Sometimes when watching videos on effective ways of public transport and trams come up, I get a bit annoyed at people not addressing the fact that they seem to share the road with cars. Why do people twerk for trams so much as a form of light rail if they share the road with cars and are subject to being affected by traffic? Doesn’t that just make them rail buses without their own bus lane? Doesn’t that make them more obsolete? Why do people like them so much?
Edit: Also, does anyone have any resources about the cost to benefit ratio of different intratown/city forms of transport (bike lanes, BRT, trams and other forms of light rail, subways etc)? Would be much appreciated.
Well for starters a tram can move a lot more people than a bus with just 1 driver.
You have more safety in adverse weather conditions.
They usually last wayy longer than buses. (so more cost effective)
I’m not completely sure on the traffic one, like, they have their own lane, and in my country you cannot use it so could you elaborate on this one?
Of course a bus is better for flexibility, but for fixed travel routes the tram just seems a lot better for me.
Sure. Some cities where I come from where trams exists have roads that have tram tracks in the middle of them. As others have alluded to this is probably rare - I don’t really know as the last time I took a tram I was too young to remember it and I live in a town that has no trams at all.
Because of my experience with seeing tram tracks on roads I assumed they shared significant parts of their journey with road cars which made me think they’re subject to traffic jams.