Wednesday, July 01, 2020

Victoria's lock down postcodes versus Victoria's priority suburbs for coronavirus.

Yesterday the Victorian government released a list of postcodes that will go into lock down from midnight tonight (Wednesday July 1, 2020). To me this is a bit perplexing. The government went from LGA (local government areas), to suburbs (the 12 priority suburbs) and then flipped back to the broader area of postcodes. There's things here that don't really make sense.

The move from LGA to suburb makes sense. Some LGAs cover huge areas, one LGA hotspot for example is 52 kilometres at the longest points. In effect half way from Melbourne to Ballarat. Far to long to be useful.

Getting the information down to suburb is sensible. Yes, there's still some suburbs that are big, but suburbs are well defined. The suburbs in their list of priority suburbs were the following:

Keilor Downs
Broadmeadows
Maidstone
Albanvale
Sunshine West
Hallam
Brunswick West
Fawkner
Reservoir
Pakenham
Keilor Downs 
Broadmeadows

Now we've gone to 10 postcodes. The postcodes and suburbs within those postcodes are:

3012 - Brooklyn, Kingsville, Maidstone, Tottenham, West Footscray
3021 - Albanvale, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans
3032 - Ascot Vale, Highpoint City, Maribyrnong, Travancore
3038 - Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Taylors Lakes, Watergardens
3042 - Airport West, Keilor Park, Niddrie, Niddrie North
3046 - Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park
3047 - Broadmeadows, Dallas , Jacana
3055 - Brunswick South, Brunswick West, Moonee Vale, Moreland West
3060 - Fawkner
3064 - Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Mickleham, Roxburgh Park, Kalkallo

The bolded suburbs in the first list are not in the postcode list. The bolded suburbs in the second list are the only suburbs mentioned in the first list.

You can see the postcodes cover many more suburbs and many of them were not mentioned as priority suburbs. Even more concerning is that one third of the priority suburbs are not even in the list of postcodes. I could see how perhaps one priority suburb can flip, but four! That's pretty hard to believe.

I can't help feeling that perhaps the government's reports are produced at postcode level and not suburb level. As a result postcodes are being used, whereas suburbs could be used. Perhaps I'm wrong. But to me there's a long distance between Mickleham and Donnybrook.

Perhaps it's just me. If the government released more data in a timely manner at the suburb level both of for the households and the locations of infections, we'd have better information we could make decisions on. New South Wales does have data available for the person's location to postcode level.

My main concern is the state government has somehow included four suburbs and now they're not included and there's no information as to why. The second concern is the government is going to lock down these suburbs, but allow people to go to work and school. If you look back through the recent cases many have been linked to work and school locations. If I read this situation correctly, the government is simply making the area sufficiently large and then squeezing it so as to slow down the spread of the virus. Yes it's possibly too large an area, and that will inconvenience many people, but larger is easier for the government.

Kelvin Eldridge

Update: 04/07/2020
The following article shows how postcodes are determined as to whether or not they will be locked down.

 
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Saturday, June 27, 2020

A third of international travellers refusing COVID-19 testing in hotel quarantine. What's the impact?

When I first read the headline I thought to myself, "why are people refusing to be tested for coronavirus?" Then I started to think is it just a headline to grab attention (we all get annoyed by people not towing the line), or does it really matter.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-australia-third-of-returned-travellers-victorian-hotspots-refuse-testing/3ef1d03e-d690-4a66-aea0-f24e63b31fdb

I then thought, "the best thing to do is look at the numbers and then you can keep things in perspective". As of writing this post I've not yet looked at all the numbers so until I finish this post I won't really know myself.

First the numbers. From the following post on the ABC site we get that since hotel quarantine has come into place there's been 63,000 people who have been quarantined.


Interestingly there's been 81,000 people who have entered Australia which means around 18,000 people have not entered hotel quarantine or around 22% of the people. These people flight crew, international businesspeople and defence members as they operate under different rules.

The next interesting figure is 62% of cases were acquired overseas.

Next, how many cases of coronavirus have we had and that number as of today is 7,595. Of those cases if we say 62% were acquired from overseas if means there were 4,708 from overseas.


Next we need to keep in mind hotel quarantine started on the Saturday night of March 28. As of March 28 there were 3639 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Since hotel quarantine started there's now 7,595 and thus there's been 3,936.

We can't be sure how many of the people who didn't get hotel quarantine are infected, but let's simply assume the proportion is the same. That means we get 3,936 divided by 81,000, or around 4.8%.

If you're a returned traveller quarantined in a hotel there's roughly a 4.8% chance you've been infected. That's a reasonable percentage.

However, if you've been quarantined for 14 days that means even if you did catch COVID-19, there's over a 97% chance you're no longer infectious. Potentially that means there's a 0.14% chance a returned traveller will be infectious after 14 days. Further, for the 30% who don't get tested, it means we're now down to 0.04% that one of those people is infected. That's just 4 out or 10,000 people.

Now we're talking about very low numbers and if the person is infected, they or people around them will develop symptoms and at that point, if the person was infected that will become known.

So really if you look at the number, and hopefully I've got the numbers right, the fact that people who are hotel quarantined don't get tested, it's not something that should be a concern. It really is just the media getting a good headline.

Personally I'd be much more concerned about the people who do not enter quarantine because the general public have no idea of what rules apply to them when they enter Australia. A simple search of Google shows there have been reported cases of defence force and airline staff being infected.

Kelvin Eldridge

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

The Age - Contact tracing concerns raised by doctor with links to COVID-19 case

It's always interesting to read other people's opinions and to get inside information based on the experience of others. In the following article a doctor raises concerns about contact tracing in Victoria.


The situation is the doctor's wife carpools where driving is shared across two families. The doctor's wife drive's their son and two children from the other family. The father in the other family was tested positive for coronavirus.

So we have this situation
Father in first family tested positive for coronavirus
Wife and two children of the infected person are yet to be tested to see if they're infected.
Friend drives their son and the infected person's two children to or from school.
The doctor who is the husband of the friend (his wife) who drives the three children, considers their family a close contact of the infected person.

