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Pretty much every day someone parks their car on the tram tracks and blocks our city's tram network from operating
(feddit.org)
This does unfortunately happen multiple times per day. Sometimes it’s smaller incidents where the tram driver can get out and collapse the car’s mirror. Other times the owner of the car comes out of a nearby house after the tram used its bell extensively (like today) and moves the car. And then there are times when police needs to get involved to tow the car which often takes upwards of 1 hour.
The truly infuriating part is that if the tram damages a poorly parked car, the transportation company will have to pay the damages. Poorly parked vehicles never get fined and the owners will only need to pay if the car ends up getting towed.
Why do we accept that drivers sabotage a city’s public transport infrastructure like this?
This seems to be in germany: There is already a 70 Euro fine for parking on tram tracks, someone has to report it though... Additionally the driver of the car is liable for civil damages which can reach thousands of euros, including full payment for alternative transportation by busses etc.
You can argue as long as you want: In every one of those cars is probably an inconsiderate person but the whole concept of a tram is flawed. There is a practically unlimited amount of possible infractions, everyone makes a bad judgement at some time, but the tram simply cannot deviate like a few centimetres to the left. If you want a useful system on tracks you need to reduce complexity and burrow it underground or lift it up on stilts. And even then, every fault is potentially a dead stop of whole parts of the system. And i do not even account for the A****les who just don't give a shit or act on purpose.
One might call for more repelling, more drastic measures, but one simply cannot prevent the simple everyday errors and lapses.
just equip each tram with one of those parking aide roombas they got in China and most of these cars should be a 5 minute fix imo
Also 70€ means nothing to rich parasites, fines need to be calculated based on incrementally rising percentages of the driver/owner's net-worth.
Yeah, I'm fully on board with income-based fines. The current ticket rates are a joke for high-income people — less of a fine, more like a pricey parking spot.
The fault is not with the tram. It's allowing cars on the tram tracks. Ban that, and the problem is fixed.
Most trams I encountered cannot leave their tracks, except that specific Chinese one. Regardless of circumstances they usually are hope- and helplessly stuck. Switch is stuck? Well, every tram driver gets out to set it manually. Accident (even without cars)? Well it's not like you will drive around the site. Broken catenary? Out of luck, again. The system "tram" can hardly mitigate any faults or emergencies, therefore it is flawed IMHO.
btw: Cars are not allowed to park (vulgo: banned) on the tram tracks. There is also plenty of tracks, where cars are not even allowed to drive on (seceded, underground or elevated).
Those problems are incredibly rare on a well designed tram system. Trams are simple machines, and therefore incredibly reliable when well maintained. Not leaving the tracks is an advantage because it makes it super predictable where the tram is going, which means you can easily mix it with bikes and pedestrians (though not cars, which are too bulky and clumsy to mix with anything).