Advice for riding with tram lines

[marinyork]

I think that actually applies to all the lines, massive stretches of the becknham line are old railway tracks and a few of the new addington stretches are as well.

Sheffield's trams are very different. Apart from the Meadowhall line and the outer bits of the south eastern route vast chunks of Sheffield's trams run on the roads. It's a very different system to Manchester and Croydon. Our road network is also different too. It is well known that it causes problems for some cyclists because it pinches key routes in certain bits of the city.

You tend not to hear too much moaning about it from cyclists as a lot of the city's cyclists live in an affluent bit of the city away from a tram routes and therefore encounter tram tracks slightly less often than they might otherwise.

 

[Night Train]

This is the junction where I had my 'off'. I was traveling from west to east through the traffic lights and having to cross the tracks at a shallow angle.

 

[Bicycle]

I used to ride a lot in Sarajevo, where the trams ran out to the suburbs in the central reservation, kept well away from all traffic other than at junctions. That was pretty safe. You just had to be aware at big junctions, but the sound of a tram is prety unmissable.

Coming into the centre of the city and around the Turkish quarter they ran alongside traffic in (or next to) the road. I liked riding up next to them; it was about the safest place to be. Unlike cars they are very, very unlikely to veer or swerve. Also, cars tended to avoid them, so if I rode in the shadow of a tram I was OK from unexpected pedestrian and vehicle collisions. They are not the best stoppers, so it's not smart to cut in front of them, but alongside or behind was never an issue.

Winter was tricky, because little Roma kids would sometimes ride on the couplings and pelt you with snowballs.

Also, although faster than a bike they stop frequently, so from Ilidza in the suburbs to Marijidvor near the centre, they provided an almost perfect training partner.

The only time I ever got a front wheel slotted into a tramline was on a motorcycle, not a bicycle. After that, I was wary of getting anything with two wheels anywhere near repeating that situation. For about three seconds it had been very scary.