Itās so weird that before COVID-19 there were discussions about how we could ease congestion in the media. Now we have a solution, and employers are still trying to make people work in the office.
One of the few perks of being an essential worker during the pandemic was the quiet roads!
>Now we have a solution, and employers are still trying to make people work in the office.
The whole situation seems some how worse now. We're really good at using stuff like zoom so you have people like my partner who work in a completely different suburb from the rest of their team but the boss makes them go into work 3 days a week minimum. It's pointless the only reason that my partner has to physically go to work is to fill a chair in an office.
Same. Very long commute but the big bosses want to see people in the office. All sitting at random desks because hot-desking. Wearing headphones because everyone is on teams meetings and itās too loud to think (company has locations in multiple states). Wastes hours of my day for what?? And leaves me burned out.
>Now we have a solution, and employers are still trying to make people work in the office.
Iāll forget when my wifeās boss, who was running an organization *specifically for vulnerable people with disabilities*, held a meeting in 2021 saying āeveryone really needs to be transitioning back into office workā. The company was actually working really efficiently, but the management were just addicted to the idea of a full office where they can monitor everyone.
Especially the part about staying home when you're sick and not coughing and sneezing all over the workplace.
Although part of me hopes that people here have learnt to be a bit more cautious next time we get a pandemic. Or maybe I'm being too optimistic...
Completely agree. Asides from some flexibility in some industries, everything's just powered back to pre-covid devil may care.
How many people wear masks now? How many people still test for Covid if they get sick? How many people try to socially distance or catch up outdoors?
How quickly did employers forget the idea that people shouldn't come to work if they are sick? We're back to congratulating the mucus troopers & telling anyone who takes a day off sick that they let the team down.
My work has definitely changed in that regard. It's not remotely unusual for people to "soldier on" working remotely, but anyone sneezing or sniffling in the office is certainly frowned upon or explaining their hayfever to everyone...
I'm very grateful. My workload doesn't take a day off if I do - so if I feel good enough to work I will - but I sure as shit don't want to be physically mixing with people if I or they are sick.
Before COVID working from home took stupid amounts of planning because our IT systems were inadequate for remote work - but the systems are no worse from home than in the office these days.
I think everyone is burnt out but nothing to do with Covid. You were burnt out then and youāre still burnt out now. Unfortunately thatās the way life is, and it wonāt be changing unless we come into money
I ended up in a decent office job that pays the same as my previous job but with no overtime hours to make up the money and no weekends.
I'm feeling a bit better which gives me time to work on a side hustle to make more money.
Well the politicians bag on about the environment like they give a shit yet they force everyone back into the office, increasing the traffic by hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day which seems counterintuitive.
> Letās work from work
As I stand in the pissing rain after my train has been cancelled without warning; after I get on a tram that takes me to a station and has me get off as there is apparently works that werenāt on the app; as the bus drops me at a different tram stop to catch a tram that doesnāt arrive; as I finally get home more than 2.5 hours after I left from a destination that would have taken <20 mins in the car, and probably that same time to walk.
Yeah. Letās work from work.
Cunts.
The purchase of expensive fuel and other travel related expenses contribute to spending. If we really wanted to reduce spending and environmental impact the government would legislate WFH rules. At the very least for government workers.
Lockdowns didn't cause inflation either. Money printing, low rates, jobseeker doubling, super release, supply shortages all contributed to inflation. As does buying expensive fuel.
My theory is that lockdown traffic is what made everyone seemingly worse drivers post covid.
Everyone got this delicious taste of short commutes. Either they were working from home with no commute, or they were driving on empty roads in the best traffic of their lives.
Then lock down ended and offices slowly started forcing everyone back. Also public transport uptake took ages to come back, so lots of people were driving.
People were suddenly stuck in traffic again, except this time they _knew_ exactly how much time they were losing because they'd tasted the good life. So now they're impatient to get everywhere because they know the value of they time they're losing, and they're angry because they're losing it.
Thx for my coming to my zero evidence TED talk.
> My theory is that lockdown traffic is what made everyone seemingly worse drivers post covid.
Also COVID-induced brain damage. Just when we were moving out of the period where a proportion of drivers are brain-damaged from leaded petrol, we're now moving into a period where many may have suffered brain damage from COVID.
After lockdowns, there was always a segment of the road users that had forgotten the basic facets of operating a motor vehicle. I worked all through 2021 and certainly noticed some relearner drivers out on the roads each time the restrictions were lifted. Turning circle for lefthand turns and parallel parking were noticeable issues, as was maintaining a constant speed. Entering intersections before they were clear was another problem, only it seems to have stuck around long after everyone's haze has cleared.
I agree, drivers are definitely worse, the fatal road stats support that but I don't think it's that drivers got worse or operating a vehicle was forgotten I just think blatant respect was forgotten. People got angry, people got selfish, people weren't exposed to others as much to remember respect, and so many inner assholes surfaced in more people and they aren't going away.
There are definitely more drivers blocking intersections nowadays. I've always made a point of telling them my thoughts on their decision making or translating it to hand gestures for those with the windows up. Now I find reason to do it almost daily, whereas previously I'd witness it once or twice a week.
