Here in Toronto they're moving towards having dedicated lanes for streetcars, and having streetcars as something closer to light rail rather than buses on tracks.

I know of several major streets that used to be impossible to get anywhere on in a timely fashion, in a car or a streetcar, because of heavy traffic. Then they banned cars from the streetcar lane and suddenly the streetcars were extremely efficient and punctual. (The streetcars debark on sheltered islands in the middles of these four- or six-lane roads, and a signalled crosswalk gets you to the sidewalk from the island.)

As a sometimes (read: when there's too much snow to bike) public transit rider, I like the streetcars. Streetcar tracks are a danger for cyclists to avoid, and avoiding them is a skill to be learned. Unfortunately it seems like too many people get on a bike for the first time not knowing about the hazard. I got caught in a track once (fortunately starting from a stop, so I wasn't going fast and neither was the car behind me), and so did one of my coworkers (fell in front of a streetcar and narrowly escaped being hit), and once I saw a guy come out of a bike shop with a new motor-assist bike, zip off down the street, and hit a track and go flying (pieces of new bike everywhere, and his helmet made a nice *thud* on the pavement).

Not sure how to get the idea across to new cyclists before they head out, though.