Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am!
---PCJ
Original Post
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Wow! So many careless drivers and pedestrians to cope with. I am very empathetic with the trolley drivers.
What a shame for the drivers who hit pedestrians. Through no fault of their own, I might add. In the videos, I am amazed at how calmly the drivers all reacted to their situations. I suspect that steel nerves are part of the requirements to be a tram driver.
The train wins every time
Them tram drivers are pretty calm considering,can recall as a L motorman leaving the station late at night folks ducking under crossing gates in front of me was lucky though on all occasion's along with the satisfaction of scaring the heck out of them blowing the horn with foot button then screaming out cab window "are you crazy".
You'll never fix STUPID!!
wild mary posted:You'll never fix STUPID!!
So true of course in my case there was a late night bar right next to the station so we always had to be careful working the midnight shift.
wild mary posted:You'll never fix STUPID!!
Oh, I dunno. Father Charles (Darwin) does a pretty good job... 
Dan Padova posted:What a shame for the drivers who hit pedestrians. Through no fault of their own, I might add. In the videos, I am amazed at how calmly the drivers all reacted to their situations. I suspect that steel nerves are part of the requirements to be a tram driver.
In the last clip, it's pretty clear when she hung her head, the driver was affected by the pedestrian getting hit by the other tram.
Still you'd think where street running is a common occurrence, people would know better. I would suspect the European legal systems also favors the tram drivers.
Rusty
It is fantastic that these trolley drivers have videos of their mishaps. Otherwise I can see slip & trip lawyers having a field day with these incidents.
The bottom line for cities that have or would like to have streetcars is the streetcars should really have a designated right of way. There are a few locations in Philly where I have seen streetcar only postings. But these are mostly at or near intersections. The rest of the lines are usually a free for all.
These are the same folks that change lanes in front of you without looking in their mirrors. How on earth do you not see something as large as a tram!
YEP!!!!!
Rick
These are the same folks that change lanes in front of you without looking in their mirrors. How on earth do you not see something as large as a tram!
I thought these drivers were only in Wisconsin.
Ray
I watched the video a few time and none of the drivers, with the exception of the lady at the end, seemed to be fazed by any of the collisions.
Bobby Ogage posted:It is fantastic that these trolley drivers have videos of their mishaps. Otherwise I can see slip & trip lawyers having a field day with these incidents.
Which is why the transit authorities have cameras mounted in their vehicles... 
Here are some more which didn't result in collisions, but were close calls anyway:
---PCJ
And that's in Europe where people are much more accustomed to trams and streetcars !
Seems to me that the simple addition of strobe lights, at a low level, about the height of a typical car rear view mirror, would help drivers see the tram when they pull out in front of them. The trams may have headlights, but they might be mounted too high to appear in the normal mirror vision area.
Not a Tram Driver (I'm an Engineer), but regardless of what you're running, crossing incidents suck. Had 9 of them and I absolutely, positively, will NOT miss a moment of those after I retire come May.
