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.
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2014.
Did he expect the streetcar to swerve around him?
You’d think bicycle riders would be more aware of the tracks and not get so close to them.
Did the streetcar hit him or not? He says he “encountered an extremely close collision” but from what I can tell, it was “an extremely near MISS.” And because streetcars are on tracks and can’t move from one side to another the way cars (or yes, bicycles!) can, does the streetcar’s three-foot rule mean that a streetcar must coast along BEHIND a bicyclist who doesn’t move over? I’m just generally confused about the whole scenario.
… its own rules.
– Ms. Grammar
It sounds like the bicyclist was looking for a confrontation. The bicyclist should have been cited for impeding traffic
What a moron!!! LMAO, keep your goofy ass bike out of the way of TRAINS Dipshit!!!!!!
As a cyclist who rides downtown every week I am embarrassed by the actions of this cyclist. The streetcar is very easy to share the road with, although the city did design a few bottle necks on 4th, but these are easy to work around once you know where they are. The streetcar does not move laterally from side to side as it is on tracks and is incredibly predictable, better than any car on the road. I would rather be within inches of the streetcar than within 2 feet of a car because it won’t move sideways!
Standing in the middle of the tracks? It sounds like he was purposely riding close and trying to cause a scene. He should have been ticketed by the police.
Share the road whether you are on bike or in a car, it belongs to all of us!
I ride bikes but that guy sounds like a jerk. Sometime before I was 5 years old I learned that vehicles on tracks were expected to stay on the tracks.
This guy is a jerk. I regularly ride my bike on University and 4th Ave. If necessary I move over and let the streetcar go past. He should of been ticketed.
It seems to me, that basic knowledge of physics and logic has once again failed.
Rather than piling on the cyclist in this occurrence, it might be appropriate to consider any mitigating circumstances. Was there also a parked car that was too far from the curb at this time? The operator of the streetcar is still required to use common sense when passing a cyclist.
Note also, if this is the cyclist involved, he’s obviously a very experience rider!
http://www.usacycling.org/results/?compid=…
JCC said: “Note also, if this is the cyclist involved, he’s obviously a very experience rider!”
He’s not THAT experienced if he can’t see that a train on rails can’t swerve, and that he ought to take a little extra time and care around such things, racer that he is.
It seems by the description, the streetcar PASSED the bike.
“…The street car made a VERY unsafe pass, missing me by mere centimeters,”
If the streetcar came from behind and passed the bike, then all this uninformed criticism of biker seems inappropriate. Its harder to avoid a streetcar if its coming up from behind and passing you. That would be a scenario in which the streetcar driver would be at fault.
Mykl4now said: “If the streetcar came from behind and passed the bike, then all this uninformed criticism of biker seems inappropriate. Its harder to avoid a streetcar if its coming up from behind and passing you.”
That’s why streetcars, along with just about all other moving conveyances have bells and/or horns. I also have a very hard time imagining being snuck up on by something as heavy as a streetcar. An experienced bicyclist needs to be aware of his or her surroundings, like anyone else on a bike, in a car, or even just walking.
WE have this wonderful Modern Streetcar, after we already tore out the old streetcar for better Mass Transit, but it’s just a Toy for the Liberals in Tucson Government, and we got “Free Money” for some of it. We have to ban cars in some areas to let the MSC get around, now we might as well ban Bikes as they are blocking the MSC too. Oh Well, this is what we can expect from this City’s … “Planners” ?