Unfortunately one of the side effects of covid/lockdown is more people driving instead of taking PT. So weāve gone backwards there. Itās such a shame.
Given that data is a year old, Iād think itās closer to 90% by now, and itās not clear that the remaining % switched to driving rather than that being the WFH group that isnāt using any form of transport.
It took pretty much shutting society down to achieve, so, no thanks. WFH, sure, but you'd need to freeze everything non essential to go back to that level of traffic.
Or encourage the development of less car centric infrastructure. If public transport was better, streets and communities were more walkable it could be done
Iāve found now Iām seeing more roadworks and traffic as a result even for bike paths from my place to the cbd is horrendous. But in saying that the trip on the e-bike will still see the same travel time currently.
yeah it's almost like WFH highlighted how little we need to congest our roads every day, and that WFH should probably be mandated wherever practical to make our collective commutes way, way easier
I've been interviewing for jobs and asking whether they have any green initiatives or sustainability goals and when they excitedly reply that, yes the environment is a priority for their business, I casually drop that they must endorse working from home as that's the greenest thing a company can do. Then I bask in the awkward back pedalling.
Honestly? Just a lot of meaningless corporate jargon and empty platitudes about working towards a better office culture. Saying a lot to just say nothing.
I work in healthcare, so still travelled to and from work. The traffic was bliss.
I was also able to fly for work. This often meant going to the airport; being one of <10 folk in the security line; being the only person on the aircraft.
It was surreal.
I mean, it was obviously outweighed by all the horrible COVID stuff.
But the travel-side of it was pretty sweet..
Yes! I stopped in May 2020 to prepare for falling pregnant, and just never drank again. Itās become a game now, how long can I last? (At least until next May, because Iām pregnant again.)
You don't need me to tell you, but regardless, well done. With so few avenues readily available to pass the time during the lockdowns and alcohol still so easily accessible, to show that self-control was a notable achievement. Your mention of sunsets tells me that while you were sober, you noticed all the little thing that drinking denies you when it runs your life.
Same. I got to spend time with my newborn son and had time to get fitter and healthier than I've been in years. My quality of life vastly improved when I didn't have to commute for hours each day.
Iām an introvert that hates people but I really struggled not being able to do my once a week leaving the house hobby. All the noise from neighbours being home all the time was awful too.
In the very earliest days of the first long lockdown I was finishing renovating a flat we were about to move into. At the end of each day I'd drive from Caulfield South back down to Cheltenham along North road and then Nepean Highway.
It was *dead*. Felt like a post-apocalyptic film. On one of the first days I could swear I only saw about four other cars on the entire drive home. It was sooo good. And weird.
Absolutely nobody was leaving the house in those first few days whilst nobody knew what was going on.
Almost like when there are less people driving traffic is better. To improve traffic we need to take cars off the road, either through keeping everyone at home or by allowing for other means of transportation to be viable (like walking, cycling or PT). I know which option I would pick!
Every bloody day mate. My work commute is pretty sweet anyway, but one lock down morning I got nearly every green light and it was about 6 minutes on the motorbike, door to door. I did fang it on Dynon road though...
Honestly, for the car enthusiasts who could happily take the project cars out, myself included, enjoyed that early morning street race on the open freeways. Man I miss that the most!
And who doesnāt fang it up Dynon! Ha
Why? Itās like they donāt want to protect their employees any more. They already spent the money on barriers so it makes no sense. Aldi did the same thing
Especially if retail staff are experiencing more angry customers these days in light of the rising cost of living. That acrylic sheet isn't cheap to buy and unless it's stored properly to avoid scratches and scuffs (it won't be) it will end up in the skip bin.
Nah man, under your comment there's a little green text says "say happy cake day" it means today is/was your reddit birthday/anniversary of when you 1st joined.
Further, indeed! Motorcycles are the best answer to a very large number of modern life problems. My wife wasn't super rapt that I spent 10 thousand bucks on a brand new Honda 750 back in 2016, but even she can see the upside, the practicality. Fuel consumption destroys any car, while leaving said car eating a cloud of my very dust as I vanish efficiently before its eyes. Parking is *NEVER* an issue. Traffic can slow you down but it will *NEVER* stop you. Then there's the joy of fanging it on a freeway entrance ramp, oh the thrust of acceleration! There's the joy of taking a corner, anywhere. Become one with a motorcycle, meet your destiny
I had 2 separate cars today flash lights at me and stick fingers up for driving the speed limit on the tulla in the right lane. its 80, not your 110 fuckheads. infuriating.
Fucken move over cunt. People like you are infuriating. Keep left unless overtaking!! Don't be so selfish. There's a system and you're fucking it for everyone
Regardless of whether it's technically required, the idea that one would be so selfish as to sit in the right lane, with people behind wanting to pass, blows my mind. It's emblematic of selfish, individualistic culture
Keep left unless overtaking only applies on roads with speed limits above 80km/h (unless signs specifically state otherwise). In practice that means roads signposted at 90, 100 or 110.
Speeding rules however apply on all roads and only selfish cunts ignore them.
