City of Trams

Trams, an icon of the city Melbourne, are one of the most commonly used public transport here. In fact, there are more trams than there are buses! The way Melbourne's trams run? They have double track strips laid on the street for most of the routes, powered by electric cable line.

Melbourne Tram
Uploaded by 3notes

Driving in Melbourne would mean learning a different set of traffic rules & shouldering new responsibilities. Unlike Singapore, here we'll have to share the road with trams - which is not a problem when we treat the trams like any other vehicles on the road... However, the problem lies with the pedestrians who travel on the trams!

Because Melbourne roads are mostly made up of 2 lanes per traffic direction, the tram tracks & the electric power cables are run on the outer lane. Therefore, the trams actually travel on the right lane while other vehicles could drive either on the left lane or the same lane as the trams... With this in mind, there is always the risk of pedestrians getting off a tram without looking & they would walk into our paths (ie. the left lane)!

When i first arrived in Melbourne & was chauffeured to work during the first few days, i was warned about this & was told to slow down the car when approaching tram stops & always stop behind the tram for pedestrians alighting/boarding the tram to/from the kerb. But it's a totally different thing when i'm driving on the road alone...

In addition to the standard driving practices (checking rear mirror & blind spot when changing lanes, looking 2 cars ahead of yours with anticipation for emergency, engage/disengage the gears, clutch, accelerator & brakes, etc...), i would have to (1) be very conscious of trams traveling in front of me, (2) look out for tram stops for signs that the tram might stop - which by the way, are not obvious like the bus stops we have in Singapore... Having being a seasoned driver for many years, i would go on auto-pilot mode for the standard driving practices (it becomes so natural, i won't have to think too much, you know?) which often than not would result in me overlooking point (1) & (2) mentioned above. There were couple of times where i failed to stop behind the tram - fortunately, no accident 'cos the tram doors weren't opened at that time... phew!

Apart from pedestrians & tram stops, the next thing to look out for, would be to give way to trams at roundabouts... Trams don't take roundabouts (like we do by giving way to vehicles coming on your right) - they drive through them! So when i come to a roundabout, i must look across the roundabouts to check for on-coming trams & be sure to stop behind the trams track - otherwise, risk being run down by them! Ha! Nah... the run down part is a joke... i'm sure the tram driver will stop the tram. =P

Trams - convenient for the public commuters, a hazard to driver like me!