oddlight

...only five days till xmas!
crazy stuff. I'm going up to Mona Vale to spend xmas with Lisa and her family then she and I and a couple of her mates are going camping up at Forster for a few days before new years. Can't wait.



I've almost finished the painting that I'm doing for Lisa, we've celebrated chunks of xmas already... I bought her a little aquarium setup and she has got me some paints, some great coloured pens for my drawing, some thai fishermens pants (so comfy) and the first pair of thongs I've had in many, many years.
Things are getting a little bit quieter at work... we experience the opposite of a xmas rush, as a result of so many people for our customers going on holidays. This is a good thing. I get to do some catchup on my programming for the upcoming job change.
My good mate Kele called tonight to impat his particular style of xmas glee and have a chat. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years since I've seen him. Must rectify that...

In the news today: The Sydney Harbour Bridge is going e-tag only in the next couple of years.

from the article:

"Motorists will soon be banned from using cash on the Sydney toll road network as the State Government seeks to entrench the use of electronic tags.

Even the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where tolls have been collected manually for 72 years, will have its cash booths removed as part of the motoring revolution aimed at forcing more than 85 per cent of motorists to use electronic devices.

The Roads Minister, Carl Scully, has confirmed the scrapping of cash payments on all six existing toll roads. It has already been decided there will be no manual transactions on the three motorways under construction: the M7 Westlink and the Cross City and Lane Cove tunnels.

The Cross City Tunnel, now running well ahead of schedule and due to open early next year, will become the first tag-only motorway in Sydney. Motorists driving on the road without tags will have their vehicle's numberplate photographed. They will be able to defer payments or ring a hotline within a few days of the trip to arrange for the $2.50 each-way toll to be paid.

The Sydney Harbour Tunnel was to become tag-only this month but Mr Scully said the changeover would be delayed until the Cross City Tunnel was opened - a tactic aimed at reducing "teething" problems.

Mr Scully said Melbourne's strife-plagued opening of cashless tolling a few years ago had made him nervous about introducing the scheme in Sydney, but it was inevitable the entire network would be tag-only.

"I wouldn't want to put a time limit on it," he said.

"But eventually, a few years down the track, it's probably time to say to people, 'Look, now's the time we make our motorway system cashless'.

"I'm reluctant to force it on people but I think it's such an attractive product, people will vote with their feet. They'll take it up anyway."

Electronic tags first became available in the middle of 2001, but it was not until last year that a single tag could be used on all motorways.

Since then tag use has soared to an average of about 65 per cent.

The M2 has the lowest number of users at just below 60 per cent, while 70 per cent of journeys on the M5 are tagged.

Mr Scully said he would move to make the road system cashless once more than 80 per cent of all trips were made using a tag.

He said he was putting pressure on the Cross City Motorway consortium and the Roads and Traffic Authority to ensure the new cashless system worked properly from the start. A marketing campaign was being devised to raise community awareness on tagging and how motorists could pay tolls if they chose not to buy a device.

The way it was on the bridge's official opening day in 1932.

"There are always teething problems when you introduce new infrastructure and technology, so I don't expect it to be problem-free," Mr Scully said.

"But I've certainly got the pressure on them."

In late 2006 the 40-kilometre M7 Westlink will usher in another landmark in cashless tolling, with motorists paying tolls according to the distance they travel - up to a cap. It is expected the decision to ban the use of cash could be timed to coincide with the opening of the western roadway's connecting roads from Seven Hills to the M5 at Campbelltown."