Bike journo Mike McKisson reported via Bicycle Tucson yesterday on the discipline action of a SunLink streetcar driver, who passed a cyclist too closely. Evidently, while streetcar drivers aren't bound by the same state law that requires vehicles to provide three feet for passing cyclists. However, SunLink has its own rules, which follow the state law.

McKisson posted that if you experience unsafe behavior by streetcar operators, send an email to sunlinkstreetcarcomments@tucsonaz.

From Bicycle Tucson:

In a comment posted on Bicycle Tucson, Paul Thomas, the cyclist involved in the incident, said the streetcar was within inches of him while riding west on University Boulevard.

“I encountered an extremely close collision with one of these street cars. The street car made a VERY unsafe pass, missing me by mere centimeters,” Thomas wrote.

Streetcar drivers are not bound by Arizona law to provide three feet of room when passing a cyclist because there is an exemption for vehicles that use rails. However SunLink’s own rules require drivers to provide three feet.
According to a police report, Thomas caught up to the streetcar after the operator passed him and stood on the tracks preventing the streetcar from moving until the police arrived.