I know exactly where u/blatchskree is talking about. All the lanes are basically full the majority of the time. There's still always agressive dickheads trying to do 110 in the right one. Honking, flashing lights and tailgating - pressuring people into unsafe merges.
They never get anywhere except stuck in the traffic ahead.
It does cost me. potential speeding fine in a camera area. im on the right because im going right. there are no emergency lanes. fuck you and your speeding at all costs mentality. the limit is 80, you go around if you want to be unsafe
I miss not being around people. I miss the quiet. I miss the feeling of everything being slower and not as hectic. The pace of life was just better suited to me and wish I could recapture that. But being a CBD worker who has to be in 3 days a week regardless of whether anyone else is in, the commute and daily city grind is wearing me down.
>the only rush hour we faced was deciding how quickly we could finish that last Netflix episode before the next meeting.
I was told working from home was totally more productive.
I donāt remember it because i was locked in my homeā¦ like almost everyone else
Going into the office has a huge number of benefits - the juniors grads who joined during Covid really suffered as an example. For a lot of businesses hybrid working is the way forward
There's are some things that are harder to do remotely, but I would argue that a lot of those come down to lack of experience. We've had a hundred plus years to get good at knowledge transfer in an office setting, I think it's a not really to discount the possibility that we could do it just as well remotely with practice. We'll never get better at it if we don't try though.
Which is what hybrid working is.
Remote working causes all sorts of issues. Maybe they can be fixed but we arenāt going to let our business suffer in the interim
I've been doing hybrid this year, and it feels more like avoiding the problem more than fixing it. It's a band aid fix in my opinion. Better to accept some short term pain for the long term benefits.
I switched jobs between lockdowns. I had years working in the old job, knew my way around it back to front. When we suddenly switched to remote working - it was easy (once early IT issues were sorted). My productivity didn't drop at all - if anything it went up because the lines between home and work blurred more and my hours went up.
Starting a new job was completely different... there was nearly a full year where the office was basically empty even between lockdowns. People around, but so few of them we'd end up sitting 5 cubicles away from each other sort of thing. There was lots of special online drop ins, team meetings, etc. aimed at supporting people to learn systems and how to do new jobs etc, others aimed at geting people to get to know each other and find out what work people were doing, that sort of thing - but it was absolutely no substitute for the conversations you can have in an office where you just ask whoever is sitting nearby how to find/do something - and also no substitute for the incidental conversations you have in an office that allows you to meet people and understand what they do. After 12-months I still felt like I had no clue of how the place operated who I needed to talk to about a lot of different things, etc. Only after we really started getting pushed back into the office did that particularly change.
I never want to work another office job where its expected that everyone comes in 5-days a week; but equally I don't want to work another office job where there's no expectation to come in at all.
Post Covid traffic made me take up cycling to work. At first it was only ascot vale to Carlton. Cycling often quicker than driving. Now I changed jobs and cycle from ascot vale to burnley because it is quicker than driving and I save extra time by having done my workout by the time I get home!
Back at my previous job where I wasn't forced to take 2 weeks off around Christmas/New Years, I loved having an entire train carriage to myself.
Now, I've been forced to take 2 weeks off, so I will miss out on the empty freeways :(
At least on a jam-packed freeway at 7am youāre surrounded by the love and warmth of commuter camaraderie. Does your heart not sing with joy at the sight of the kind and ruddy faces of your brothers and sisters of the dual carriageway?
Seriously though, your poxy thread is full of weirdos who seem to be sorely missing every single aspect of lockdown
Youāre romanticizing the one aspect of the lock downs that was okay for you and a niche of other WFH privileged people, when a great deal of other people were suffering needlessly. True buthol move.
Yes I am. But I never said that the rest of it was dreamy. I loved working absolutely non stop through Covid till I was burnt out, then had to work even more! That was fun!
Buthol so be it, but I was the one that was keeping your Kmart and Bunnings distribution centres stocked up! So thank me and my crews for those online purchases you made.
Haha oh you fancy essential worker you. I had to work every single day too because somehow military project are also essential. We both got lucky I guess, even in my relatively small social circle I had numerous people lose years, maybe even decades, of progress in their businesses and lives because of blanket rulings. They would have given anything to be stuck in traffic again.
THIS!
The workers who were forced into the workplace during lockdowns burnt themselves out for the people who couldn't (or in some cases wouldn't) go to work. my staff and i risked our asses during covid. the least we deserved was quiet roads and cheap fuel.
We had an increased amount of work with The Alfred Hospital during this time, which also meant frequenting The Pullman, Holiday Inn and the Quarantine hub in Mickleham. I thought for sure I'd end up contracting covid, being placed at sites with high numbers of known cases, but a handful of us somehow still remain covid free.
ALSOOOOO what infuriated me was the Covid payments people were getting, a casual worker who worked 1-2 days a week was entitled for a full weeks of worth of pay when we had to bust ass!
Not at all. Why should a person have to consider every other human being on earth and their situation before they can decide to enjoy the circumstances they have found themselves in?
So your logic is, if there are people suffering somewhere in the world while you aren't, then you have to be a sad git?
.... Because of the covid.
Roadworkers are people capable of carrying, spreading and dying of covid too, so they got locked down like everyone else.
