Tram tracks present biggest danger to Sheffield cyclists says campaign group

The Roe case, involving an injured car driver alerted Supertram to the need to keep the rail profile in the road to a high standard, and make the crossing as 'flat' as possible.

There remains the detail that the old trams ran in the middle of the street, avoiding the pinch hazard at tram stops which forces crossing the left side rail at a very shallow angle, and raises the kerb at the edge of the footway so that it has to have warnings for blind people that the drop is much more than a normal kerb. With tracks in the middle of the road many later systems such as the 1930's Glasgow network used reserved track to avoid the cost of laying it in the road, and put green space in the street. This also meant that the track at road junctions crossed the 'zones' where cyclists ride, at a much safer angle, and points could be in places where they did not need as much maintenance as current on street locations do.

There are around 4 different ways that tram and level crossing rails can cause the contact patch of any road vehicle to lose grip or be forced to turn from the direction of travel. Making the rail as close to flush or very slightly lower than the high friction road surfaces either side does help, as the tyre contact patch can bridge the low friction area and there is no ridge to deflect the tyre (the limit for the steel edge of a manhole frame in a new road surface is 3mm - for a dropped kerb, and tramline tactile paving, 6mm) .

The other detail to avoid is having any vehicle cross the tracks with side forces on the tyres, especially where the rails are 'high' as the tyres will slide along the rails. With 4 wheels the effect is normally a mild skid often unnoticed because the other 3 wheels are still gripping but with 2 wheels this can be catastrophic.

A particular hazard for all 'small' cycle tyres is that they will rest on just 2 points of contact which are the 2 smooth steel edges of the rail and 'keeper' and any forces from the side force of turning or braking, or just the weight of the bike will see those 2 contact points sliding along the steel edges. There may be ways to manage this out at key locations, and we do have some ideas but that still needs both development, and a real understanding of what really does happen.

One detail which is reported by experienced cyclists is that they can clearly identify how and where they lost control. This is not really being taken note of. Croydon's crash was at a junction where a junction layout creates an avoidable hazard (to create a pedestrian island that no one wants to use), and the track at that location was/is in a poor state - flatness-wise. To anyone who does fall my call is that you check the flatness, and ridges not only of the rail, but of the road surface as it fits around the concrete and other elements of the surface. Edinburgh cyclists, who were able to identify the point at which their tyre lost grip have noted that in some locations the thick green surfacing treatment had a sharp ridge, which had caused their bike to slide, and not the tram rail.

20 years ago I was working closely with those specifying Nottingham's system and the efforts made there have delivers a system with near flush rails looking almost as good as it did when installed, although the hazard of a tyre sliding on each side of the rail groove remains, and is clearly seen in this video, where a skilled cyclist stands up on the pedals, transfers his weight and uses the grip on the front tyre to flick the back wheel off the slippery rail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q36PJrRtpCk.

For rail level crossings a system is now approved and installed at a few notorious sites with results already apparent, but the construction system for tram lines makes its use prohibitively expensive and difficult to deliver. There are some options but these need to be developed

Trolley buses anyone remember them ? overhead power lines but running on normal wheels on the road.

Zurich is testing (was as of 2013) some safety systems for cyclists

Segregation and where they cross roads, they should be at proper right angles to the road direction seems to be an obvious answer but unlikely to happen.
I've had my grandad tell me about cycling in Birmingham back when we had trams everywhere in the city and perfecting the right angle turn whilst going forwards and making sure to go nowhere near them in the ice.

Can someone please explain to me how a tram or guided bus is better than a bog standard bus with a driver which does not need; special roads, special tracks, special power lines, create specific traffic flow issues to other road users or any of the other associated nonsense?

Or are they, as I suspect, some sort of ecomentalist hobby horse and hang the expense?

And yes, I do cycle to work partly because I don't want to create unnecessary pollution with my car.

I broke my ribs because a bus driver pulled out without looking properly...hit the tracks trying to mitigate the idiots driving.

Doesnt matter how experienced you are as a cyclist, or how carefully you ride, tram tracks mixed with cars and buses are evil