Originally Posted by
sm1960
I don't get it. This forum typically complains about cars behaving badly, but when an infrastructure change that can reduce the number of drivers on the road is proposed there are complaints about that also. I understand rail tracks are tricky to navigate, but isn't that better than the car?
True enough, but there are good ways and bad ways to install trolley tracks. In Seattle, the South Lake Union trolley was installed in such a way that the tracks run right down the right-hand lane of traffic. And the gap is huge, *and* the tracks curve around the streets in such a way that it's almost impossible in some places for a cyclist to cross them at 90 degrees.
So you have cyclists figuring out how to ride within the tracks, or between the tracks and the curb, and then figuring out at certain intersections whether to ride erratically in order to cross the tracks at 90 degrees, or whether to cross the gap in the tracks at an oblique angle.
As I understand it, the city has pretty much admitted they blew it on Phase 1 of the project. For Phase 2, which is being planned now, the tracks will run down the center of the street.