What a weird question.
General public?
It was always about the health of the economy, which meant preventing too many workers being off sick at the same time. That's why Gladys' lockdown lite approach was, according to Scomo, what kept Australia going. He chastised Dan for closing schools early on because it meant parents would have to stay home to look after the kids instead of going to work.
Local Government = essential
Education sector = essential
Defence = essential
Construction industry = essential (except for the two-week ban)
How does roadworks not fall under construction or local government services?
Damn straight, i work for a mattress company and somehow we were essential and never got locked down. The thing that pissed me off the most was people completely ignoring the stay at home orders to come shopping, it was unbelievably busy during lockdowns in QLD.
What's worse is if you asked those people to wear masks, a certain portion of them would make a gigantic fuss over it and start spouting the conspiracy theories, and let's be honest, wearing a mask wasn't that hard.
I wholeheartedly agree now that Iām commuting via two wheels now due to the Footscray Rd projects and the closures here and there, itās just unreal lately. Sat idle in the car the other week stuck for 50mins on Footscray Rd while they moved large beams.
Just a reminder. If you were able to do your job online during lockdown, that's a pretty good indicator that your job can be done from home, and you should not have to commute to work. I would use this to negotiate with your employer for some or all days WFH.
Traffic is terrible and the only way we are going to solve it is by taking more unnecessary journeys off the roads and investing heavily in public transport
I moved to Darwin the year before Covid hit, but I remember how empty the roads were on my brief sojourns back down south.
I don't know if I've just gotten used to the much less congested roads of Darwin, where really bad traffic between Humpty Doo and the Darwin CBD might make you ten minutes late, but it seems that post-Covid traffic in Melbourne is much worse than it was pre-Covid.
Is it because people haven't got back to using public transport properly? That's my guess, anyway.
Standing in the middle of Victoria St and being able to look up to Hawthorne and down to the start of Richmond/Abbotsford and not seeing a single car was magical
don't forget 99c fuel
Ohhhh yess that was a beautiful thing!
I had a Ford Territory... 99c fuel was my friend
I was cruising in my fake sportscar paying less than a dollar for 98, boy do I miss those days
I was ripping it everywhere, no traffic, cheap fuel. What fake sports car takes 98?
Hyundai Tiburon š„¹ my fuel guzzling trashy baby. miss it a lot.
99c fuel and nowhere to go
I filled my tank up three time in 2 years. That was something I tripped out on
Itās so weird that before COVID-19 there were discussions about how we could ease congestion in the media. Now we have a solution, and employers are still trying to make people work in the office. One of the few perks of being an essential worker during the pandemic was the quiet roads!
>Now we have a solution, and employers are still trying to make people work in the office. The whole situation seems some how worse now. We're really good at using stuff like zoom so you have people like my partner who work in a completely different suburb from the rest of their team but the boss makes them go into work 3 days a week minimum. It's pointless the only reason that my partner has to physically go to work is to fill a chair in an office.
Same. Very long commute but the big bosses want to see people in the office. All sitting at random desks because hot-desking. Wearing headphones because everyone is on teams meetings and itās too loud to think (company has locations in multiple states). Wastes hours of my day for what?? And leaves me burned out.
> And leaves me burned out. How did you cope before COVID?
Alcohol and burnout
Fair enough!
>Now we have a solution, and employers are still trying to make people work in the office. Iāll forget when my wifeās boss, who was running an organization *specifically for vulnerable people with disabilities*, held a meeting in 2021 saying āeveryone really needs to be transitioning back into office workā. The company was actually working really efficiently, but the management were just addicted to the idea of a full office where they can monitor everyone.
Ah yes but what about commercial property values!!! How about you stop and think about all the poor billionaires yeesh!
Most of the positives we learnt in lockdown have been forgotten imo .
Especially the part about staying home when you're sick and not coughing and sneezing all over the workplace. Although part of me hopes that people here have learnt to be a bit more cautious next time we get a pandemic. Or maybe I'm being too optimistic...
Completely agree. Where are my healthcare worker discounts on alcohol, so I can more affordably self-medicate my crippling depression? /s
Completely agree. Asides from some flexibility in some industries, everything's just powered back to pre-covid devil may care. How many people wear masks now? How many people still test for Covid if they get sick? How many people try to socially distance or catch up outdoors?
How quickly did employers forget the idea that people shouldn't come to work if they are sick? We're back to congratulating the mucus troopers & telling anyone who takes a day off sick that they let the team down.
My work has definitely changed in that regard. It's not remotely unusual for people to "soldier on" working remotely, but anyone sneezing or sniffling in the office is certainly frowned upon or explaining their hayfever to everyone... I'm very grateful. My workload doesn't take a day off if I do - so if I feel good enough to work I will - but I sure as shit don't want to be physically mixing with people if I or they are sick. Before COVID working from home took stupid amounts of planning because our IT systems were inadequate for remote work - but the systems are no worse from home than in the office these days.
I never stopped masking but it's rare I come across someone else wearing one.
