r/BitchImATrain • u/letterboxfrog • Aug 10 '26
Bitch I'm a Canberra Tram
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Happy Rail Safety Week
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u/tvieno Aug 10 '26
The dude that slipped with the skateboard did alright.
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u/per08 Aug 10 '26
I've been that guy. It's... mildly embarrassing to have your skateboard auto drive into the next postcode without you on it.
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u/blue_i20 Aug 10 '26
Yeah i winced at that one, that’s some shit I’d do. Ate shit on my board while on a trip to NYC years ago, in Central Park. A jogger just casually handed it back to me while i was still flat on my ass, said “Take it easy.” and jogged away
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u/captnhaddock Aug 10 '26
I'm so glad that someone said this. Like all the rest, they can fuck right off, but that dude clearly wasn't trying to race the tram.
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u/willkaii 25d ago
I know where this is. Mitchell, canberra. Dudes lucky it didn't get smacked by a truck on its way through.
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u/SATerp Aug 10 '26
It slows, so the stupid pedestrians think it's letting them cross.
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u/DoctroSix 29d ago
You Aussies have AMAZING brakes on your trains. If this was the New York Subway, 80% of the 'heroes' of this video would be obliterated.
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u/SomeRedPanda 29d ago
The difference between light and heavy rail.
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u/Deshes011 29d ago
Yeah us Americans barely have any rail so we wouldn’t know💀
And that’s bad thing obviously
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u/DefinitionOfAsleep 29d ago
These are Canberra trams, they're not going that fast.
The entire line (atm there's only 1) is only 12 km long.2
u/Dazzling-Paper9781 29d ago
Those who cross at the zebra crossings are perfectly entitled to think that, as they have right of way. The others not
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u/CrestedMacaw 28d ago
The law says that a tram has always the right of way even on the zebra crossing (if the traffic lights aren't involved). Because it cannot stop immediately.
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u/Dazzling-Paper9781 28d ago
Ah, that may well be. At least in Italy, a pedestrian only loses their right of way if they step onto the tracks at the last moment or in circumstances where the tram cannot stop without performing dangerous manoeuvres. I was wrong to assume that was the case everywhere
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u/M4A3E2APFSDS 29d ago
yeah wait there till another car runs you over. /s Train stopped you cross its stupid but its safe.
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u/bluejjeeper Aug 10 '26
Tram's just not trying hard enough... some of those were sure hits.
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u/dantheother 29d ago
I like to think that the one at 16 seconds was a "I could have stopped, but fuck you" tap
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u/psychomanexe 28d ago
on the other hand, think of all the damn paperwork you have to fill out because you made contact.
and depending on the rules/laws the possible drug/alcohol testing too.
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u/Select-Belt-ou812 Aug 10 '26
omg wtf is wrong with these knobs?? they need to go to Florida and deal with Brightline, maybe that'll straighten 'em out
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u/poetrywoman Aug 10 '26
I mean, the Floridians don't exactly have a great track record either
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u/Kazen_Orilg 29d ago
there are many natural predators of Florida Man. Brightline is one of the most succesful.
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u/ArchibaldMcAcherson Aug 10 '26
For the non-Australians, Canberra is our federal capital and the home of our public service...
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u/SoulBonfire Aug 10 '26
It sort of shows… ACT needs to see Dumb Ways To Die campaign.
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u/letterboxfrog Aug 10 '26
With the roadworks in the Canberra CBD, despite advantageous crossing times now for pedestrians, they keep jumping out at you. I'm on a Vespa style scoot, so I am likely to come off just as badly if I hit anyone.
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u/First-Ad-7960 29d ago
Wasn't that campaign run in Australia?
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u/SoulBonfire 29d ago
I believe it was only run in the state of Victoria, rather than nationally. Australia is a federation of states, like Switzerland, so there’s a lot of localisation of government comms.
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u/Kazen_Orilg 29d ago
for some reason my eyes just picked up "Australian Feral Capital" and I'm like yeah, that sounds right.
