I drove on the new GDE

I will usually speak about how bad Canberra can be. In this post, I want to mention something that Canberra finally have fixed. And in fixing it, they have slightly improved the region.

Previously on this blog (here and here), I have mentioned that the Gungahlin Drive Extension (GDE) caused more problems that it fixed. After 7 years, it is finally complete. Well done to all involved!!

Pity it took so long, was done incorrectly the first time, and injured people with a collapse of a section of it in 2010, and cost over $200 million. Seeing how it is around 9 kilometers long, it works out to over $10 million per kilometer. Not the best allocation of funds, but seeing how Canberra was designed for the car, and public transport is an after thought, this may be seen as a huge cost savings in the future.

While driving around Canberra in the weekend just past was improved, and there seems to be a better connection between the north part of the city and the rest of it, it is still a very sparse and sterile city. I hope the region improves more, but I doubt it.

Guy Pierce apologizes for his comments about Canberra

Australian actor, Guy Pierce, has recently apologized for comments made on an American (USA) TV show about "Canberra bashing".

Why?

Looking at the video, while Guy may have made fun of Canberra, he has not really said anything that is not true about Canberra. Canberra Centenary Creative Director Robyn Archer has asked people to stop bashing Canberra. She has also mentioned that most people that do it have never been there.

I was there for 2.5 years, and let me state this - "It is a [CENSORED] dump!" The truth does not set Canberra free.

Summernats in Canberra for another 25 years

Summernats is something that needs to be experienced at least once in your life if you are into cars / being a rev head. It is a festival centered around cars - mainly Australian and American V8 cars. It is one of the best known car festivals in Australia, and it generates interest and revenue in Canberra - a dull city for most parts of the year. It also brings in a somewhat drunken exhibitionist type of person to the city, but this is a small disadvantage of the festival.

The Canberra Times recently published an article about how Summernats could be hosted in Canberra for another 25 years. It is also interesting to read some of the shallow and narrow mindedness of some of the commenters, who claim to live around Canberra when Summernats is on. They have said they do not want Summernats in Canberra - "Too much bad behaviour. Not good for the environment. Bad, noisy, bad..."

As mentioned, Summernats, for all its bad points, actually gives Canberra something to look forward to for the year. I will admit there are some other festivals as well, like Floriade, but nothing is to the same scale as Summernats. If Canberrians do not like Summernats, then I suggest they move away from Canberra. Try Karumba - population < 1000, on the beach, but then again they would find something to complain about that. Stop making Canberra duller!

Things they could fix in Canberra #9.1

This is not a post in its own right, but more of an additional comment to a previous post that I made about the Gungahlin Drive Extension (GDE). Not much useful thought goes into Canberra, and here is more evidence of the single lane road that was to connect north Canberra to south Canberra - which was a short-sighted decision by the local government in Canberra.

These images were taken during Easter 2011, driving from Gungahlin towards Woden (ie. south):

Due to lack of proper planning, the local Canberra resident had to put up with delays and bottlenecks in traffic while using the GDE. And from these images, they would have to put up with them even more, as they have moved entire sections of road, and had to widen and reconstruct certain bridges.

I hope all Australians now realize why taxes are high. What else funds this stupidity ($85.5 million worth of it)?