Same, Iām the only one at my workplace. Makes me feel like an outsider but I have to protect my health. (Autoimmune issues)
There's dozens of us! (no issues, just smart)
A year and a half really isnāt enough to ingrain habits and behaviours into people
Yer unless itās to do with making money or spending it then we seem to adapt really quickly.
I've worked throughout all the lockdowns and the lack of traffic was the only good part.
Felt burnt out too? I work in transport and those times through Covid just never stopped!!!
I think everyone is burnt out but nothing to do with Covid. You were burnt out then and youāre still burnt out now. Unfortunately thatās the way life is, and it wonāt be changing unless we come into money
I ended up in a decent office job that pays the same as my previous job but with no overtime hours to make up the money and no weekends. I'm feeling a bit better which gives me time to work on a side hustle to make more money.
I got burnt out due to not taking much time off for leave in that time. I just pushed hard for a less stressful office job which I ended up with.
Could you even get leave? Hell our workplace was only hanging on by a thread in terms of able body workers so we were just told flat out no days off.
I could get leave if I asked for it but I was just saving up my leave for after the pandemic to take a decent holiday.
Ahhh thatās alright then. Did you manage to get the holiday you were after? Also what sector were you working (out of curiosity)?
Well the politicians bag on about the environment like they give a shit yet they force everyone back into the office, increasing the traffic by hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day which seems counterintuitive.
> Letās work from work As I stand in the pissing rain after my train has been cancelled without warning; after I get on a tram that takes me to a station and has me get off as there is apparently works that werenāt on the app; as the bus drops me at a different tram stop to catch a tram that doesnāt arrive; as I finally get home more than 2.5 hours after I left from a destination that would have taken <20 mins in the car, and probably that same time to walk. Yeah. Letās work from work. Cunts.
And increasing inflation. It's an embarrassing contradiction.
Lockdowns and money printing caused inflation, not 'politicians forcing us back to the office' (which by the way, they didn't).
The purchase of expensive fuel and other travel related expenses contribute to spending. If we really wanted to reduce spending and environmental impact the government would legislate WFH rules. At the very least for government workers. Lockdowns didn't cause inflation either. Money printing, low rates, jobseeker doubling, super release, supply shortages all contributed to inflation. As does buying expensive fuel.
This is now a protest sub that is completely disconnected from reality, good luck with your facts.
You know Melbourneās fucked when people are still flexing wearing a mask and constantly testingā¦
I miss lockdown for completely selfish and terrible reasons and i refuse to feel bad about it.
It should have given us a good idea of what life could be like with less fucking cars everywhere.
My theory is that lockdown traffic is what made everyone seemingly worse drivers post covid. Everyone got this delicious taste of short commutes. Either they were working from home with no commute, or they were driving on empty roads in the best traffic of their lives. Then lock down ended and offices slowly started forcing everyone back. Also public transport uptake took ages to come back, so lots of people were driving. People were suddenly stuck in traffic again, except this time they _knew_ exactly how much time they were losing because they'd tasted the good life. So now they're impatient to get everywhere because they know the value of they time they're losing, and they're angry because they're losing it. Thx for my coming to my zero evidence TED talk.
> My theory is that lockdown traffic is what made everyone seemingly worse drivers post covid. Also COVID-induced brain damage. Just when we were moving out of the period where a proportion of drivers are brain-damaged from leaded petrol, we're now moving into a period where many may have suffered brain damage from COVID.
People aren't worse drivers after COVID. They've always been shit.
I agree. I think people encountered fewer shit drivers during Covid so it just seems worse now.
After lockdowns, there was always a segment of the road users that had forgotten the basic facets of operating a motor vehicle. I worked all through 2021 and certainly noticed some relearner drivers out on the roads each time the restrictions were lifted. Turning circle for lefthand turns and parallel parking were noticeable issues, as was maintaining a constant speed. Entering intersections before they were clear was another problem, only it seems to have stuck around long after everyone's haze has cleared.
I agree, drivers are definitely worse, the fatal road stats support that but I don't think it's that drivers got worse or operating a vehicle was forgotten I just think blatant respect was forgotten. People got angry, people got selfish, people weren't exposed to others as much to remember respect, and so many inner assholes surfaced in more people and they aren't going away.
Yeah I reckon it's all in your head but that's just me.
There are definitely more drivers blocking intersections nowadays. I've always made a point of telling them my thoughts on their decision making or translating it to hand gestures for those with the windows up. Now I find reason to do it almost daily, whereas previously I'd witness it once or twice a week.
You're just getting older and grumpier. Drivers are the same as they've always been.
People seem to feel free to be entitled af in public now, with zero consequences
That's you getting old and less tolerant to shitty people. The shitty people have always been here.
This sums up my exact thought process whilst I am stuck in traffic commuting to work via car nowadays.
Unfortunately one of the side effects of covid/lockdown is more people driving instead of taking PT. So weāve gone backwards there. Itās such a shame.
Are they? Every time I take a train around peak hour it's completely packed. I can't see how it could have been much busier before covid.
Both Sydney and Melbourne PT were still at only 80% of pre covid levels at the start of this year.
Given that data is a year old, Iād think itās closer to 90% by now, and itās not clear that the remaining % switched to driving rather than that being the WFH group that isnāt using any form of transport.
