Advice for riding with tram lines

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marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
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

Maker of Things
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.
Tramlines.jpg
 

Bicycle

Guest
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.
 

Mazz

Senior Member
Location
Leicester
I've recently moved to Sheffield and have been out of my bike this morning for the first time since moving. Aside from the main road not going where google maps said it would go and therefore not ending up in the part of the city I was expecting to be, in I had a run in with the tram lines in Hillsborough.
How does one ride around tram lines, because riding in the usual manner, that is a few feet from the kerb at a similar speed to traffic doesn't seem to work. I now need new handlebars, a new right shifter and new skin from my right hip to my right knee and on my right shoulder. God only knows what happened, I was following the signs, trams only straight ahead, implying all other traffic should be in the off side lane, when suddenly I was upside down missing a significant portion of my epidermis.
Any advice would be gratefully received.

Snap. I came off my bike cycling up Langsett Rd towards Hillsborough yesterday. My first and only time I will be cycling on roads with tram tracks.
Road tyres were a perfect fit for the tracks. When that happens there's only 1 outcome, you're coming off the bike. A few cuts and bruises but thankfully I'm ok, as is the bike.
 

Pinno718

Über Member
Location
Way out West
I once had a conversation with two blokes in Lisbon (who rode fixies) regarding the tram lines. Cyclists were everywhere. I guess they have adapted to it.
Not me. What a mare!
 

presta

Legendary Member
My father dislocated an elbow when he got tramlined in Leeds. The only place I've ever encountered rails in the road was at Weymouth, where there's a railway line that runs through the streets down to the docks, and fortunately they were quiet, so there was nothing much to distract my attention.
 
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