Cyclists and streetcar tracks don't mix : TreeHugger

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

TreeHugger loves bikes, and we love streetcars too. The problem is, they often don’t play nice together. When riding my bike in Toronto, there is nothing that scares me more than to be stuck on a street with streetcar tracks and find that some big truck is parked, probably a construction vehicle with orange cones out, where cyclists are forced out into the streetcar tracks. Or turning left at an intersection where two streetcar lines cross; it is a mess of track spaghetti. I know many people who have got stuck in them and flipped off their bikes; a dear friend did it just last Thursday and is in bed now with a mild concussion, a shattered helmet and a few broken ribs.

Toronto has lots of streetcar tracks, and more and more cities in the US are installing them. Those cities should consider this recent study, Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention that looked at how cyclists and streetcar tracks interact, and it isn't pretty.

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Cyclists and streetcar tracks don't mix : TreeHugger

MoBikeFed comment: Like this author, at MoBikeFed we love bikes and we love streetcars, too. But streetcar tracks are *very* dangerous for bicyclists and we need to recognize that, as well.

Even worse than the tracks described in this article, the new streetcar tracks in both Kansas City and St. Louis are installed in a way that is unnecessarily dangerous and difficult for bicyclists. Most cities install their streetcar tracks in the center of the roadway, precisely to avoid conflicts with bicycle travel.

But in both Kansas City and St. Louis, designers chose to install the streetcar tracks near the curb. That means that the tracks are smack in the middle of the lane that bicyclists customarily use--and bicyclist on those streets have literally no safe space to ride.

For now we are suggesting that Missouri bicyclists simply avoid streets with streetcar tracks where possible. They are extremely hazardous and very hard for bicyclists to avoid.

Please read this entire article--it is an excellent summary of the issue