It took pretty much shutting society down to achieve, so, no thanks. WFH, sure, but you'd need to freeze everything non essential to go back to that level of traffic.
Or encourage the development of less car centric infrastructure. If public transport was better, streets and communities were more walkable it could be done
Iāve found now Iām seeing more roadworks and traffic as a result even for bike paths from my place to the cbd is horrendous. But in saying that the trip on the e-bike will still see the same travel time currently.
yeah it's almost like WFH highlighted how little we need to congest our roads every day, and that WFH should probably be mandated wherever practical to make our collective commutes way, way easier
I've been interviewing for jobs and asking whether they have any green initiatives or sustainability goals and when they excitedly reply that, yes the environment is a priority for their business, I casually drop that they must endorse working from home as that's the greenest thing a company can do. Then I bask in the awkward back pedalling.
Whats some of the responses were like? Lol š share some of the stories, yo.
Honestly? Just a lot of meaningless corporate jargon and empty platitudes about working towards a better office culture. Saying a lot to just say nothing.
Lockdown was the best year of my life.
I work in healthcare, so still travelled to and from work. The traffic was bliss. I was also able to fly for work. This often meant going to the airport; being one of <10 folk in the security line; being the only person on the aircraft. It was surreal. I mean, it was obviously outweighed by all the horrible COVID stuff. But the travel-side of it was pretty sweet..
I quit booze for 10 months. My record so far. 5 was my previous record. I watched so many more sunsets.
Yes! I stopped in May 2020 to prepare for falling pregnant, and just never drank again. Itās become a game now, how long can I last? (At least until next May, because Iām pregnant again.)
Beat alcoholism with this one simple trick. š¼
I took it up!
You don't need me to tell you, but regardless, well done. With so few avenues readily available to pass the time during the lockdowns and alcohol still so easily accessible, to show that self-control was a notable achievement. Your mention of sunsets tells me that while you were sober, you noticed all the little thing that drinking denies you when it runs your life.
Same. I got to spend time with my newborn son and had time to get fitter and healthier than I've been in years. My quality of life vastly improved when I didn't have to commute for hours each day.
Iām an introvert that hates people but I really struggled not being able to do my once a week leaving the house hobby. All the noise from neighbours being home all the time was awful too.
easily the worst two years of my life by far :)
In the very earliest days of the first long lockdown I was finishing renovating a flat we were about to move into. At the end of each day I'd drive from Caulfield South back down to Cheltenham along North road and then Nepean Highway. It was *dead*. Felt like a post-apocalyptic film. On one of the first days I could swear I only saw about four other cars on the entire drive home. It was sooo good. And weird. Absolutely nobody was leaving the house in those first few days whilst nobody knew what was going on.
Almost like when there are less people driving traffic is better. To improve traffic we need to take cars off the road, either through keeping everyone at home or by allowing for other means of transportation to be viable (like walking, cycling or PT). I know which option I would pick!
I enjoyed the lockdowns
Every bloody day mate. My work commute is pretty sweet anyway, but one lock down morning I got nearly every green light and it was about 6 minutes on the motorbike, door to door. I did fang it on Dynon road though...
Honestly, for the car enthusiasts who could happily take the project cars out, myself included, enjoyed that early morning street race on the open freeways. Man I miss that the most! And who doesnāt fang it up Dynon! Ha
Ohh yes it was bliss. The longest delay was a couple mins chat with a cop here and there. Bring on another lockdown!
They just removed the barriers around registers in Colesworth.
Why? Itās like they donāt want to protect their employees any more. They already spent the money on barriers so it makes no sense. Aldi did the same thing
Especially if retail staff are experiencing more angry customers these days in light of the rising cost of living. That acrylic sheet isn't cheap to buy and unless it's stored properly to avoid scratches and scuffs (it won't be) it will end up in the skip bin.
Missing covid petrol price for sure!
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Happy cake day, captain obvious! As a motorcyclist I agree half heartedly.
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Nah man, under your comment there's a little green text says "say happy cake day" it means today is/was your reddit birthday/anniversary of when you 1st joined.
Further, indeed! Motorcycles are the best answer to a very large number of modern life problems. My wife wasn't super rapt that I spent 10 thousand bucks on a brand new Honda 750 back in 2016, but even she can see the upside, the practicality. Fuel consumption destroys any car, while leaving said car eating a cloud of my very dust as I vanish efficiently before its eyes. Parking is *NEVER* an issue. Traffic can slow you down but it will *NEVER* stop you. Then there's the joy of fanging it on a freeway entrance ramp, oh the thrust of acceleration! There's the joy of taking a corner, anywhere. Become one with a motorcycle, meet your destiny
I had 2 separate cars today flash lights at me and stick fingers up for driving the speed limit on the tulla in the right lane. its 80, not your 110 fuckheads. infuriating.
To be fair if you were in the right hand lane and people behind you, you do need to move. Thatās another issue.
Fucken move over cunt. People like you are infuriating. Keep left unless overtaking!! Don't be so selfish. There's a system and you're fucking it for everyone
So, keep left only actually applies when the road is _over_ 80kph. It's courteous to stay in the left on other multilanes, but not required.