The doctor calls the health department concerned about potential transmission to find the wife of the infected person and their two children are yet to be tested. The doctor and his family don't need to get tested or go into isolation. Until the infected person's wife and two children are tested and the results come back, the doctor and his family are free to go about their lives as normal.

Sometimes what our government does simply makes no sense. Instead of asking the close contacts of an infected family to self isolate for a short period of time until test results are back, these people who could potentially be infected are told they can go about their normal activities. On the other hand the government calls entire local government areas hotspots, fines people for the most mundane relatively risk free activities. None of this makes sense.

It really does show that at the end of the day it is up to each of us to do what we think is best for ourselves, or family and our community. Just because the government says you can go about your normal activities, if you don't think that is the best thing to do, then that's your call.

Further the doctor was having a dinner with two other families when they received the call about their infected friend. To the credit of the doctor and the two other families, they decided to all self isolate until they heard back about the test results for the infected person's family.

Time and time again we see the government doings things too late or too little. Then using broad ranging control measures that are far too excessive. The government operates at the society level and the tools they use are broad and not very precise. We see it all the time in their decisions and how they restrict us as a population, not just during this pandemic. But the government isn't everything. We ultimately can decide what to do or not do and if we feel isolation is the the appropriate path, then that is what we should do.

You will be put under pressure from family and friends to see them, but if you don't quite feel things are right, listen to your gut feeling. Your gut feeling will keep you safe, or at least safer.

I think all of us would have thought all the close contacts of the infected person should have self quarantined until they knew the results of the testing. I'm thankful this doctor shared his story as otherwise I wouldn't have known what is really happening in terms of people self quarantining.

Kelvin Eldridge
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Victorian hotspots for coronavirus. Is the use of Local Government Areas too broad?

The Victorian government has announced a number of local government areas as coronavirus hotspots. By the number of people getting tested this is obviously alarming people. But the questions becomes, is local government area far too broad?

I live in Manningham and if you measure the distance from one end of Manningham to the other it is a very large 21 kilometres. When something happens in Wonga Park, does it really impact those in Bulleen? Yes it could, but it's unlikely.

The following article details the hotspots.


The hotspots are the local government areas of:

Hume - 36 kilometres
Brimbank - 19 kilometres
Darebin - 11 kilometres
Moreland - 11 kilometres
Casey - 35 kilometres
Cardinia - 52 kilometres

The longest distance across each local government area is shown above and the distances covered even for the smallest local government area is considerable. Local Government Area is really far too large an area to be useful for most people.

The government really needs to start providing information at the postcode or suburb level. All the government is currently doing is needlessly scaring people. Only with the right level of information can we take the information seriously. With information we can be informed and act appropriately.

Early on I found the locations of infections was starting to overwhelm me. For my own sake I started to record where public exposure locations were occurring. The government isn't particularly forthcoming with information, is slow at making information available to the general public, but by using information available from the government and the media, I was able to get better information. The real pity is all this information is readily available from the government but it's not being made available. 

The New South Wales government for example is making the data available available at the postcode level.

Victorian GPs are also asking for more refined data to keep themselves and their clients safe. 


It makes sense. If we know something is happening around we will be more vigilant. If we're given useless data that has no meaning to us we'll either panic, or we'll start ignoring the information thinking it isn't relevant. The government creates problems either way by not being transparent or forthcoming with information.

You can find the information I collate from the Health Department and the general media available at www.Mapz.com.au/coronavirusvictoria/. I hope you find it useful.

Kelvin Eldridge

Update: 25/05/2020
The Victorian government has has now released the list of suburbs.
Keilor Downs
Maidstone
Albanvale
Sunshine West
Hallam
Broadmeadows
Brunswick
Fawkner
Reservoir
Pakenham


 


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Hit FM, Stav, Abby and Matt talk to Assistant Commissioner Mike Keating on red light cameras also being speed cameras in Queensland.

I decided to check out the Hit FM interview with Assistant Commissioner Mike Keating on red light cameras in Queensland. The question that interested me was the response to the question, whether or not all red light cameras had been updated to include speed camera technology. The answers received were very informative.

Q: Did all red light cameras get changed to speed cameras?
A: Not at this stage.

"There's around 35 speed and red light cameras scattered throughout Queensland. There's sixty other systems we move between around 115 other sites.... and we're going to see an expansion of the speed and red light camera installations as new technology comes on board."

With regards to the flash which goes off some installations, "there have been some locations where we've had to actually put in an infrared light system because the light was going off that often, the inconvenience that was causing to  residents of that particular area...."

Abby also raised the question, "...are you allowed to go over like with all your wheels over when it's amber...". There was discussion of when the light goes off, the position of the wheels and the stop line.

I felt the answer wasn't particularly accurate and could mislead people. I understand the answer given is what needs to be given because it is far too complicated given the time the person has to explain. In another post I'll provide more details on how the red light cameras work based on what I've been able to find out so far.

The main point of the this blog is whether or not all red light cameras are now also speed cameras. The answer is only 35 red light cameras are also speed cameras. It was not made clear as to whether or not the 60 other cameras that are moved between 115 other sites are capable of being speed cameras, or if they're just red light cameras. That would lead me to think they are only red light cameras.

If it's mandatory in Queensland to have a speed camera warning sign was you approach a speed camera, if that sign doesn't exist for the camera location, it may be that the camera is only a red light camera.

It probably therefore best to simply assume every camera is a red light camera and a speed camera. If it isn't at the moment, there's a good chance it will be in the future.

Kelvin Eldridge
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Monday, June 22, 2020

Red light camera / speed camera at Oxford Street and Crown Street, Darlinghurst speed limit changed.

Recently I read a person was caught by one of the Oxford Street / Crown Street in Darlinghurst red light camera/speed camera.


The person believes they may have been caught by the camera for going at 50 km/h and the speed limit may have changed to 40 km/h.

Checking recent YouTube videos and Google Maps (Street View and Satellite View) still have the speed limit at 50 km/h. The speed limits according to the person's GPS device was still stated as 50 km/h.

