I spent a few weeks in Rotterdam last year and explored the tram lines end to end looking to see how they’d designed the infrastructure to support cycling. I saw a whole range, from really good to really bad. Here are selection of photo’s that illustrate the range of conditions. There is a Google Photos album with all these in here. Peppelweg
The latest Sheffield Council report into the dangers caused to cyclists by the city’s tram lines has been a long time coming. Commissioned in July 2014, issued to the council in Sept 2015, and published in June 2016. After almost 2 years of work, the report should be impressive, but sadly it’s deeply disappointing and its severely lacking in a number of key areas outlined below. You can read the full report here. ...
Sheffield is embarking on a national pilot for running light rail trams on traditional heavy rail train track. The transport authority in charge have today confirmed that tram trains will not carry bicycles at any time. The knowledge that we obtain from the pilot will enable us to understand the technical and operational challenges involved in this project so that the concept can potentially be rolled out elsewhere in the UK - Norman Baker - May 2012 ...
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the dangers posed to cycling from tram tracks. I quoted from a Sheffield Council investigation into the safety of cycling around tram tracks. The report mentions the need for good quality road surfaces around tram lines. In most documents regarding on-street cycle lanes it is specifically recommended that maintenance of the surface should be of primary importance, as cyclists are particularly sensitive to the quality of a road surface. Whilst in practice this is rarely implemented due to financial constraints, throughout the tram route the road has been remade and the surface re-laid and so is generally in good condition and can be expected to remain so for a number of years to come. ...
Update: Have you crashed on the tram lines? You can now report it online, here, at tramcrash.co.uk TramCrash.co.uk Report your bicycle crashes on tram lines here We have a tram network in Sheffield known as the Supertram, it opened in 1994 and has 35km of track with about 50% of this on normal streets shared with normal vehicles. ...
Are these cycle lanes? Perhaps the cycle route signs give an obvious answer? If you think they are cycle lanes then you’d be wrong. These are not cycle lanes.. These ’lanes’ actually indicate areas of danger according to information presented to the Sheffield City Council Cycle Forum. As part of the Supertram project, red surfacing and white lines were introduced to indicate to drivers how to avoid the tram tracks and to guide them onto a conventional surface. ...