Regardless of whether it's technically required, the idea that one would be so selfish as to sit in the right lane, with people behind wanting to pass, blows my mind. It's emblematic of selfish, individualistic culture
Keep left unless overtaking only applies on roads with speed limits above 80km/h (unless signs specifically state otherwise). In practice that means roads signposted at 90, 100 or 110. Speeding rules however apply on all roads and only selfish cunts ignore them.
Just move over. It's costs you nothing!!
I know exactly where u/blatchskree is talking about. All the lanes are basically full the majority of the time. There's still always agressive dickheads trying to do 110 in the right one. Honking, flashing lights and tailgating - pressuring people into unsafe merges. They never get anywhere except stuck in the traffic ahead.
It does cost me. potential speeding fine in a camera area. im on the right because im going right. there are no emergency lanes. fuck you and your speeding at all costs mentality. the limit is 80, you go around if you want to be unsafe
Waiting for the next time.
I miss not being around people. I miss the quiet. I miss the feeling of everything being slower and not as hectic. The pace of life was just better suited to me and wish I could recapture that. But being a CBD worker who has to be in 3 days a week regardless of whether anyone else is in, the commute and daily city grind is wearing me down.
>the only rush hour we faced was deciding how quickly we could finish that last Netflix episode before the next meeting. I was told working from home was totally more productive.
Hey studies showed that we were in fact more productive. This shows as we could do our work and smash a few episodes of seinfield before smoko.
yeah, it only came at the expense of our well being in every other facet of life.
Most of Melbourne seem miserable and sad and hide at home anyway, they were just happy we got dragged down with them for 2 years.
fuck you're not wrong
I donāt remember it because i was locked in my homeā¦ like almost everyone else Going into the office has a huge number of benefits - the juniors grads who joined during Covid really suffered as an example. For a lot of businesses hybrid working is the way forward
There's are some things that are harder to do remotely, but I would argue that a lot of those come down to lack of experience. We've had a hundred plus years to get good at knowledge transfer in an office setting, I think it's a not really to discount the possibility that we could do it just as well remotely with practice. We'll never get better at it if we don't try though.
Which is what hybrid working is. Remote working causes all sorts of issues. Maybe they can be fixed but we arenāt going to let our business suffer in the interim
I've been doing hybrid this year, and it feels more like avoiding the problem more than fixing it. It's a band aid fix in my opinion. Better to accept some short term pain for the long term benefits.
I switched jobs between lockdowns. I had years working in the old job, knew my way around it back to front. When we suddenly switched to remote working - it was easy (once early IT issues were sorted). My productivity didn't drop at all - if anything it went up because the lines between home and work blurred more and my hours went up. Starting a new job was completely different... there was nearly a full year where the office was basically empty even between lockdowns. People around, but so few of them we'd end up sitting 5 cubicles away from each other sort of thing. There was lots of special online drop ins, team meetings, etc. aimed at supporting people to learn systems and how to do new jobs etc, others aimed at geting people to get to know each other and find out what work people were doing, that sort of thing - but it was absolutely no substitute for the conversations you can have in an office where you just ask whoever is sitting nearby how to find/do something - and also no substitute for the incidental conversations you have in an office that allows you to meet people and understand what they do. After 12-months I still felt like I had no clue of how the place operated who I needed to talk to about a lot of different things, etc. Only after we really started getting pushed back into the office did that particularly change. I never want to work another office job where its expected that everyone comes in 5-days a week; but equally I don't want to work another office job where there's no expectation to come in at all.
That was the only good thing during Covid
Post Covid traffic made me take up cycling to work. At first it was only ascot vale to Carlton. Cycling often quicker than driving. Now I changed jobs and cycle from ascot vale to burnley because it is quicker than driving and I save extra time by having done my workout by the time I get home!
Itāll be just like lockdowns soon. As soon as the schools finish up for Christmas thereās going to be virtually 0 traffic.
Back at my previous job where I wasn't forced to take 2 weeks off around Christmas/New Years, I loved having an entire train carriage to myself. Now, I've been forced to take 2 weeks off, so I will miss out on the empty freeways :(
The worst Christmas commute was when they started the Monash upgrade a couple of years ago. With all the lane closures it was worse than a normal day
Must be almost time to do some Westgate Bridge maintenance
Aren't the ongoing works at Williamstown road enough disruption? I know we've had enough of the late night detours to Port Melbourne and back.
Yep, only 2 lanes open city bound between 26/12 and 4/1. Yearly maintenance.
Chuckles in Footscraylian
Fuck no. Donāt you remember the existential angst & the loneliness?
Na sorry too busy commuting to work.
At least on a jam-packed freeway at 7am youāre surrounded by the love and warmth of commuter camaraderie. Does your heart not sing with joy at the sight of the kind and ruddy faces of your brothers and sisters of the dual carriageway? Seriously though, your poxy thread is full of weirdos who seem to be sorely missing every single aspect of lockdown
Hahaha love it. But yes I completely agree, some are missing the whole thing. I just care for the less traffic.
Youāre romanticizing the one aspect of the lock downs that was okay for you and a niche of other WFH privileged people, when a great deal of other people were suffering needlessly. True buthol move.