According to the Transport for NSW site there's a notice on the 28th of May 2020, the speed limit in Oxford Street from Flinders Street to College Street will change to 40 km/h from 50 km/h and take effect in the next two weeks once the signs have changed.


Credit: Google Maps 2020


In the past I have read and heard of people getting booked when they aren't aware of a speed limit change. There's usually quite a high extra revenue generated until people become aware of the new speed limit restriction.

In the past, if I recall correctly, I've read for Victoria there's 14 days noticed before people are fined. Victoria is particularly bad a sign posting speed limits, whereas from a Victorian's point of view NSW is much better. In the case of Oxford street you'll see speed limits painted on the road, speed signs and then before speed cameras you'll see a warning sign with the current speed limit. Of course that doesn't mean you'll see the information if there's heavy traffic and buses or trucks blocking your view.

Kelvin Eldridge
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

No known coronavirus infections as a result of the Black Lives Matter protests in Melbourne.

Like it or not, the Black Lives Matter protests in Victoria were a concern because of coronavirus and the potential to spread the disease.

However one good outcome from such a protest is the effect of such a mass gathering. For example the recent Queensland council elections which meant millions or Queenslander went out and voted resulted in no identifiable increase in coronavirus during the 14 days that followed.

With the Black Lives Matter protests is was unfortunately that immediately after the protests the reporting linked people who went to the protest with coronavirus and people who just read the headlines or heard them on TV, may have thought the people got coronavirus or spread the coronavirus at the protests.

The reality is after 14 days there's been no link to infections as a result of people attending the Black Lives Matter protests in Victoria. That's a good outcome as it shows there is very little infection hidden in the community that is not directly linked to an known infected person.


Kelvin Eldridge

NOTE: There's been three cases linked to the Black Lives Matter protests. The first two occurred too early to have been caught at the protest and the third nearly 12 days after the protest, likely too late to have results from the protest. The reporting does say these cases are linked to the protest and whilst that is true because the people did attend the protest, their attendance is the only link and not the actual infection. To me stating there's a link my lead people to think there's a link between the coronavirus infection and the protest.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Why the Victoria Government has to resort to what looks like ridiculous coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Personally when I see the government go into lockdown with coronavirus because of the recent increase of coronavirus infections it really annoys me. The government tends to use a very blunt approach  to doing things. 

For example there has been relatively small numbers of infections in Victoria's regional areas and yet the entire state has been locked down. Some areas have had little or no infections. It would make far more sense for regional Victoria to continue with their lives and the lockdown only be applied to the wider metropolitan Melbourne. I even suspect some cases associated with regional areas may have been travellers who never returned to the regional area whilst being infected since infections are recorded based on a person's normal residential address.

So when I see the recent outbreak I can't help feel the government isn't taking the best approach. They should in my opinion isolate the infected person and not let them isolate at home to infect the rest of their family and potentially extended family. Those who are in contact should then be isolated for 14 days. Testing of close contacts should be performed after 5 days as the median time for infected people to show symptoms is around 5 days. If any of these people are infected they should be isolated away from other people. The idea that infected people go back and infect their family to me is crazy and leads to outbreaks amongst family members and that is the problem Victoria is currently facing.

Now whilst I think the Victorian government isn't doing what is required, the following article shows that neither are Victorians doing what is required. Around 50% of people who are being tested for coronavirus at a shopping centre (Chadstone) either came from the centre or went into the centre before or after testing. This is completely against the advice of the health department and shows that as a group, half of us are happy to do the wrong thing and that is a truly sad indictment of us as a community. Had the percentage been much lower as we'd all expect I'd continue to be annoyed at the government's sledgehammer approach. However, the government knows how we behave as a group and I'm sure this would factor into their decisions. The government is only doing what it needs to do because we as a community aren't prepared to do what we should do. Thus the government takes excessive means when much simpler and more basic approaches could be used.


Another example is the recent large scale protests which shows people will not do what is needed at this time for their local community. Whilst personally I felt the probability of any or many infections arising out of the protests was low to none, due to the low rate of community transmission from unknown origins, it does show how people behave even when informed.

In terms of people entering or leaving the shopping centre before or after being tested, this is more about how we as a group behave. We don't do the right thing. In terms of infections, again the probability is low as with the very large number of tests performed (more than 660,000) there has been a very low number of positive results.

Ask yourself have you done at all times what is required, even as a very good citizen. Do you know people who at Easter got together when they shouldn't have. You'll then start to understand why the Victoria government has to do what it does. It's not what it should do, but it's what our behaviour we as a community do, that makes it so.

To me that is truly sad.

Kelvin Eldridge



Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Queensland red light camera locations and speed camera locations now added to Speed Camera Locations

The first stage of adding Queensland red light camera locations and speed camera locations has now been added to the Speed Camera Locations site. There's still quite a bit of work to be done and some data is proving more elusive for Queensland than for other states. Data such as the number and value of fines.

Over the coming weeks and months I'll continue to flush out the information for Queensland road users.

Kelvin Eldridge
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Financial support for student transport

I read the following article on how a mum in Queensland was able to get $433 for taking her own children to school. Now whilst this doesn't apply to myself or my family, I couldn't help feel it may be useful for some people we may know.


By using the links provided I found a similar scheme is available in Victoria. The site for Victoria includes a link to a map which helps you work out if the scheme applies to you. Basically you need to be outside the metropolitan area (as defined on the map), and the school is further than 4.8 kilometres. It doesn't matter if the school is private or non-private. Different schemes exist for different states and links are provided to each state.

Since I'd never heard of such a scheme and the mum who the article is about didn't know either, there's many people who may not know.

I help it helps someone.

Kelvin Eldridge
Posted by at No comments:

What do Grosvenor Road, Lindfield in NSW and Batesford Road, Malvern East/Chadstone have in common?

Recently I was asked a question from a person who uses my website Speed Camera Locations.

