Melbourne's (and Sydney's) public transport hell

Because... car loving idiots. In saying that though, Melbourne's trams aren't really that great except in the CBD. They are slow as hell, never on time, many have huge gigantic steps that are a nightmare for elderly, children, and if you have luggage and impossible if you have a pram or are disabled in a wheelchair. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-12/sydneys-original-tram-network-what-happened-curious-sydney/9610328

I'll say it once. I'll say it 3000 times. Melbourne seriously has the worst public transport of any developed city I've ever been to. FFS there is no place called 'all stops'.  Can you bloody list the names of the stations that you'll be stopping at if sometimes er you don't stop at all of them? Can you stop changing your mind which direction you want to run? And which platform you'll stop at? And if you'll do the city circle shit or not? It's fun carrying 5kg of groceries Inc frozen goods in 30° heat walking around in circles and getting lost bc your signage is hopelessly inadequate.  Bloody hell I have to pay nearly $10 a day for this shit. I'm sorry, but you don't deserve the 'worlds most liveable city' title when your transport is an utter nightmare for newcomers and a rip off too. Today was the 6th time I've gotten lost going in the wrong direction or to the wrong place. And twice in one day. That's a record fo...

One thing that pains me about living in small cities is that you can't get anything done... there aren't enough service providers and prices are high as there is no competition.. In Geneva I would've had to go to Bern to do many things, in Lyon I had to go to Paris like a billion times to do certain things (and pay like 3x price for our translations as there just aren't many translators in Lyon/no competition) and now in Melbourne.. a city that is hardly small with over 4 million people.. but compared to Sydney feels like a small place. In Sydney we have multiple CBDs where you can get everything done as you could in the actual CBD. In Melbourne there is only ONE CBD.. and even then... Let me give you an example.. In Sydney if you want to go to the ATO you can go to either CBD (Martin Place), Chatswood (north), Parramatta (west), Rockdale (south) or Penrith (outer west). In Melbourne there are NO offices in the CBD (wtf?), the closest is Docklands which is next to ...

Melbourne your traffic is fucking shithouse, no better than Sydney's. Stuck at this one intersection not moving at all.  Fucking intersection only lets 2 cars through at a time. Been stuck here over 20mins not moving Build an airport rail ffs!! To go from my hotel to the airport only took 50mins but on the way back it took almost 2 hours due to peak hour hell...  Natalie  I was somewhere on the edge of Docklands (took the new Docklands/Southbank Skybus route) stuck at this intersection for 20mi ns, got through, then stuck at another intersection/road for 20mins, I could have walked faster than the distance covered in those 40mins and even with the heat I was tempted to.. if only I didn't have this huge suitcase. I seriously can't believe that Melbourne has NFI about the impending population boom and won't build better public transport. I also can't believe the so called 'best city in the world' to live in doesn't have a dedicated airport service! Eve...

So this morning when it took me 1 hr 40mins to travel 20km (from my childhood home in the northern beaches 'burbs to Darling Harbour) I am reminded of those years of uni when I had to endure this hellish shit 4-5 days a week, 5 years, return journey... And I'm reminded of the #1 thing I hate about Australia and that is lack of urban planning. How could this country be so utterly SHIT at urban planning? The whole city (Well Sydney and Melbourne at least) and country is a mess. We build these big huge houses on big huge pieces of land and have shops and amenities in only a FEW places, forcing almost everyone to drive to get anything done... And the history of designing residential areas goes like this: 1) build huge houses on huge blocks of land, 2) oh shit, we've run out of space, so let's subdivide that land and build 2 houses on one block of land or townhouses, 3) oh shit, we've run out of space again, tear down houses or townhouse and build blocks o...