tram-spotting - reflecting on my trip to Melbourne
The end of the road for the tram in Auckland was 1957. Apart from dealing with the odd trolley bus in Wellington earlier this year, my experience of dealing with extraneous moving objects while commuting has been limited to other cars, bi-cycles and the odd pram. And yes - I have always managed to avoid major accidents simply by keeping left and well charged on energy drink.
Melbourne however was different for both myself and travelling companion Bronwyn. We negotiated between us an arrangement of exchanging the tasks of navigating and driving our Mitsubishi Lancer Rental Car(MLRC for future reference) between ourselves. After a successful commute from the Airport to Patterson Lakes (a small suburb a fair distance from the airport) and a couple of roadtrips to country areas we had a certain vigour and new found confidence in ourselves..... AND wearing everlasting lipstick, the both of us would conquer every facet of this city!
I had noticed the trams in the center of the road - yes.... and they simply kept to their tracks, and we stayed in our lane. Nothing could be more simple.
Hmmmm - except for the right turn.
Now my understanding - and indeed Bronwyn's understanding - of the right turn maneouveur is to indicate, move to the CENTER of the road, wait for a gap in traffic and move. Hee hee - but this doesn't take into account the humble tram. And..... we didn't take it into account either. Hmmm - and we were notified of this, (sandwiched between TWO TRAMS) by a civil, yet oh so very Australian tram driver - "Driver of the MLRC, you need to be on the left hand side of the road barrier".... eeeeeeeeeek: we couldn't move. Next - the tram driver actually got OUT of the tram, and came to pay us a personal visit: "You ladies from out of state or something?" - ...."We're from New Zealand" (cheesy grins and revealing as MUCH everlasting lipstick as possibile)... next came "Driving in Melbourne 101 and not getting butted by trams" according to happy Harry the tram man.
Hmmmm..... much easier if roads are for cars - trains are for tracks.... and prams, trams and other moving objects stay right out of the equation.
Melbourne however was different for both myself and travelling companion Bronwyn. We negotiated between us an arrangement of exchanging the tasks of navigating and driving our Mitsubishi Lancer Rental Car(MLRC for future reference) between ourselves. After a successful commute from the Airport to Patterson Lakes (a small suburb a fair distance from the airport) and a couple of roadtrips to country areas we had a certain vigour and new found confidence in ourselves..... AND wearing everlasting lipstick, the both of us would conquer every facet of this city!
I had noticed the trams in the center of the road - yes.... and they simply kept to their tracks, and we stayed in our lane. Nothing could be more simple.
Hmmmm - except for the right turn.
Now my understanding - and indeed Bronwyn's understanding - of the right turn maneouveur is to indicate, move to the CENTER of the road, wait for a gap in traffic and move. Hee hee - but this doesn't take into account the humble tram. And..... we didn't take it into account either. Hmmm - and we were notified of this, (sandwiched between TWO TRAMS) by a civil, yet oh so very Australian tram driver - "Driver of the MLRC, you need to be on the left hand side of the road barrier".... eeeeeeeeeek: we couldn't move. Next - the tram driver actually got OUT of the tram, and came to pay us a personal visit: "You ladies from out of state or something?" - ...."We're from New Zealand" (cheesy grins and revealing as MUCH everlasting lipstick as possibile)... next came "Driving in Melbourne 101 and not getting butted by trams" according to happy Harry the tram man.
Hmmmm..... much easier if roads are for cars - trains are for tracks.... and prams, trams and other moving objects stay right out of the equation.
posted by Katie's World @ 9:15 PM
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