The person entered Grosvenor Road, Lindfield from the Pacific Highway. The intersection is controlled by traffic lights. As you enter Grosvenor Road there's a school zone and speed signs about 34 metres to alert you of the 40 km/h speed limit during school times. The may also be a 40 km/h limit and school zone markings on the road.

Driving further down Grosvenor Road the first time you know the speed limit is when you see at around 362 metres from the intersection and End School Zone with the speed limit of 50 km/h. That's a very long distance and a long way before knowing what the speed limit of the street is.

From the other end of Grosvenor Road you enter via a roundabout at Lady Game Drive. As you head north along Lady Game Drive you approach the roundabout and continue straight through on Lady Game Drive or exit the second exit to Grosvenor Road. Both roads look very similar and both don't look like urban roads. In effect there's little reason for anyone to think Grosvenor Road, the second exit has a lower speed limit. There is no speed limit sign when coming from Lady Game Drive until you reach the school zone speed sign. There is no end school zone speed limit sign when driving west to east. This is most likely due to the short distance to the Pacific Highway.

The problem for this driver was they entered Grosvenor Road off the Pacific Highway and most likely thought the speed limit was 60 km/h. A mobile speed camera was located before they reached the End School Zone sign with the 50 km/h. There's a possibility the driver was booked depending on which side of the road the mobile speed camera was located.

It does seem a bit odd that Eaton Road, the road south of Grosvenor Road that also turns off the Pacific Highway, but is a much smaller road with no traffic lights is clearly marked on the road with both 50 km/h for the road's normal speed limit and 40 km/h for the school zone limit, yet Grosvenor Road has no such marking. Westbourne road the next street south is small and have no speed information, but the next road south, Bayswater Road, which is bigger, does have a 50 km/h area speed limit sign.

Given it's felt there's a need for a mobile speed camera, it stands to reason the speed limit signage should be improved to assist people to better know the correct speed limit.

Now I also mentioned what do Grosvenor Road in Lindfield and Batesford Road in Malvern East and Chadstone have in common, and to me it is that they are both poorly signed when it comes to speed limits.

If we used the logic that smaller urban roads have a default speed limit of 50 km/h, if you were to drive into Batesford Road from Waverley Road in Malvern East, or heading east in Batesford Road from Warrigal Road, there's no speed limit signs. The only sign is on the southern side of Batesford Road in Malvern East near the MacDonald's. The sign is a 60 km/h sign. Given Batesford Road crosses Warrigal Road and one of the highest revenue red light camera/speed camera locations in Victoria, you'd think the signage should be good in the area.

Whilst taking dashcam videos of red light cameras and speed cameras one problem I was often faced with was not knowing the speed of the road. So many areas around Melbourne are very poorly sign posted. When you come out of a side street onto a major road it can be some time until you see a speed limit sign. There's many spots around Melbourne where this can lead people to speed without realising and often those spots are also good spots for mobile speed cameras. Better signage would help everyone. Signs closer together means we don't have to drive blindly or resort to technology to let us know what the speed limit is.

Kelvin Eldridge


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Friday, June 05, 2020

Speed camera in Westconnex M4 East tunnel NSW

To help people review the red light camera locations and speed camera locations where they incurred an infringement, I created the www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au site. One of the more difficult type of speed cameras to locate are those cameras that a located in tunnels. Often you can't see them because of the bright lights in the tunnel roofs and the dark background. I know I find it hard to see them.

One tunnel I still hadn't located until today was in the Westconnex M4 East tunnel. With information provided by others and a little research I was able to locate the approximate position and add the location of the speed camera to the Speed Camera Locations NSW map.

What helped a lot was a person posted the pictures of their infringement on OzBargain (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/498958). By reviewing the pictures I was then able to provide an approximate location in Google Street View and also provide a video (from YouTube) of the location.

I'm thankful to those who share this information which enables me to provide better information on my www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au site.

As a side note, the person who provided the images was fined for doing 72 km/h when the signs were showing 40 km/h. In the video I've provided via a link to on www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au, has the speed showing 80 km/h. At the entrance to the tunnel there's a sign stating "Variable Speed Limit Enforced". I noticed in the image for the fine there's a truck after the left merging lane that may be doing maintenance and perhaps the reason the speed limit was reduced. I do wonder how much warning drivers had because this driver didn't notice they were zooming past other cars. The pictures show the speed signs before and after the car are set to 40 km/h.

Whilst the speed camera is located further back, the spot where the picture of the is taken is around door 34, between the two merge arrows and roughly near the yellow left lane ends sign.


Kelvin Eldridge
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, June 03, 2020

Red light camera fine - Slow vehicle (street cleaner) in front.

I read the following on OzBargain where a person was fined going through a red light. In essence they felt they'd entered the intersection when the traffic light was green, but then had to wait for a slow moving street cleaner before proceeding through the intersection.


The person continued through the intersection 0.6 seconds after the light had turned red as they felt they were in the way of cross traffic.


There's a couple of things to keep in mind. Whilst the person felt they were in the intersection, when they moved they probably weren't in the intersection. The Mercedes is about 4.8m long, the rear of the car about 0.4m from the back of the car to the back of the rear wheel, thus about 4.4m in front of the stop line.

If you check the intersection using Google's satellite view you'll see the kerb of the cross road. If you imagine the line where the roads cross (this is the definition of the intersection) and measure the distance from the kerb back to the stop line, it would appear to be around 4m. That means if the picture was taken because the car started moving at 0.6 seconds and thus set off the camera, the car would have been 0.4 metres in the intersection.

The real problem is the person can't prove whether they just started moving or they were moving already. If they had a dashcam they may be able to prove they were stationary.

From what I've read many red light/speed cameras now take a video and if that was the case, the police have the evidence they need to show the car was moving or not.


In this case the person had Service NSW review the footage and confirmed he had broken the law. The person accepted they broke the law.

I reviewed my own style of driving and found what I do if a car in front of me is going slowly through an intersection, I'll wait behind the stop line until I know the person will clear the intersection. It is not my desire to block the intersection. Here's an example of where this happened to me. The difference however was the traffic was moving quite slowly after the intersection with a high chance of the cars stopping after the intersection which would mean I would then have blocked the intersection if I entered the intersection.


