1 yr. ago • 100%

I love me some grassy trams

Solarpunk Urbanism @slrpnk.net I love me some grassy trams

19 comments

Why should someone not like trams? I love them because you also get to watch out of the windows compared to the metro

1
My nearest transport is a nice grassy tram track. Trams can rumble past street cafes and pedestrian areas with less disturbance and smell than a busy car road. But they don't have the speed of an underground or rural train. Commuters usually want the fastest option. Trams have their place as part of an integrated system. But they take up surface space and get held up when they intersect with traffic or deep snow. Safety-wise they do occasionally hit an errant car or person on the line. A friend was hit and in a coma after not spotting a tram while crossing at a bad place. But people in the city normally get out of the way as they don't want the driver to ring his loud bell at them.

So trams have their pros and cons.

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I like the trams. I like the trees. I like the greenery in the city. I don’t like that the tram pathway looks like a field to play in from the perspective of a young child.

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- there’s been like 3 deaths total from tram collisions in the last 200 years 💀
  
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  That’s good! It doesn’t mean we have to ignore the bad things that can happen with the alternatives to worse options. Even at low speed there’s still a high chance of serious injury in a collision.
  
  -2
- I don't think they'll have a chance of being hit by these trams, as they first have to cross three lanes of traffic either side of the trees (not pictured).
  
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- It's not a problem in Helsinki as there are plenty of green spaces for children to play in that aren't the tramway.
  
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- Many trams don't actually drive that fast. Some googling suggests this is Helsinki. Their trams run at 14km/h. That's easily slow enough to react to a kid running onto the track.
  
  Also this seems to have roads on either side, so I don't think there would be many children playing in that area.
  
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  From the perspective of the tram driver there are a lot of trees along the tram way. Those trees could make a blind spot for the driver if a kid was playing along the tracks.
  
  My point is that why replace one danger cars and then write off the other dangers as irrelevant. With some effort I think we can get both dealt with. However, if this is Helsinki how has this actually performed? That can help guide risk assessment too.
  
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I don't know about "peak urbanism", because this is a far cry from the elegant systems in like Singapore or China but yeah, this is so much better than having cars clogging the streets.

Let's just make sure to remain sceptical of the state in this regard and ve vigilant. They'll use every chance they get to introduce smart city stuff in there that'll be harvested forever without your true consent.

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- elegant systems in like Singapore or China
  
  how’s grass on tram tracks contradictory to any of that
  
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  It's not, the picture just shows very terrible german trams on even more terrible rails and since I have to take these every day, you can trust me that they're uncomfortable, shaky and stand no chance against whatever they're using in Singapore, for example.
  
  -4

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