CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"Edinburgh faces £1m tram payout to injured cyclists"
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Posted 4 years ago #
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I refer to Chris Oliver's paper & will post a more detailed sermon shortly.
Over 20 years ago I was working with Pedals, HMRI (now ORR) and the NET promoter to deliver Nottingham trams with safer track 'profiles' drawing on the Tramways Act 1870, and a range of defined limits for road pavement irregularities - basically 6mm for high friction ridges, 3mm for low friction edges & thermoplastic road markings.
The Nottingham track, even after 20+ years still has a good transverse profile with the only 'slot' to deal with being the flangeway groove. This detail has also been delivered in Manchester (after a disasterous delivery of the first track, which had to be rebuilt after barely 10 years) Similar issues with Croydon and Sheffield, with the latter having to raise their game when Mr Roe claimed for his injuries after crashing his car, due, in part to the rails sticking up above the road surface by over 3mm - surprisingly this was not a detail used by the claimants as even when new there were ridges of 9-10 mm either side of the Edinburgh rails.
Contemporary with Edinburgh, there was track being laid in Blackpool, and Manchester, and informal observations noted that Edinburgh's quality was a massive nadir when measured against the consistent quality delivered elsewhere. Manchester warrants special note, delivering a pavement finishing screed with high friction roadstone content, pressure cleaned at 24hr green strength, to deliver a pavement very precisely 2mm higher than the rails, and their rubber boot insulation.
I'm grateful to @arellcat for assisting input from research on Scotland Street Tunnel, which highlighted the rubbish geology on which the tracks and carriageway have been built between Haymarket and St Andrew Street, and a strong suspicion that unlike Manchester, where the contracts provide for no track being built until the ground had a proven bearing strength (CBR 15) and other tests (Cohesion - Vane Test) included was provision for measured remedial work, where the ground was too weak.
There is clear evidence that the underlying ground is sinking under the carriageway in several places, & there is movement in the tram track slabs (cracks & bits of concrete falling out, patches of tarmac, concrete etc - and some bits that you can rock around with your own weight). A section of Princes Street has sunk at least 6 inches, and there is another big hollow at the Manor Place junction where buses visibly bounce (can anyone get a good video?)
Oh & like Chris's results the matching Toronto study of cyclists falls also shows that over 50% were delivered when another road user's actions caused the cyclists to alter their approach to crossing the rails, often slowing down, which increases the risk of trapping the front tyre, or turning/braking as they crossed the rails which increases the risk of sliding.
Posted 4 years ago #
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