Commuting & Tramlines

[661-Pete]

My greatest moan is when disused tracks are just left to rot and wreck bike wheels.

Nostalgia time. I can just about remember the remnants of the former extensive London tram network (pre-1952) though I can't remember the trams themselves. But the rails remained embedded in the roads for some years after until they came round to re-surfacing them. I remember as a small child being driven around London, noticing the tram rails and asking my father "where are the trams then?". He explained that they'd all gone, all that was left were the rails.

Of course I was much too young to cycle on the roads in those days. By the time I was able to, most of those rails had gone (though some still survive on the fenced-off ramp leading to the old tram tunnels in Southampton Row, I believe).

 

[trustysteed]

What a terrible design for cyclist safety!

i'm pretty sure those tramlines were there long before cycle commuting became popular

 

[661-Pete]

i'm pretty sure those tramlines were there long before cycle commuting became popular

That may be, but cycling of all sorts has been around a long time - and so have tussles with tramlines!

Indeed I seem to recall my father-in-law speaking of a chap he knew who was killed in an accident on tramlines - in London. That would have been in the 1930s.

 

[marinyork]

To put it in perspective a cyclist died about 100 yards down the road from where that photo was taken quite a while ago in a tram v cyclist issue, not the same but similar.

If you don't like that you could always use Gleadless Common or Corker/Hurfield Av instead but those roads have issues too.

What I'd do is continue up the left hand filter, slow right down and the cross at about 60 degrees carefully. Often the tram lines are like that, you're just a lot more likely to come off in the wet.

 

[Piemaster]

Yup, that crossing in Hull is horrible, don't think it being so uneven helps much at all, the tram rails in the links look to be much flatter.
I'm sure I read somewhere that the road originally crossed the line at a different angle but was changed sometime in the past.

 

[andrew-the-tortoise]

Thanks for all the advice. May try bunny-hopping in future!

Nice bruise on hip now appeared - but not as bad as I thought it would be. Would probably have smashed up my elbow as well - but fortunately had some pads under jacket.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I now use this technique on the railway crossing on Spring Bank West in Hull, next to Walton Street (anyone from Hull will know exactly which crossing I'm talking about - it must take down at least 1 cyclist per day when it's damp/wet).

Know both this one and the OP's one well!

The OP's is significantly worse as to cross them safely on an empty road, you would move in to a "kerb hugging" position before crossing to end the manoeuvre at the lane dividing white line

Thing is, lot of traffic, fast moving road, drivers don't wait for cycles on dual carriageways like that - as soon as you move in something will be squeezing past (probably then to cut left straight afterwards just to add to the problems)

At least the angle of Walton Street though shallow is such that you can take the outside of the lane and cross moving inwards - cars are much less likely to squeeze down the inside. Not that they WON'T, but it's less than squeezing past when the cyclist is in the gutter where in the driver's mind they "ought to be"

My main gripe with the Walton Street crossing is nowt to do with cycling, but that the gates always close just as I've got from the East Stand, around the stadium, and just getting up to the crossing.

 

[skrx]

More for pedestrians than road users, but I'm surprised the UK doesn't use the alternately-flashing yellow lights + bells that are normal on tram systems in the rest of Europe. Here's a typical crossing with a tramline in Gothenburg:

The lights flash yellow and a bell sounds if a tram is approaching, which is especially useful near stops (where a stopped tram might obscure an approaching one, or where people are running).

(A probably much busier crossing outside East Croydon station has just a "Beware of trams" sign.)

 

[Poacher]

Andrew; it may be worth your while seeing if you can find a report called "An Investigation Into Cyclist Safety on the Supertram Network In Sheffield, South Yorkshire", published in 1998 by Sheffield city council. I bullied Nottingham council's transport section into buying a copy (at £30 for 63 pages!) when the tram system was being developed here - they didn't even know it existed, which just about sums up the general attitude to cyclist safety. There's a section in the report about the problems posed by the Ridgeway Road stretch.
FWIW, I avoid Nottingham's tram lines as much as possible, but I'm maybe more risk-averse than most.

 

[Stephenite]

But the Norway example above looks a no-no to me! A shame, because I've always thought of the Scandinavian countries as very cycle-friendly, and I would assume that at dangerous junctions like this one, cyclists would be offered a dedicated cycle path (which I would use in such circumstances). But perhaps that junction is too far out from the city centre, and road is too narrow, to merit this?

This junction is in central Oslo but, to be fair, not on a main cycle route. Within Oslo the main routes are usually quite well laid out with either, a cycle lane on the road, or a completely seperate cycle path. Though, of the scandinavian countries Norway is prob. the least organized generally (not just in regard to cycling). I should probably avoid this junction, but at the time of day (night, really) i'm travelling there is little traffic and so, relatively, safe to negotiate.

 

[marinyork]

This one's a beaut. It's the only one of two routes that cyclists can use (three if you include a cycle path) in the area the other being an A road dual carriageway (that I think's all right).

 

[on the road]

That one takes the biscuit

 

[Stephenite]

That's a real humdinger, alright. How do you negotiate it?

 

[buggi]

ditch the bike and get the tram

only joking. fill the tramlines with concrete where you want to cross