However I do wonder, if the person was following the slow moving vehicle in front and kept moving at the same speed as the slow moving vehicle, they would not have needed to stop and wouldn't have set the camera off. They would be closer to the street cleaner when the light went red. The intersection is not blocked as both vehicles in theory could continue. The vehicles are just travelling slowly. This is really what everyone does when they drive at normal speed through an intersection.

Kelvin Eldridge
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Petrol price hike Melbourne. Petrol prices appear to be hiking to 118.9. Update 135.9.

Yesterday I noticed a number of petrol stations around Melbourne had increased their unleaded price to 118.9. I couldn't help but wonder if this is the start of the price hike. It is hard to tell because the hike is around 20 cents per litre and I've not seen such a small hike before. Previously prices were hiking over 40-45 cents per litre and before that they regularly hiked around 25-30 cents per litre. To see such a relatively small hike is a bit perplexing. Why so small? I simply don't know.

The wholesale price (average gate price) in Melbourne yesterday was 97.2. The price was up to 97.7 on Wednesday after gradually increasing from the low 80 cent range.

If the price hike is occurring, I suspect the price will take a while to come through and may be in full swing by the end of next week.

In essence, it's time again to keep an eye on petrol prices.

One recent change from 7 Eleven I thought was interesting is you no longer need to have money on an account to lock in their fuel price for a week. This means anyone can now download the 7 Eleven Fuel app, sign up and lock in low prices for a week. Have two people in the family lock in prices at different times and there's no longer the stress of wondering if you have left locking in as long as possible. That certainly makes the 7 Eleven Fuel app even more useful. Now spending the remaining credit I have on the Fuel app isn't going to be easy, but 7 Eleven have stated they'll send information about transferring the money to a gift card so I can still use the remaining money.

Kelvin Eldridge

Update: 3/06/2020
Today the new price hike appears to now be going up to 135.9 cents per litre. Because of the coming long weekend it's extra important to keep an eye on petrol prices. It's hard to say if there's going to be a quick increase across the board, or a slow and steady increase. The long weekend would normally mean prices would go up quickly across the board, but there's a high probability people may still not be going away, so the long weekend isn't that important to the petrol retailers at the moment. We'll soon see what the future brings.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Can you catch coronavirus on a plane?

Recently I read this article where Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas in terms of catching coronavirus on aircraft stated, "So we have no evidence of that ever occurring on Qantas aircraft or worldwide.". Alan Joyce was defending the lack of social distancing on flights to prevent coronavirus.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/coronavirus-qantas-alan-joyce-defends-flights-social-distancing/12265520

That's an interesting comment as it indicates the risk of catching coronavirus is quite low. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but from the evidence Qantas on Qantas aircraft has they have no evidence.

One important point is the article states, "We then traced all the passengers, next to them [and] in front of them ... and nobody on all aircraft has known transmission."

There's a couple of problems with this. First what about other passengers on the aircraft, not just the people in front and next to them. Also what about asymptomatic people who may be spreading coronavirus. When there's a qualification that limits following up to immediately adjacent people and not the entire aircraft it does raise the suspicion as to whether

The reality is I doubt anyone, anywhere, knows the exact place and time they were infected. Yes, they can know they likely got it at some time by being around an infected person, but it's impossible to know exactly when and where to the second it occurred.

The second point is Qantas aircraft was specifically mentioned. Not Qantas flights which can be planes by other companies. 

I read recently of a person who believe they were infected via their eyes when they were flying. Again this person may have been infected in some other way, but that is what they believe. Keep in mind he felt unwell three days after flying. The incubation period is typically 4-5 days to 14 days.


I thought the following articles relating to aircraft seating, airflow and coronavirus were interesting.

Perhaps the most interesting video as it shows two cases where 17 and 22 people were infected with prior epidemics when flying on planes.

This article shows the position of vents and air extraction vents.

Simulation of movement of a sneeze inside and aircraft.

This article does not take into account airflow.

Another simulation of airflow in a plane.

I hope the above is useful information. 

Personally I won't be flying for some time. The problem I see is for airlines it's about getting business and whilst that's in their interest, it may not be in mine. If I did fly I'd wear a mask. Less likely but possibly I'd wear some glasses, although perhaps a sleeping mask and a nap would be a good option. If possible sit close to the window, but since I fly with my wife, I usually let her have the window seat. Sitting forward in the plane also appears to be a better option, although not always possible. Avoid sitting in the middle, with the second choice being towards the rear. Have a seat away from the toilets. It may even be extra cautious and not eat or drink on the plane. There's no evidence, but to me that increases touching surfaces. If I did eat or drink it would be something I brought myself. Sanitising my hands as soon as possible after flying, but not using the toilets at the airport sine they're closed areas with limited airflow. Keeping the seat upright keeps me further from the person behind who is more likely to be breathing and thus causing airflow towards me rather than the person in front. At the airport I'd look for ways to stay away from people and crowded areas. Waiting in pen areas, or even better outside areas.

The above are just my thoughts. To me this is about thinking about what I can do to improve my and my family's safety, not necessarily listening to others have may have their own agendas.

Kelvin Eldridge











Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Received an email from a hacker which displays my actual password.

A number of people have let me know they've received blackmail emails where the scammer has sent them an email and the email includes their actual password.

First, most of these emails are a scam designed to scare people and to get people to do what they want them to do. That is usually to pay a ransom in bitcoin.

Is the password really the person's password. Yes it is.

Did they really infect the person's computer and get their password whilst doing something embarrassing such as watching porn? The answer is almost certainly not. It is possible, but very, very unlikely.

How then did the scammers get the passwords?

Many popular sites have been hacked and the usernames (email addresses) and passwords stolen. This may have been done some time ago, but since people tend to keep using the same password across multiple accounts with the same email address, if one account gets hacked then if you're using the same email address and password across a number of accounts. then all accounts in effect can be accessed. A hacker only needs to use an automated tool (or low cost labour) and test the credentials on the major sites and they'll be able to get into many sites. They are not targeting you personally, to them you're just a numbers game. The more accounts they try the more they'll get into.

