http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/video/news/cyclist-crashes-due-to-tram-tracks-3741723027001

That should probably read cyclist crashes due to their own stupidity.

Maybe he was trying to corner, like it’s on rails.

Did that twice when living in The Hague… Thought I was so clever using a mountain bike in the city as the tyres would not fit down the grooves, but forgot about the wider bits on points…. And the other time I forgot I was riding a mates bike, with the thinner tyres…. That time I needed to get a new wheel 🙁

Love the kid who waves at the camera 😀

That should probably read cyclist crashes due to their own stupidity.

So what should the cyclist have done? the tram tracks join the road at a shallow angle – the options are try to hop them, get squeezed into the side and try to ride in the gutter, or cut across them at a sharper angle by weaving right.

No safe way to do it.

Serves him right for filming in portrait.

So what should the cyclist have done?

Either hopping them or going for a more sensible angle would work, or my preference – a combination of both. Losing a tiny wee bit of speed to make it a bit safer would have helped a lot.

I cycle over that junction every day in life and have came nowhere near to falling off yet, so there is obviously a safe way to do it.

Looked painful. I wonder how fast a tram can stop compared to a car?

Needs a fat bike.

Either hopping them or going for a more sensible angle would work, or my preference – a combination of both.

A road design that requires cyclists to do that kind of thing to avoid falling off is a very bad road design.

Content not working for me 🙁

Nor me.

A road design that requires cyclists to do that kind of thing to avoid falling off is a very bad road design.

Yes, I agree. The road is incredibly badly designed.

In this video you can see that the cycle lane actually goes through the taxi rank. You can also see how folk who have a better idea of what they are doing cross the tracks without falling off.

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/cyclists-steer-clear-of-lethal-haymarket-junction-1-3322215

For those who cant see the video it goes something like this – cyclist doing 20mphish on a road bike > wet road (Haymarket junction)> crosses wet tram tracks at very shallow angle > falls off and slides along the road.

wet tram lines on road bike = hitting a slippery root section while locking out the brakes in forest 😯

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZnDlcBVlIg[/video]

quite nice how many people went over to help him up. People would have stepped over him and carried on their way in some other parts of the country or stolen his bike.

So what should the cyclist have done? the tram tracks join the road at a shallow angle – the options are try to hop them, get squeezed into the side and try to ride in the gutter, or cut across them at a sharper angle by weaving right.

No safe way to do it. the ‘safest’ way is probably the option that is signposted (badly) where the cyclist goes left through the taxi rank and then cuts across the tracks at a more obtuse angle. In my experience less than 1:20 riders does what is actually intended.

He’s not the first person to have come off there, and with the volume of traffic in the area I think eventually someone will get properly hurt by a following vehicle.

road wet; shallow angle. TBH I’ve only biked in Edinburgh once or twice since the tram lines went in, consider myself competent and they still freaked me out.

It’s an odd state of affairs that expects cyclists to just deal with pretty substantial hazards like that. I guess similar to manhole covers and the like..

Ah, the Edinburgh tram. A work of true economic and civilplanning/ engineering genius. 😆

Can we expect more of this type of wonderful implementation of fantastic ideas, if Scotland does somehow gain independence?

quite nice how many people went over to help him up. People would have stepped over him and carried on their way in some other parts of the country or stolen his bike.

I noticed that too +1 for the populus of Edinburgh.

Ah, the Edinburgh tram. A work of true economic and civilplanning/ engineering genius.

Whoa whoa whoa, don’t drag us Engineers into it… Most of us had tried to push for a guided busway in an attempt to appease the powers that be. Sadly, it’s classic case of infrastructure being designed around politcal rather than end-user requirements.

To be honest, the tram lines do actually put me off commuting to work on the bike because of issues like this (especially if a bus is driving 2m behind your back wheel as they tend to). So instead I use the park and ride – the buses for which now take longer to get out of town due to the tram priorities on Princes Street, grr!

As for those that sit on the ‘cyclist should ride better’ category, that’s not really a tenet for proper highway design, encouraging people to leave their cars at home, and is pretty much like putting an oil slick down the centre of the road and telling car drivers to just keep in the middle of the lane, you’ll have wheels either side of it so you’ll be fine.

It is easy to mock a silly roadie for not being gnar enough to hop a track but it does look like a very badly designed junction/ way to join the tram tracks. Plus, crashing like that is bloomin’ horrible on it’s own… not to mention the risk the other traffic also poses to someone sprawled on the ground.

Whoa whoa whoa, don’t drag us Engineers into it…

To clarify; I was referring to Civil Engineers and planners; those types who think up these sort of schemes. The geniuses behind such great works. 😉

Why on earth would anyone need to be riding a bike anyway with such a good public transport system..? 😉

😆

Especially considering it rains all the tme there!

stoffel – Member
I was referring to Civil Engineers

So was I 😉 This is one of the things that really saddens me about the trams, the general public think that it was all down to bad design from Engineers/Planners, etc. when really it was the pie in the sky thinking and utter mis-management by the Council and those in political circles.

Even in the ‘cycle safely’ video ^^ the riders need to cross the tracks at a shallow angle at least once.

It looks like there will be a few videos of accidents before long.

To be honest a lot of the tarmac on the original video looks pretty slick.

Matt

This is one of the things that really saddens me about the trams, the general public think that it was all down to bad design from Engineers/Planners, etc. when really it was the pie in the sky thinking and utter mis-management by the Council and those in political circles.

Surely it’s a resounding success from start to finish,no? And that all parties involved, frompoliticians, council leders and engineers can collectively give themselves a paton the back!

Or am I missing something?