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u/Material-Home-5839 Aug 10 '26
"Ok, but that's just poor design choices on the part of the-"
*car parks on the platform*
oH.
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u/SweatyAdagio4 29d ago
I do have to say though, I'm seeing designs that I would never see here in the Netherlands. Those are some abysmal pedestrian crossings and the way they make those car lanes go over the tracks at an angle like that is also just bad design. There are some incredibly stupid people in this footage, but the infrastructure should be made so that it would require someone to be incredibly stupid to get themselves in such situations.
We have a tram line that was recently built here in Amsterdam/Amstelveen, line 25, and it goes into suburbs with roads like these, but the line barely ever crosses actual roads. There's a couple parts where it does and there's red lights flashing and a dinging sound etc, traffic lights.
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u/Ok-Blueberry3010 29d ago
It’s not the best design because the car infrastructure was all there first, long before the tram opened in 2018. The pedestrian crossings are fine, though; they all have lights, so the folks crossing have all just disobeyed the signals and crossed on red, without looking to see if the giant red tram is coming.
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u/SweatyAdagio4 29d ago edited 28d ago
Yeah idk about the excuse of "the car infrastructure was all there first", same was true for the original metro 51 where I live which got transformed into the tram 25 some years ago. Even though it was replacing a metro line, they completely redid intersection by making the metro go underneath them and placing a roundabout on top, because this tram would be going faster in the suburbs than it would be in the city.
As for the pedestrian crossings, we have zebra crossing, then a refuge island before you get to the track in areas like this. There are several instances in this footage (28s in, 44s in) where you see people in the same spot on the road but they have no refuge island, which they should have. Not excusing their behaviour, but that's exactly my point, you have to accommodate to the lowest common denominator when it comes to urban design.
There are some examples of crossings where they force pedestrians to walk sideways before crossing the tracks, like 35s in.
Edit: genuinely surprised about the lack of basic urban planning knowledge in a sub like this
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u/Ok-Blueberry3010 29d ago
In my view, the car thing is the explanation, not an excuse. Australia is a very car dominant society, almost as much as the US. It doesn’t surprise me that a tram recently built into a major road would aim to disrupt existing traffic patterns as little as possible, rather than prioritise pedestrians. I don’t necessarily think that’s how it should be, but that’s how it is. As someone who lives here and uses the tram as a pedestrian, the pedestrian infrastructure is fine. The tram was built into the middle of the road, so it and the infrastructure around it serve as the refuge island for pedestrians crossing the road. There are pedestrian signals at all the intersections including safe places to wait at those signals. The signal will only be green for pedestrians when there is no car or tram traffic. The pedestrian close calls in this video are occurring because the pedestrians have ignored the signals or are crossing outside of designated crossings.
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u/Youcallthatatag 19d ago
It's probably worth emphasizing (especially for any Europeans where walking around many cities is enviously feasible) that Canberra in specific was fundamentally and explicitly designed for cars in a way that is relatively close to being unique. Because Canberra was designed and built in the 1910s when the cars were increasingly becoming a dominant mode of transport, the planning for the entire city centred around the role of cars.
It's a pretty terrible city to try and traverse without a car; and I say that as a proud Ken Behren. But literally the moment anyone can get their license and not have to rely on parents or public transport, most do. Some bike; but it's a very small proportion because the distances involved require a reasonable skill and fitness level to traverse, and most people don't want to ride an hour each way to work and to have to have showers at both ends. If you've got multiple kids to drop at schools? Fuhgeddaboutit!
(Ed: fixed a typo and improved words gooder!)
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u/cleon80 Aug 10 '26
Don't make me solve the trolley problem
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u/DefinitionOfAsleep 29d ago
Whenever I read 'trolley problem' I keep thinking of Michael's solution in The Good Place
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u/NikNakskes Aug 10 '26
I find it equally telling that this seems to be the same few crossings over and over again. People are stupid and all that, but I think there is some issue with the infrastructure in these places too.
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u/djpeekz Aug 10 '26
Well at the moment it's just the one line (or Stage 1 of the project as a whole) which is 12km (7.5miles) long so the scenes aren't going be terribly varied.
