Making streetcar tracks safer for bicyclists | SafeRails

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:

What cyclist isn’t familiar with the problem, the threat of getting stuck in the tramrails when you are cycling through town? Maybe you even know somebody who crashed or had a near-miss? And why did nobody tackle this issue yet?

SafeRails focusses on developing a profile which can be implemented in existing tramrails’ gutters. The profile will support a parallel cycling bicycle wheel, however it will also let a tram wheel pas without hindrance by deforming elastically. The key-element in this innovation is its simplicity which makes it easy to produce in large lengths.

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Making streetcar tracks safer for bicyclists | SafeRails

MoBikeFed comment: This issue has come home to Missouri, with new streetcar tracks going in both in St. Louis and Kansas City. The problem with the tracks is that the groove is parallel to the bicyclists direction of travel and miles of these tracks are now installed in St. Louis and Kansas City on the exact location in the travel lane where bicyclists would prefer to travel.

For now we are suggesting that bicyclists simply avoid streets with streetcar tracks where possible. They are extremely hazardous and very hard for bicyclists to avoid. This is a serious problem in both Kansas City and St. Louis, as the area of town where the streetcar tracks are installed, and the streets they are on, are very high bicycle traffic areas.

This is an issue in European cities with streetcar tracks as well--though through good design they have often created a better situation than the one we are facing in Kansas City and St. Louis, where the location of the tracks in the street has made bicycle travel on these streets more dangerous than necessary.

These students have created a product that has the potential to help in situations like this. Check it out.