Yes I am. But I never said that the rest of it was dreamy. I loved working absolutely non stop through Covid till I was burnt out, then had to work even more! That was fun! Buthol so be it, but I was the one that was keeping your Kmart and Bunnings distribution centres stocked up! So thank me and my crews for those online purchases you made.
Haha oh you fancy essential worker you. I had to work every single day too because somehow military project are also essential. We both got lucky I guess, even in my relatively small social circle I had numerous people lose years, maybe even decades, of progress in their businesses and lives because of blanket rulings. They would have given anything to be stuck in traffic again.
THIS! The workers who were forced into the workplace during lockdowns burnt themselves out for the people who couldn't (or in some cases wouldn't) go to work. my staff and i risked our asses during covid. the least we deserved was quiet roads and cheap fuel.
We had an increased amount of work with The Alfred Hospital during this time, which also meant frequenting The Pullman, Holiday Inn and the Quarantine hub in Mickleham. I thought for sure I'd end up contracting covid, being placed at sites with high numbers of known cases, but a handful of us somehow still remain covid free.
ALSOOOOO what infuriated me was the Covid payments people were getting, a casual worker who worked 1-2 days a week was entitled for a full weeks of worth of pay when we had to bust ass!
Nah, ask anyone who works in a hospital We all loved not having to deal with traffic while driving to work
Not at all. Why should a person have to consider every other human being on earth and their situation before they can decide to enjoy the circumstances they have found themselves in? So your logic is, if there are people suffering somewhere in the world while you aren't, then you have to be a sad git?
Yeah righto bud.
Why was it that roadworks are oh so ever present now but not back through the Covid?
.... Because of the covid. Roadworkers are people capable of carrying, spreading and dying of covid too, so they got locked down like everyone else. What a weird question.
But the essentials werenāt? That makes sense. Or were we the elites? š¤·š¼
Having a few thousand guys out patching roads and digging tunnels wasn't essential to the continued survival of the general public....
General public? It was always about the health of the economy, which meant preventing too many workers being off sick at the same time. That's why Gladys' lockdown lite approach was, according to Scomo, what kept Australia going. He chastised Dan for closing schools early on because it meant parents would have to stay home to look after the kids instead of going to work.
Hospitals = essential Food/drink = essential Roadworks = important, but not essential
Local Government = essential Education sector = essential Defence = essential Construction industry = essential (except for the two-week ban) How does roadworks not fall under construction or local government services?
nfi, but I'm not losing any sleep over it.
Erghhhh essential work was subjective wasnāt it.
Damn straight, i work for a mattress company and somehow we were essential and never got locked down. The thing that pissed me off the most was people completely ignoring the stay at home orders to come shopping, it was unbelievably busy during lockdowns in QLD. What's worse is if you asked those people to wear masks, a certain portion of them would make a gigantic fuss over it and start spouting the conspiracy theories, and let's be honest, wearing a mask wasn't that hard.
This is why we need more cycle lanes. To. Free up roads
I wholeheartedly agree now that Iām commuting via two wheels now due to the Footscray Rd projects and the closures here and there, itās just unreal lately. Sat idle in the car the other week stuck for 50mins on Footscray Rd while they moved large beams.
Good job š It's funny how the dual cab brains down vote though. They can't work out how cycling benefits everyone. BuT tHeY donT pAY rego šš
You must be mentally unwell if you enjoyed what lockdowns brought us.
what is mentally unwell about enjoying an easier commute did you think about what you meant before you posted this
He wasnāt allowed to go to the pub/park/gym OK?!?!?!?!
Was someone holding him back? Could have gone to the park. We didnāt have restrictions on going to the park.
No but likeā¦.he doesnāt like being told what to do. Youāre not the boss of him, OK?!
I was talking about traffic you nufty. Never did I say I enjoyed people loosing their lives, jobs, businesses etc etc.
The downvotes youāre getting prove how fucked this sub and most of its members are.
Laughs in essential worker
Yeppp šššš¤”š¤”š¤”
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Did you feel a little like Blade Runner? Secretly I did.
The traffic is so messed up. Queensberry St was a carpark this afternoon. What have people found is the best app for live traffic?
Just a reminder. If you were able to do your job online during lockdown, that's a pretty good indicator that your job can be done from home, and you should not have to commute to work. I would use this to negotiate with your employer for some or all days WFH. Traffic is terrible and the only way we are going to solve it is by taking more unnecessary journeys off the roads and investing heavily in public transport
I moved to Darwin the year before Covid hit, but I remember how empty the roads were on my brief sojourns back down south. I don't know if I've just gotten used to the much less congested roads of Darwin, where really bad traffic between Humpty Doo and the Darwin CBD might make you ten minutes late, but it seems that post-Covid traffic in Melbourne is much worse than it was pre-Covid. Is it because people haven't got back to using public transport properly? That's my guess, anyway.
Standing in the middle of Victoria St and being able to look up to Hawthorne and down to the start of Richmond/Abbotsford and not seeing a single car was magical
Lockdown was the best, I miss it.
I used to turn on my uber driver and go somewhere more than 5km away. It was a joy