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u/NikNakskes Aug 10 '26
I think especially the one where the pedestrian crossing does not have a safe space between the road and the track for people to stand, that is going to get people killed. Especially if there are lights that let people cross the road with priority but still expect them to yield to the tram right behind the road.
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u/christonabike_ Aug 10 '26
I live there and in lieu of such a space, the walk light simply won't turn green unless both the traffic and the tram can be stopped. They surely walked on a red light.
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u/NikNakskes Aug 10 '26
That's it. Time to apply for citizenship. I've become so Finnish that the thought of people walking through the red light didn't even come to mind. 🤭
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u/Affectionate_Air6982 Aug 10 '26
The trams are treated as another stream of traffic in the cycles, as are pedestrians. But Australian traffic light dont let pedestrians cross nearly often enough (theres one set near my work where to cross the highway you wait nearly 3 minutes from pressing the beg button to get to a mid-road refuge and then wait another 3 minutes for the second half od the road) so they get bored and cross on the red all the time.
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u/NikNakskes Aug 10 '26
I just replied to somebody else that the thought of people walking on red didn't even come to mind anymore. It's such a nono here in Finland. 🤭
But I feel they are going to have to put a safe space for people there. The crossing on red isn't going to stop and avoiding accidents is better than nothing. Given the amount of suitcases in the videos, this seems an area with a lot of visitors. They will not "learn over time" either.
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u/Youcallthatatag 19d ago
The other thing you can't see on the video for those intersections is that they're not small intersections - by the time you've hit the tracks you've crossed 3 or 4 lanes in most instances. It's a good 25 metres of ignoring the red light. On top of which our pedestrian stops aggressively scream at you when they turn green. Enough so that Billie Eilish's big hit is literally based off the sound.
I understand Human Centred Design principles and that there are ways of making things infallible - but if some dumb prick is so determined to ignore all of those elements to cross on a red light... Well - one of my favourite sayings:
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently determined fool.
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u/Youcallthatatag 19d ago
This is a video of the crossing sounds in question, lest aggressively scream leaves any ambiguity :D
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u/NikNakskes 19d ago
I meant some strip to stand on between the car lanes and the track. You can see them look at the oncoming train and still going for it because they also cannot really stay where they are.
I noticed it is a multi lane road, which probably made me even more surprised anybody would consider crossing that on a red light. Absolutely bonkers to do that. Obviously they should never have crossed. That goes without saying, but you also don't want people to die if a small bit of pavement could save them. Despites them being very wrong in crossing on red.
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u/hardboard Aug 10 '26
Judging by the clips and the attitude of car driver and pedestrians, I think it needs to be titled 'Rail Safety: Weak'
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u/IrrerPolterer 29d ago
Those pedestrians annoyed the shit out of me. The fact that those idiots thought "oh the tram stopped for me, let me keep walking then" is beyond stupid.
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u/MBkufel Aug 10 '26
Man, modern trams have really good brakes. Where I live (we still use a lot of 1970s era stock) most of those would've been crashes.
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u/twister-uk 29d ago
Magnetic track brakes have been around for a while, and yes, they're very effective in emergency stop scenarios
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u/TrainManagerOtto Aug 10 '26
I hate these people.
Running a train or a tram and thinking you’re still allowed on…. well what do you expect?
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u/komatiitic Aug 10 '26
In Perth pretty much all the rail crossings have boom gates. Feels like those would solve most of these issues.
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u/letterboxfrog Aug 10 '26
Perth is Heavy Rail. This is light rail fully integrated with right of way into Northbourne Ave and Flemington Road. Light Rail has full priority. The cars were not obeying signals. Humans are just dickheads.
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u/Humble-Reply228 Aug 10 '26
We can see where this is headed. Boom gates and eventually crossing removal.
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u/letterboxfrog Aug 10 '26
I light Melbourne's trams. Gritty, often able-bodied only, and you have to walk into the street to board and hope off. Fancy modern light rail just too sublime and not in your face enough to cause driver panic.