I've always felt using your email address was a bad change that occurred in security. In the past a username was not your email address, but a username you nominated. Once the trend set in to use the email address as the username, half the security was lost. It's like having a security door and your front door, both with locks and then leaving the security door unlocked. In effect one of the two points of home security is lost. The same is true when an email address is used as a username. Our email address is used and known by many around us. It's very easy to check using a very simple program if an email address is valid. In effect an email address becomes public. So instead of having a username and password stopping people, you only have the password.

Given people are not that different even if we think we're using a difficult password, chances are hundreds or even thousands of others are using exactly the same password. If you use a common or easy password that can be tested in combination with your email address. That requires work. However if large sites get hacked the encrypted passwords are stolen and given time, they can be worked out. The hacker then has both the username and password. The scammer uses this information to send you an email, which to you can be quite scary.

I decided to do a quick check and find some of the sites that have been hacked in the past. If you're using any of these sites and haven't changed your password recently, you really should.

What else should you do.

If you can sign up to a site using a username (not an email address) that you create and a password you create, they're more secure than using your email address as a username. That's also better than signing up with your Facebook account or Google account. Those who sign up with a service like Facebook or Google (e.g. Gmail) to access services risk all their services if their account on Google or Facebook becomes known. Even worse, if you use the same email address and password on Facebook and Google services as you do on other services.

Next use a unique, difficult and different password on every service you join. Yes, it's a pain, but absolutely necessary.

As for password generators I personally don't trust them. Others do, but I don't. Password generating software has been hacked as well. Letting your passwords get saved by your browser is also something I don't do. Browsers can get hacked.

The following is a link to a site which recently posted an article on the number of unique accounts (email address and passwords) they've collected from various nefarious sources. Remember hackers sell this information to make money and in doing so, have to make the information available. In total they've collected 773 million and more being added. When you have that level of information you can pull out the most commonly used passwords people used. I once did this for mobile phone pin numbers and found by using the top 100 pin numbers you could in theory, on average, unlock one in every six mobile phones your tried. A similar approach can be used with passwords.

https://www.troyhunt.com/the-773-million-record-collection-1-data-reach/

On this site you can supposedly check if your email address has been found in a hacked database and further, you can check if your password is known, or one of the common passwords. I'd highly recommend you do not use any service to check your email address or password. You simply don't know who you are giving that information to. Even if I ran a service I'd still suggest that people didn't use it. That's why I don't provide such a service.

Assume that your email address is known. There's nothing you can do about that. If you've been using the same password for some time it's time you changed it. Assume your email address / password combination has been hacked somewhere. If you can, sign up to services that use a username that isn't an email address. Think about using different email addresses for different types of services. For really important services that present considerable risk (e.g. banks) make the extra effort not to use a username or password combination you've used elsewhere and make sure you update it regularly. Keep in mind, even updating a username/password may represent a risk if you have an infected computer. The password that was previously not known is now replaced with a password that is known, if you're computer is infected at the time of updating.

Security does take some effort but in the end it's worth the effort.

Here's a short list of some of the hacked sites and the articles where mentioned.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/11/620_million_hacked_accounts_dark_web/
Dubsmash (162 million),
MyFitnessPal (151 million)
MyHeritage (92 million)
ShareThis (41 million)
HauteLook (28 million)
Animoto (25 million)
EyeEm (22 million)
8fit (20 million)
Whitepages (18 million)
Fotolog (16 million)
500px (15 million)
Armor Games (11 million)
BookMate (8 million)
CoffeeMeetsBagel (6 million)
Artsy (1 million)
DataCamp (700,000)

The below site lists many sites that have been hacked. I've listed a few of the one's that stand out to me.
https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites
Adobe (152 million)
Ancestry (279 thousand)
Ashley Madison (31 million)
Avast (423 thousand)
Bitly (9.3 million)
Canva (137 million)
Disqus (17 million)
Dropbox (68 million)
Elance (1.3 million)
Imgur (1.7 million)
Kickstarter (5 million)
Last.fm (37 million)
LinkedIn (164 million)
MySpace (359 million)
Neopets (26 million)
Snapchat (4 million)
Trillian (3 million)
Tumblr (65 million)
Zomato (16 million)

The above list is not conclusive. If you are wondering if a site you use has been hacked then do a search in Google for the site name and the word hacked. See if anything comes up and if it does, it's time to think about changing the password.

Out of curiosity I decided to search for the top 100 passwords. If your password is on the list, well, what can I say. Time to put more effort into security. The Forbes site had the following list. (Credit https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/12/14/ranked-the-worlds-100-worst-passwords/#11dab34f69b4)

12345
123456
123456789
test1
password
12345678
zinch
g_czechout
asdf
qwerty
1234567890
1234567
Aa123456.
iloveyou
1234
abc123
111111
123123
dubsmash
test
princess
qwertyuiop
sunshine
BvtTest123
11111
ashley
00000
000000
password1
monkey
livetest
55555
soccer
charlie
asdfghjkl
654321
family
michael
123321
football
baseball
q1w2e3r4t5y6
nicole
jessica
purple
shadow
hannah
chocolate
michelle
daniel
maggie
qwerty123
hello
112233
jordan
tigger
666666
987654321
superman
12345678910
summer
1q2w3e4r5t
fitness
bailey
zxcvbnm
fuckyou
121212
buster
butterfly
dragon
jennifer
amanda
justin
cookie
basketball
shopping
pepper
joshua
hunter
ginger
matthew
abcd1234
taylor
samantha
whatever
andrew
1qaz2wsx3edc
thomas
jasmine
animoto
madison
0987654321
54321
flower
Password
maria
babygirl
lovely
sophie
Chegg123

I hope others find this information a timely reminder to think about their passwords and how they're used across multiple sites.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au













Posted by at No comments:

Friday, May 22, 2020

Electric scooters should be legal to help people travel during the time of coronavirus.

