Cars are no match for trolleys

The video above shows one fear that I have that keeps me from driving in Melbourne — accidentally turning onto the tracks as a train car comes whizzing by.

In Melbourne, the tram system is set up so that on most streets where the cars and trams share the road, the tram is in the center (going in both directions) while the cars are on far opposite sides of the street (also going in opposite directions to each other). When cars make turns here, they have to not only watch for pedestrians and other road vehicles, but they also have to make sure that trams are not heading straight for them and that the vehicle is not near the tracks. There are no barriers or elevated tracks to tell drivers of cars that they are on the tracks. They simply have to rely on their eyesight. This basically means that you can’t make abrupt turns like the ones that the drivers make in the video above.