Passers-by pull cyclist to safety after tram fall

Should have chatted about this on 15th after Road Danger reception.

There are 5 basic ways that rails can bring down 2 wheelers and other rubber tyred traffic  as well and riding too slowly across the rails at a shallow angle is one of the main ones - ride faster, and with firm control of the 'bars deals with one issue. The other is do not make any powerful demands on the tyre contact patch  as there are conditions where you have no resistance to sideways forces applied by steering and braking  as you cross the rails.

The levels are another detail - badly installed track has the same effect as a dropped kerb if hit at an oblique angle. If you do fall take pictures and measurements as quickly as possible as the trace of your tyres in the road grease on the rail is a very transient piece of evidence and rapidly gets erased

I have come off 3 times in the last 6 years and every time it has been on the tram tracks. Always at low speed in the rain. The tracks are a danger in the wet.

Unlike trucks and buses, trams are all fitted with proper lifeguards and will push any fallen cyclist along the road in front. They are driven line of sight as all other traffic on the road but with track brakes will stop very fast as the magnets stick the steel tram to the steel rails.

Croydon has an appalling flatness profile acros the rails and in many places it will be the extruded of missing chunks of tarmac either side of the rails that bring a cyclist down rather than the groove itself. This is, in places,  being addressed but the fundemantal design is badly flawed since repairs will be destroyed, as the original installation, by the tyre forces applied by large and heavy vehicles.

If you fall - check the flatness profile, secure pictures of the transient evidence (the marks in road dirt on the rail where the tyre skidded, which will disappear with first tram passing) and try to analyse in which of 5 basic ways the skid was induced. Remember anything over 6mm is recognised as a ridge that can bring down a cyclist whether its a smooth steel rail edge or concrete of a dropped kerb

Trams on reserved track or in the centre of the street was the normal system when we first had trams. This avoided the major issues, especially the tram pinch with a special road sign, which is now created where tram system designers decide (wrongly IMO) to put tram stops at the sides with elevated kerbs and not in the middle of the street.

Rubber inserts in the groove have never worked, this is a naieve concept in engineering terms, as the rubber has nowhere to go and must then spring back to its original shape. The problem has been solved for level crossings but trams on tight curves need grooved rails.

As the tram tracks are 'premises' of the tram system, injuries are reported as if the system was a workplace and Heaklth & Safety law applies.

One caveat - I do hope that a head trauma check was carried out. In 2007 a cyclist fell and banged their head, but went home, and 12 hours later the blood clot delivered a fatal outcome as his headache rapidly worsened

I am glad she isn't that injured. Seeing the number of tram incidents on this website and others, something needs to be done. I still think tram tracks should have a rubber filler in the gap so that your tyre doesn't get stuck, yet the weight of the tram pushes it out of the way. Even then, the metal rail itself is slippery when it rains making it twice as dangerous.

I reckon the only other solution is dedicated tramways that run away from the roads and cross at right angles. It would be too expensive though and in established towns/cities it is damned near impossible.