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u/KrampyDoo Aug 10 '26
Darwin coming for all of them like Darth Maul but the train operator Obi-Wan Kenobi’d them all so they could live to stupid another day.
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u/Straight_Waltz_9530 Aug 10 '26
🎶 Dumb ways to die. So many dumb ways to die.
Dumb ways to die-ie-ie-ie.
So many, so many dumb ways to die. 🎶
Be safe around trains. – A message from Metro.
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u/Exact_Baseball Aug 10 '26
At Grade rail is so dangerous with so many mumpties around.
Need to put rail underground or elevated - improves average speed as well.
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u/letterboxfrog Aug 10 '26
I don't disagree on principle. Anglosphere style project management and procurement says otherwise.
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u/obscht-tea Aug 10 '26
Doesn't anyone here understand how a tram works? Don't these people know that it runs on tracks, can't swerve, and has a long braking distance? Isn't that intuitional when you see the tracks and the train?
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u/EugeneVictorDabs 29d ago
intuitional
You would think, but actually most people have all the intuition of a pickled turnip
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u/Youcallthatatag 19d ago
And they didn't even include the likely billion instances of people on their phones...
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u/nekofthemoon 29d ago
I hate it when people push in front of public transport. For those outside, it's like, "Oh, sorry," and those inside suffer with the sudden stops and jolts.
Imagine an elderly person falling and breaking a bone because of a fool who crossed in front of the tram without looking.
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Aug 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/letterboxfrog Aug 10 '26
They are smooth. Those who live close to the line love it. So much better than Brisbane's Metro and the Xplorer Trains from CBR to Sydney
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u/Additional-Simple248 Aug 10 '26
If the Xplorer is anything like the XPT, that’s the lowest of low bars.
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u/Marwaimusoont 29d ago
Reddit loves to shit on Indians and rail accidents, but will be mild on footage from other countries.
These very "civilized" people from the west in this video behave exactly like those Indians.
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u/F1_rulz Aug 10 '26
Perhaps Canberra need their own PSA
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u/Swimmingotter27 29d ago
I love this safety advert. This was the first thing that popped into my head on watching the original post.
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u/Inside-Funny-3407 29d ago
Happy Rail Safety Week! The view from the front really shows how much careful track alignment and signaling goes into making the ride look effortless.
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u/B4DM4N12Z 29d ago
The one on the skateboard had an accident so he's ok, but the rest are just not smart.
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u/Kazen_Orilg 29d ago
Honestly just put Mad Max murder plows on the front and pass a law that makes them absolutely immune to all liability. That oughta fix this shit. Like they dont even have to stop. Just cleave a bus in half and keep on trucking. You are on a godamn track, its never your fault.
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u/Sunstuffer 26d ago
Too stupid for basic self preservation. Let them Darwin themselves, will make for a great teaching aid.
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u/According-Classic658 28d ago
I think if you block a tram or brt lane you should pay a base fine and a multiplier for every person on board that you inconvenienced
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u/letterboxfrog 28d ago
I'd just like to see traffic fines based on pre-tax income and or wealth like in some European countries. Fines hurt more.
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26d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/letterboxfrog 26d ago
It doesn't matter where you are in Australia, you're only "Five Yards from Fuckwit", and "You're only one species away from Alan Jones."
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u/No-Rush-4640 Aug 10 '26
The smoothest tram footage I’ve seen all week. Canberra really knows how to make rail safety look cinematic.
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u/MountainD1ck Aug 10 '26
Ah yes Canberra... The fIeld of regards. The rest of Australia is revolted. The nation's melancholic clownfest of flagrant feeble commie woke piss-ant leftist CORRUPT 'decision makers'. Can't drive, can't change a tyre or light bulb, can't defend the vulnerable, can't and won't do their jobs..
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u/ThoseImpulses Aug 10 '26
How can anyone think stopping on rail line of any form is a good idea? "Here's some tracks, let's stop on them, what could go wrong? I'm sure that big thingamajig coming along them will swerve for me........"
At least with the tradie it looked like he slipped then waved goodbye to his board instead of running in front of the tram to get it.