Aussies = World Championship Whingers

We Aussies like to make a big deal about how well we do in the world sporting arena. Out media loves the line that we "punch above our weight".

Well, here's another world title Aussies, in particular our high-quality commercial media, can surely claim: World Championship Whingers!

As everyone is (or at least should be) aware, world oil prices have been at record highs lately. This is translating to record high prices at the petrol station. Of course, this is a bad thing for the average consumer and transport worker. But the way the media is bleating, it seems that the Australian government can actually do something about the problem. It's an easy way for them to show how much they're supporting the "Aussie battler".

But, in fact, they're just using this as a way to drum up patronage. They don't bother taking the time to explain the often complicated reasons for the price rise, as more serious media organisations attempt to do. For example:
"Who knows why oil prices are so high?" [BBC]

They also conveniently neglect to mention that Australians tend to pay less for petrol than many other industrialised nations:
Average gasoline prices around the world [Wikipedia]

For example (as at May 2008), Aussies pay on average US$1.48 per litre, while western Europeans pay between US$1.88 and US$2.74 per litre!

Given this is an Olympic year, I propose a new event: Whinging. The Australian media would surely give the Poms a run for their money in that category.

Cramped Seating on Buses

Australians are apparently getting physically bigger:

Obese Aussies get big ambulances

So why do bus seats seem to get smaller and more cramped?

On my bus trip home tonight I made the mistake of sitting on one of the face-to-face seats. The bus became rather packed, and someone had to sit directly opposite me. We had to place our legs in uncomfortable positions to avoid knocking each other's knees.

It's not just the face-to-face seats that are cramped. Other seating configurations cause different types of cramping. For example, seats over wheel arches require passengers to raise their knees (on the window side), or have one leg higher than the other (in the aisle side). And the seats behind the barriers near the exits allow barely enough room for your feet. Those with long legs and big feet can try sitting sideways, but that's difficult if the bus is packed and you have to share the seat.

The larger bags and other accessories that people carry around with them just makes things worse.

We should be trying to get as many as people as possible to leave their cars at home and use public transport. But making the seats uncomfortable is not the way to do it.

PS: To rub salt into the wound, another bus came past a few minutes later and was practically empty! Maybe the bus I caught was running late, and so was taking on additional passengers. If the buses ran on time, I probably wouldn't have had to feel like a sardine. Buses not following schedules is a topic for another rant :)

Four-Wheel Drives: Car Park Nuisances

Four-Wheel Drives (4WDs) or "four by fours" (4x4s), by whatever name, are nuisances. Especially in shopping centre car parks. I'm talking about the hulking, big, "can't see through or around them" type of things.

Getting in and out of the car parks is tricky enough, with mad shoppers coming out of nowhere and darting around the place. Being parked next to a big behemoth makes it scary to reverse out of a parking space. At least with normal cars you can see through their windows to gauge any potential hazards. But with those big 4WDs, all you see is painted metal.

Sure, in the past you had to deal with the occasional van that would block your sight. Nowadays, with 4WDs apparently accounting for almost 20% of new car sales in Australia, you're more likely to get stuck next to one (or more) of these nuisances.

How about this for a solution? Quarantine all big off-road vehicles in a special parking area. Preferably far away from normal, practical cars. And since they're built for going off-road, there's no real need to clear and pave the ground to accommodate the 4WDs. In fact, leave it rough-and-ready with mounds and ditches, so their owners can at least get their cars' wheels dirty and make use of the special tyres and suspension :)

Wake Up Australian Car Makers!

Almost everyone and their dog now accepts that global warming is happening. Unfortunately governments can't always be relied upon to do the right thing. Witness how the Australian and United States governments still refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Look at the participation map for the outcasts in red.

Australian citizens may decide to take the future in their own hands. This could be disastrous for the local car industry, because the three locally-manufactured vehicles have pathetic carbon dioxide emission numbers:

• Holden Commodore (VE) ..... 260 g/km
• Ford Falcon (BF) ................. 244 g/km
• Mitsubishi 380 (DB) ............ 259 g/km

Source: http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/

A random look at typical overseas-produced vehicles highlights how bad the Australian-made cars look in comparison:

• Fiat Punto ............ 145 g/km
• Honda Civic ......... 164 g/km
• Peugeot 307 ........ 188 g/km
• Toyota Camry ..... 210 g/km

Admittedly these are all 4 cylinder models, while the Australian-built cars are all 6 cylinder models. But perhaps the local manufacturers need to wake up and smell the coffee before it's too late.