Cyclists injured on Edinburgh tram line paid £1.2m in compensation

Would that be a Schwalbe Kojak 20 x 1.35 Inch 35-406?  That would not be regarded as skinny in the UK.  Due to our particular population of "cyclists"* people are much more likely to be riding on roads with much thinner tyres (I was happy for years with 700 x 28 for everyday use).

Not paying attention may be true.  However I can assue you that the design set people up to fail (especially initially - it's still not all "fixed" almost 10 years on).  Places lead you across tram tracks at a shallow angle - the alternative being "get off and walk".  Even now there are plenty of places where you're in a lane *with* tram tracks, likely surrounded by fast moving taxis and buses (e.g. Princes Street - streetview here).  You may need to manoeuver to avoid e.g. buses pulling out across lanes.  You may want to turn into a side street. As the streetview shows, there's not much room for error!

Personally I've learned the points where I cross / run with the tracks and worked out what manoevers are safe!  Dutch infra - in my small experience of it - doesn't make your safety depend on detailed local knowledge.

* Often sporty anyway, but "the quick and the brave".  The requirement to cycle amongst lots of fast-moving traffic - because there's no network of convenient safe infra - means people choose "fast bikes".  Or they may be primarily sport cyclists anyway who then decide to use the bike to get about.

Indeed but as per previous debates there are cons as well as pros to them.

In the case of Edinburgh though - whatever the rights and wrongs of "the whole thing" - this would have best been avoided by getting external opinions and paying attention to them.  Or just considering expert advice which concerned organisations commissioned and paid for themselves.

Plenty of places have both trams and (lots of) cycling.

Edinburgh's tram system could've been built for half the cost and in half the time but with twice the network if it'd been done with a bit more forethought. The issues with regard to cycle safety could've been addressed easily too. But that's what happens when you get inexperienced council personnel taking on a  complex construction project, rather than asking a professional body like Transport Scotland to handle it.

You've got it.  At Haymarket westbound there are actually two paths marked out so you can pull out of the main traffic and into a taxi drop off access lane and get protection from a light phase.  So it's "safer" but may not be convenient.

Local group Spokes have a great deal of detail on this.  You can also get a feel for just how slow changes have been.  Not even all the mitigation the Council themselves suggested - after finally being given a push by a death - has been applied yet.

What on earth is that? Are you really meant to cycle within an inch of the tram line?

alansmurphy wrote:

What on earth is that? Are you really meant to cycle within an inch of the tram line?

And when you're within an inch of the tram line, how close are you to a passing tram?

You're quite right, you'd basically be up against the side of it there.  However while worse than it might be in practice you shouldn't be there at the same time as a tram. The mitigation: cyclists approaching from the east should be separated by a signal from sharing with a tram.  Coming from the direction circled in the image cyclists are diverted on to a different street and come out where the arrow is.  So you get a different signal and will be there either before or after a tram.

I regularly access Haymarket station by bike although I'm normally coming from the East side.  It's a very busy spot, with lots of taxis, buses, coaches, people walking AND the trams - plus the messy roadway you'd expect.  A new East-West separated 2-way cycle track is now in construction passing through here.  Opposite the station entrance I believe it'll cut diagonally across the road (detailed PDF of this section).

Thanks for the local knowledge, although I'm not sure I'd trust the phasing of the (no doubt foolproof!) lights to stop a tram coming up behind me...with its stop on a sixpence brakes. My only interactions with the tram lines in Edinburgh were at the western end of Prince's street/ Lothian Rd., thankfully both at 3.00 AM so revellers and taxis were more of a danger than trams. I recall that we were advised to dismount and use the crossing at that junction.

Welcome.  The junction at the West end is bad and was the scene of one of the two tram-line deaths.  Ghost bike still there as a warning.  Some movements are are OK, some fiddly, some have risks.

Transport cycling Edinburgh is "good for the UK" increasing to "excellent" if the off-road mini-network serves your particular journeys.  It's possible to avoid most nasty spots without massive inconvenience.  (Not been to see London, Cardiff, Manchester for time though).  However it start looking rather crap if you're woke (or even here).

First from the photo you should notice that the cycle 'lane' is actually INSIDE ther yellow dots which mark the DKE for a moving tram (the space that HAS to be kept clear to avoid a collision)
Also note the pairs of cracks  (30cm apart) & patch up repairs around them. This is where the load transfer reinforcement between 4-5m long track slabs has cracked through ground movement (when the old carriageway pavements were stripped away they destroyed 200 years of compaction over a bed of saturated alluvial deposits on top of fractured shale, & is keeps moving. Note also the cracking and raised edges of the concrete where is abuts the flexible tarmac pavement (+6mm on a dropped kerb will bring down a cyclist)
Practically the entire length from Haymarket Terrace to Waverley bridge has this problem some locations especially bad
The embedding system is also poor, and falls well outside the standards I worked on with HMRI for ORR and the Nottingham NET system in 1999, base on the 1870 Tramways Act, plus standards for highway pavements (+3mm upstand for metal, +6mm for high friction material). The 3mm standard featured in the notorious Roe vs Sheffield Supertram & Others case
The late Chris Oliver's report aligns with similar studies around the world and there are 5 basic mechanisms for losing control of a cycle crossing embedded rails around 70% are when the tyre is able to rotate and drop into the groove which is between 32 and 37mm wide - the perfect width to lock on to a 32-37mm ETRTO tyre, 20-25% are when a cyclist is turning/braking and the tyre contact patch has side forces with no resistance from the 2 steel edges (I've taken a video of how this happens). The other 3 are generally through VERY poor transverse profile of the rail in the pavement. For 50+% of crashes the rider is distracted by the actions of another road user, often crossing the rails too slowly or without a firm control of the handlebars. Hence Edinburgh has got special permission for road signs to reduce this risk
Zhi Min Soh fell and was run over (front wheels) by the driver of a Rabbies Tours mini-coach, following behind and staggeringly unable to stop in time from 20mph? This happened less than 4 years after Roger de Klerk was killed in Croydon also by a bus driver running over him in the 20mph zone at Cherry Orchard Road, and the fatality on the level Crossing at Botany Bay near Retford seems very similar.
Over the years I have assembled a lot of detail should anyone want to help me get this on the table for resolution

Thanks for your detailed knowledge. The local campaign group - Spokes - might be interested especially as IIRC a proposal for the new section is out. (I'm sure there are other concerned groups as well).

Unfortunately Edinburgh Council and its arms-length trams company have been quite resistant to even professional external advice in the past. From your working life you may know why. An enquiry into some of the problems was out late last year also (article here):

https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/09/28/edinburgh-tram-inquiry-is-scathi...

Spokes have a general "all things tram" here:

http://www.spokes.org.uk/documents/public-transport/tram/