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Comment by pmoriarty | Hacker News Reader

Speaking of Amsterdam and bike safety: Amsterdam has lots of street-level trams that share the road (without protective dividers in some of the busiest parts of the city) not just with cars but with millions of bicycles and pedestrians.

I'm kind of shocked that this would be allowed in Amsterdam, one of the most bike-friendly cities on the planet, considering how easy it is for bicycles to get their wheels stuck in the tram tracks while trying to cross them, and what a hazard trams are to bicycles and pedestrians.

The risk of injury is further aggravated by many of the pedestrians being drunk, stoned, or high on a large variety of substances easily available in the city, and many of them being tourists who are unfamiliar with the city and not used to expecting random trams popping out of the middle of nowhere while they're walking down an otherwise pedestrian- and bicycle-populated street.

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This is all rather exaggerated. Nobody wears helmets, yet the number of accidents is very low The number of high or drunk people is not higher than elsewhere. Falling because your wheel gets stuck in the rails will not seriously injure you. Just watch out next time.

Source: lived here for 40 years.

> considering how easy it is for bicycles to get their wheels stuck in the tram tracks

This is one of the reasons to use a mountain-bike in the city.

Virtually everyone in Amsterdam rides ancient one-speed "city" bikes. Anything else would get stolen in five minutes flat (and you only really need one speed anyway, since the city's flat). Tram tracks are a hazard for pretty much all of them.

Thing with these tracks is that you know where they are and thus you can anticipate. Just as with the trams riding them: if you stay off the tracks the chance of being run over by a tram are quite close to zero. Cars however are different. These tend to sneak up on you or come out of dark street corner unexpectedly. Their agility, speed and mass make it a true killer... In short: trams are part of life in Amsterdam and the locals are used to them and their tracks. Overall the quality of the bike lanes in the Netherlands is excellent and exceeds by far what SF has now...

I've yet to meet anyone in Amsterdam who has not had an encounter with tram tracks -- whether sober, stoned or drunk...

Well, it's a lesson, then ;-)

Unless you're too drunk to learn.

Nevertheless, I grew up in a city with trams and never had an encounter with tracks in that way. Maybe roads, cycleways, and tram tracks are better separated than in Amsterdam. Off the top of my head I cannot think of a place where I could accidentally ride a bike along the tram tracks; it's either far away from them or crossing them, neither of which is dangerous. Of course, cars are still a problem, especially with cycleways that are part of the road and not separated in any way.

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