Tram lines

[johnmillie]

Hi I recently changed to a hybrid bike from my mountain bike for my commute to work, but in my second day I hit a pot hole then a tram line on Edinburgh's princes street, I had to have a plate in my arm and will be off work for a few weeks, who should this be reported to as the paramedic said it happens there quiet often

 

[2Loose]

Tramlines - seconded.

Avoid wherever possible because riding alongside is them is fine, then someone tries to take your space and you have very little sideways movement available before you end up with a wheel in a track. If you must get close to them, try and cross them as close to 90 degrees as possible, especially in the wet - they are slippy b*ggers.

 

[gannet]

Tramlines - seconded.

Avoid wherever possible because riding alongside is them is fine, then someone tries to take your space and you have very little sideways movement available before you end up with a wheel in a track. If you must get close to them, try and cross them as close to 90 degrees as possible, especially in the wet - they are slippy b*ggers.

thirded

ankle still hurts from coming off on a tramline 12-18 months ago!

 

[Sara_H]

Hi I recently changed to a hybrid bike from my mountain bike for my commute to work, but in my second day I hit a pot hole then a tram line on Edinburgh's princes street, I had to have a plate in my arm and will be off work for a few weeks, who should this be reported to as the paramedic said it happens there quiet often

Bad Luck. OH got stuck in a tramline in Sheffield this time last year and broke both his arms.

The A&E nurse told hin they get 2 or 3 cyclists a week injured on the tram lines.

Hope your arm mends quickly

 

[asterix]

Worse place for tramlines I ever visited is Bordeaux. It's also full of cyclists but I wimped out and walked in the worst bits. Shopping in the supermarkets I noticed more than usual numbers of people with splints and neck braces! Nice city though.

 

[marinyork]

Tram lines are funny in the UK because we suffer from them not being quite common enough to raise awareness sufficiently, but still enough of them knocking around to catch people out every now and then. And bad design and pinching desirable roads for cycling on. Tram lines are all right in the dry - just about, I tend to find people come a cropper when it's rained some hours ago and the tarmac/concrete/metal dries out at different rates and someone has one wheel slip a bit, only a bit but wham. That or they try and pedal rather than freewheel over them often at faster speeds than is a good idea. Contrary to popular myth you can actually tackle a tram line at a very narrow angle if it's dry and you're not pedalling - I'm not going to recommend it though.

 

[goo_mason]

You've probably got a good chance of suing the council - Princes Street is already well-publicised as a disaster post track-laying, with the road surface coming up everywhere and pot-holes a-plenty; you might want to check FillThatHole or FixMyStreet and see if the pothole you hit had already been reported. If it has, you've got them by the short & curlies...

Sympathies, by the way. Nota nice thing to happen. Edinburgh's streets as a whole are in a dire state right now - the council are broke and nothing's getting fixed. Even if holes are filled, they're done so sloppily that the filling's come out after a handful of cars have passed over them.

 

[I_am_Lono]

Agree with the paltry attempts at pot-hole filling in Edinburgh at the mo, the vast majority being of the spray-and-pray variety. Ironic too that the principal cause of the council's erm, financial difficulty is related to the OP's malaise, namely the tr*ms. I tend to use George St to go East-West across town, only 3 sets of lights and a few pelican crossings, tends to have fewer peds and touristas. Also fewer buses than Princes St; fewer nutters than Queen St. You could always try the slalom course that is Rose St. too.

 

[iZaP]

I ride past tram lines everyday.

Never had a problem with them.

 

[goo_mason]

I ride past tram lines everyday.

Never had a problem with them.

Edinburgh's tramlines had a lovely protective pothole 'moat' around them, extending a good 7-12 inches either side of the rail. No fun to try and turn across that. There's very little room to avoid either the tramline or potholes on Pronces Street, expecially when you're being squeezed off a safe line by the traffic / buses.

I won't cycle that way at all any more.

 

[Waspie]

I got myself 'stuck' on the wrong side of the tram tracks coming from Shandwick Place into Princes Street a few weeks ago. A bunny hop was required to right the situation, was actually quite impressed with myself after I had changed my underwear!

I generally try to avoid Princes Street as well now, unneccesarily tricky when there are decent alternatives nearby.

 

[marinyork]

I ride past tram lines everyday.

Never had a problem with them.

I don't see what relevance this has to the discussion. I'm not overly familiar with Croydon's trams but you're in the trap of not really applying thought before you write. When I've looked at maps huge sections of Croydon's trams seem to be off road in stark contrast to some other tram systems in the UK. You're comparing apples with oranges. You might say I ride past tram lines everyday, but Croydon doesn't have very many that conflict with cyclists so never had a problem with them.

 

[furball]

I assume the training that was identified as being the answer to cyclists problems with Edinburghs tramlines will be available when the tramlines are complete.

 

[HLaB]

I assume the training that was identified as being the answer to cyclists problems with Edinburghs tramlines will be available when the tramlines are complete.

In 2014151617181920

HJ was an instructor at one of the previous training sessions in Edinburgh.

Like other Edinburgh cyclists, I tend to avoid Princes Street now. I use Queen Street instead and only cutting across at Hanover Street, Lothian Road, Waverly and North Bridge.

 

[johnmillie]

I reported where I fell to the people at Edinburgh trams and they were very good I sent them pictures of the area and they were going to have an engineer have a look, it's been 4 weeks since I fell now and my broken wrist has healed but I still can't move the wrist or grip with my hand so still not back in the bike, I'm waiting on physio now, anyone else had this trouble I'm getting bored waiting on it being normal