>>164122

That's what happens when cities aren't willing to shell out for a dedicated right-of-way.

oh my god the tram uses the same lane as my car ? WHAT AN OUTRAGE!!!

learn to drive faggots ....

Having trams share the lane with cars sort of defeats the purpose, why not just use trolley-buses and save a shitload of money on tracks? (Not to mention that a bus can go around a traffic accident blocking the lane while a tram can't)

>>164125
traditionally trams and streetcars operated on the roads.
Have no problem with it Europe & Melbourne, or American cities when they had them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11L5jvvatSE

>>164127

trams have moar capacity.

>>164143
You can get long trolley-buses too.

>>164150
You can also get long trams.

>>164151
Trams (or rather, trains) this long almost always go on dedicated tracks.

>>164177
from the looks of it thats actualy a dedicated track

anyways
coming from a city with over 30 tramlines
where most run on tracks on 2 laned streets
accidents that require the tram to sit there not being able to go arround are practicaly unhear of
if there is one its prety quickly cleaned up

as for the whole trolleybus thing being better
not realy id say just diffrent
bus wears down the street faster, overhead works more expensive
but whole system is cheaper (often because road wear and tear is never ever ever included in any calculations) can indeed go arround obstacles and so on and so forth

it all boils down to the driving capabilities of the populus
if most people can actualy drive trams are just as much "in the way" as busses and trucks but if you folow the simple rule "it has the right of way because it can flatten your car" your good

on the other hand of you are scared little girl you are apparently among a large percentage of american motorists

>>164177

It does run on a dedicated lane here, but shares the track with cars a few hundred meters east from there and runs through a pedestrian zone west from there, pic related. Maximum vehicle lenght is 75 meters, which is exactly the legal limit for trams in mixed traffic given by German law. And there are certainly no buses with a comparable capacity.

>>164177
Don't you see the grade separation?

SEPTA trolley in Philadelphia

>>164128
At the past Golden Age of Streetcars there weren't much car traffic to speak about. No traffic lights, no traffic jams.

Then cars became widespread and, because of various things, their problems were allowed to impact streetcars (and buses at the time), too. In fact, their problems were explicitly shared with public transportation. Buses were being pitched as a streetcar replacement that uses the exact same streets cars do.

However, there's one kind of place that kind of development simply can not stand: large cities. For them the underground (or elevated) suburban rail was proposed and installed.

Underground rail is, however, overkill for all but the largest of cities. The affordable alternative -- street level trains (and bus lanes to some extent) -- was forgotten.

In Zagreb, where I currently live, trams are so fucking slow you can barely believe it. Traffic lights are not properly synched up for efficiency. I can't believe a city this small has this amount of traffic.