

Videos of all four cameras can be viewed using the links provided in the detail page for each camera (click on the icon) on the Speed Camera Locations site.

NOTE: What will catch people out is there also appears to be a speed limit change to 40km/h coming to Rosanna Road, Heidelberg between Banksia Street in the south to Brown Street in the north according to the VicRoads site.

The combination of the speed camera and the lower speed limit is one that in others location raises a lot of revenue and will probably do the same at Rosanna Road and Darebin Street, Heidelberg.

Probably a common mistake people make is thinking they are in the intersection if the front of the car is over the stop line. They aren't. There's an imaginary line which goes from the kerb of the road to the other side of the intersection. You need to be over that line to be in the intersection. That means fully over the stop line and the pedestrian lines. For those turning and waiting for pedestrians, there's even a greater chance of getting booked. If you check the northern approach to Darebin Street the stop line has a huge angle and probably two cars can be over the stop line, yet still not in the intersection. Combine that with slowing down to turn and there's going to be a lot of cars being booked. Perhaps the new technology may make it fairer to those who think they're in the intersection when they're over the stop line. Only time will tell.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Update: 13/11/2019
My earlier thought these cameras might be the new laser based, not requiring induction loops in the road was wrong. I checked the road and the road has induction loops placed before and after the stop line. The additional camera as you exist the intersection may be a camera and flash unit to take a picture of the driver. In time no doubt people will find out.

Update: 19/08/2020

Thanks to the feedback from Traders Secret Sauce there's confirmation fines are now being issued for this camera. The government's Cameras Save Live sites has not yet been updated to reflect this change.

The Cameras Now Enforcing sign is on an angle and nothing showed on the sign until you were very close. Be careful. It could be easy to miss, particularly if there's a lot of traffic/trucks.

Update: 14 Jan 2021

The following are more recent videos of Rosanna Road for those wishing to check the more recent speed signage changes.

Rosanna Road southbound

https://youtu.be/k4iPrQq2gMs?t=861

Rosanna Road northbound turning right from Jika Road

https://youtu.be/DMUGCuu-xME?t=447

Rosanna Road northbound turning right from Banksia Street

https://youtu.be/5NXtGbny_I4?t=491

CityLink speed camera locations added to Speed Camera Locations.

I've been updating Speed Camera Locations to correspond with Victoria's data for fines, which details in some cases the individual lanes. The CityLink speed cameras have data for each lane, but identifying the actual location was more difficult since the location is underground.

Google maps is good for above ground and Google Street View shows you the view underground, but given the poor light, seeing where the camera is located wasn't possible. However, fixed speed cameras generally work using sensors in the ground. It took a while, but if you know what you're looking for, you can find the sensors and thus the location. The following screen capture from Google Street View shows the in-ground sensors for one set of CityLink cameras.

I hope you find this as interesting as I did.

Kelvin Eldridge
Speed Camera Locations