I have to admit I like electric scooters. They're fun to ride and they get you outdoors. As an older person I find the electric scooter as a wheeled recreational device (not riding on roads unless necessary) is safer than riding a bike on the road, but I have to admit, I think there should be guidelines and restrictions on their use.

I feel for a while a lot of people won't feel safe travelling on public transport with larger groups of people, I know I don't, so using an electric scooter for the last few kilometres of a trip to work or the shops will help people get and give them and their family peace of mind.

The following are a list of rules I feel should apply to electric scooters. I know others will see them as road vehicles but I personally don't. I see them as a wheeled recreational device.

  1. Everyone should wear a helmet when using an electric scooter for their own safety.
  2. Pedestrians come first. Only overtake a pedestrian if there's just one pedestrian. If there's two or more pedestrians walking astride, then dismount from the electric scooter and walk past with the scooter until it is safe to remount. (Upon a scooter rider ringing a bell pedestrians should attempt to move to one side, as they do for bikes on shared paths, so the rider can pass.)
  3. Let pedestrians know you're approaching by using a bell, as there's nothing worse than a startled and unpredictable pedestrian.
  4. Limit speed to maximum around 10kph or slower when around pedestrians. The current maximum of speed of around 25km/h is OK at other times, although as for any mode of moving, common sense should be used to adjust the speed to suit the conditions.
  5. Electric scooters shouldn't be ridden on roads, except for short distances in the same way regular scooters can be ridden.
  6. Electric scooters should be treated as a wheeled recreational device and obey the same laws.
  7. Electric scooters should be able to be used on bike paths as per a wheeled recreational device.
  8. Electric scooters should be able to used on walking paths as a recreational wheeled device.
  9. People should not use electric scooters if affected by drugs or alcohol.

By treating an electric scooter as a wheeled recreational device they can be used safely and the rules are well known.

When I see electric scooters on the road it concerns me and it doesn't look safe because of cars. As with wheeled recreational devices, the only time an electric scooter should be used on a road is when it isn't practical to use on the road related area. For example when the road related area is unmade. (Road related has the meaning of not the road but things associated with the road such as naturestrips and paths.)

The one area I haven't quite decided on is whether or not electric scooters should be able to be used in bike lanes. I do think they should be allowed to use a bike lane when the bike lane is well defined. But when bike lanes finish and bikes would normally share the road with cars, this is where I don't feel the electric scooter should be used. In other words, if a bike lane finishes the electric scooter should revert to using the footpath area and not the road.

It should be illegal to use an electric scooter whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The reason is a large percentage of electric scooter users involved in accidents are affected by drugs or alcohol. If you look at the number of electric scooter accidents with a person is using a helmet and not being affected by drugs or alcohol, the number is very low making an electric scooter quite safe. The majority of accidents where people are injured occur when people aren't wearing a helmet and/or are affected by drugs or alcohol.

I thought I'd pen my thoughts on using an electric scooter because I feel the legislation needs to be amended to cater for electric scooter users and electric scooter users need clear guidelines and rules on how electric scooters can be used and integrated into our society.

It also concerns me that local governments are creating laws for electric scooter rental companies so the local councils can make money through fees. The laws should be made for everyone, not just for big companies or local councils to make money. Laws need to be, and seen to be, independent and fair.

As people start returning to work the electric scooter is ideally placed to help people get to work. People can drive close to work and then use the electric scooter for the last few kilometres. This can make getting to work more cost effective. Electric scooters are better than bikes for this purpose due to their size which makes them easy to take into work and to store. Bikes are more difficult to transport and store.

Electric scooters are also better when used with public transport. A small fold-up bike is still far too bulky for use on buses or trams. Yes you can use them in this way but they can easily block access by other public transport users. Even in trains the electric scooter takes up far less space than a bike.

From a security point of view I feel an electric scooter is easier to ensure it is safe and secure. With a bike locked up in a public area there's a high risk of the bike being stolen or damaged. I've tested leaving two bikes locked in public places and both were stolen. Because of the smaller size the electric scooter does not need to be left in a public area and can be generally be secured in the work location.

I hope my thoughts help in some way.

Kelvin Eldridge

Update: 24/05/2020
Below is a picture of my 20" bike folded and in its bag. I tried very hard to keep it close and out of the way of other bus passengers. The bike even though its folder still takes up over half the width of the walking isle. One elderly person still managed to kick it and wasn't happy at all. It's hard to take a folded bike on a bus, but very easy to take a folded scooter, although a folded scooter still does take up some space. I'd much prefer to take a folding scooter over a folding bike onto public transport.


Update: 3 March 2021
Upon further thinking over the idea of electric scooters using bike lanes on roads (not bike paths), I feel for simplicity and safety, electric scooters shouldn't use bike lanes on roads. The temptation for people using bike lanes that end, to continue on the road, I feel would be extremely high.

Posted by at No comments:

Interesting article on Victoria's coronavirus cluster using genomic sequencing.

I thought the following article was interesting. The article shows the clusters based on their genomic sequence which as I read it means they've come from the same source. From looking at the number of cases in Victoria this research was done in early April when there were a little over 1,200 cases. The data is from about 75% of the cases.

This data was before the largest cluster in Victoria occurred which occurred at Cedar Meats. If would be interesting to see how the clusters would look with more recent data.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/dozens-of-covid-19-clusters-found-in-victoria-new-report-reveals-20200519-p54ug3.html

The following article was used to estimate the date from the number of cases in Victoria.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2020/may/20/coronavirus-active-cases-australia-data-update-how-many-new-numbers-today-map-stats-statistics-hotspots-postcode-covid-19-deaths-death-toll

I hope others find this article interesting as well.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.mapz.com.au/coronavirusvictoria/




Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Added links to videos for Speed Cameras and Red Light Cameras in NSW

For Victoria I've been able to record and add dashcam videos for red light cameras and speed cameras to the Speed Camera Locations site located at www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au. For some locations I haven't yet been able to visit, I've been able to find others have already made videos available of their driving which also include the speed camera or red light camera. For example locations in regional Victoria. I hope to eventually get to the rural areas, but at this stage linking to other people's videos enables people to easily access a video of the location and helps promote the effort of the people who have taken and shared their videos on YouTube.

