Got it. You took the photo too close, so I took it for granted that you were riding parallel the the tracks.

So, you were crossing the tracks, and happened to pick the one dumb place to do it. As you mentioned, you were aware of the issue, which is really no different than tracks, and simply weren't thinking.

I get that. We all do something similar from time to time, so I don't blame you. But I find it hard to blame anybody else when someone disengages the brain and rides into a known hazard.

As cyclists, we need to stay alert for all sorts of road hazards that are hazards only because our skinny tires. Those include trolley tracks, the parallel joints between slabs of concrete, uneven steps in pavement, steel plates, sewer grates, and so on.

Some, such as sewer grates, can be eliminated through engineering changes, but others will always be there. Here, they've turned the sewer grates, but the entire grate often pulls away from the pavement, leaving a tire eating gap there. Likewise, there is often fractured pavement at the edges of grates which is also hard on cyclists.

So, we all have to stay alert, for the simple reason that we're the ones with the most at stake.