With border lockdowns across Australia it's unlikely I'm going to drive to NSW or SA anytime soon so finding and linking to videos people have shared from NSW and SA is a good option for people interested in red light cameras and speed cameras in those states.

Last night I added quite a few links to videos for locations in NSW. Please keep in mind sometimes the cameras can be on the opposite side of the road, on the corner opposite as the car is taking the turn, and sometimes, it may be visible on the corner of the street the car is driving across. Whilst I personally like to take videos from the driver's perspective as they are driving through the red light camera or speed camera, in the case of videos created by other people this isn't always possible. My feeling however is it is better to have a video of the location than no video at all.

The following is a list of the locations for the red light cameras and speed cameras added yesterday.

Hume Highway and Hoxton Park Road,Liverpool (Opposite side of road)

Copeland Street / Hume Highway and Elizabeth Drive,Liverpool (Opposite side of road)

Cumberland Highway and Cabramatta Road West Northbound,Cabramatta West

Cumberland Highway and Cabramatta Road West Southbound,Cabramatta West (Opposite side or road)

Cumberland Highway and St Johns Road Southbound,Canley Heights / Cabramatta (Opposite side of road)

Cumberland Highway and Canley Vale Road Northbound,Canley Heights

Cumberland Highway and The Horsley Drive,Smithfield (Opposite side of road)

Merrylands Road and Sherwood Road,Merrylands West (Around corner on opposite side)

Arthur Street and Centenary Drive,Homebush West / Strathfield (In left street)

Homebush Bay Drive and M4 Eastbound On Ramp,Homebush West

Lane Cove Road and Coxs Road Northbound,North Ryde (Obscured by bus)

Lane Cove Road and Coxs Road Southbound,North Ryde (Centre of road)

Ryde Road and Lady Game Drive,West Pymble (Centre of road on other side)

Northern Distributor, between Towradgi Road and Railway Street Southbound,Corrimal

Northern Distributor, between Towradgi Road and Railway Street Northbound,Corrimal

Princes Highway, between Grevillea Park Road and Black Diamond Place Northbound,Bulli

Princes Highway, between Grevillea Park Road and Black Diamond Place Southbound,Bulli

Great Western Highway and Marsden Street,Parramatta

Great Western Highway and Coleman Street / Hawkesbury Road Westbound,Mays Hill

Great Western Highway and Coleman Street / Hawkesbury Road Eastbound,Mays Hill (Opposite side of road)

Great Western Highway and Station Street,Wentworthville

Great Western Highway, between The Valley Road and Sun Valley Road,Valley Heights (Opposite side of road)

Pennant Hills Road, between Castle Street and Bellevue Street Northbound,North Parramatta

Pennant Hills Road, between Masons Drive and Suttor Avenue Northbound,North Parramatta / Oatlands

Pennant Hills Road, between Masons Drive and Suttor Avenue Southbound,North Parramatta / Oatlands

Pennant Hills Road, between Evans Road and Coleman Avenue,Carlingford

Pennant Hills Road and Beecroft Road,Pennant Hills

Pennant Hills Road and The Comenarra Parkway / Parkes Street,Thornleigh

Thomas Street and Metcalfe Street,Wallsend (Opposite side of road)

Griffiths Road and Turton Road,Lambton

Sydney Harbour Tunnel, between Cahill Expressway and Warringah Freeway Southbound,Sydney

Eastern Distributor , between Oxford Street and William Street Southbound,Darlinghurst

Kingsway, between Sylva Avenue and University Road Eastbound

Kingsway, between Sylva Avenue and University Road Westbound (Opposite side of road)

The Kingsway and Port Hacking Road

Captain Cook Drive, between Cawarra Road and Gannons Road

Captain Cook Drive and Foreshore Boulevard Eastbound

Captain Cook Drive and Foreshore Boulevard Westbound (Opposite side of road)

Hopefully you'll find these videos to be useful. You can easily view the video by clicking on the marker for the camera location which takes to the detail page. On the detail page for the camera location are links to the dashcam video if available, as well as other links to the location using Google Maps, Google Maps aerial view, Google Maps Street View.

With videos if the video is short, around 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, it is usually of just the section of road. If the video is long the video is started approximately 15 seconds before the camera is visible and continues for as long as your wish to continue watching. You can rewind and fast forward through the video to find what you are looking for.

One additional change I made yesterday is the marker I use on the map for speed camera locations. The marker is a camera. If the camera has a white lens there is no video. If the camera has a red lens a video is available. The following are two examples of the markers with the red and white lenses.




Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

New locate speed camera location feature added to Speed Camera Locations site.

One thing I miss when using the Speed Camera Locations site is the ability to quickly find a speed camera or red light camera. Yes you can move around the map, but to me that feels a bit cumbersome. If you don't know the area it can be hard to find the location on a map.

Whenever I read posts on the internet with people having a problem with a speed camera or red light camera, I like to check out the location out and see if the same problem may affect others. I've learnt quite a few things this way I wouldn't have otherwise known. The cameras are often in areas or other states and not in area I'd normally know. An ability to quickly find the location based on the street or suburb would make things much easier.

For that reason I've now added to each of the pages for VIC, NSW and SA, the ability to locate a camera. You can find the locate option underneath the zoom buttons located below the map.

When you click on the locate link you'll go to the  Locate page. On the page you'll be able to enter the location or part of the location. For example you could enter the suburb, street, or part of the suburb or street name. You'll then be presented with a list of cameras which contain the text you entered. From the list of cameras you can now click on the link for the camera and go to the detail page for the camera. On the detail page you can then explore the area where the camera is located using Google Maps, Google Maps aerial view, Google Maps Street View, and if available, watch a dash cam video showing the camera and nearby area.

It should be noted the locate feature is only for the current state you are viewing on the site. The design of Speed Camera Locations is each state is kept separate so the locate feature is also kept separate for each state.

I hope this additional facility makes it easier to use the Speed Camera Locations site.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au 
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)