Challenge
De Lijn is the Flemish public company that provides public transport by bus and streetcar in Flanders. About 3.5 million people use these services once or more every year. In addition to an extensive bus offer, De Lijn operates three streetcar networks (Antwerp, Ghent and the Coastal Tram).
The new road safety plan Flanders 2021-2025 aims to reduce the number of traffic deaths and serious injuries by 25% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. The road safety plan focuses extra attention on active road users, including cyclists. A study by the UZ Gent's emergency accident department shows that in 2018, a quarter of all registered bicycle accidents in Ghent were related to streetcar tracks. Accidents occur partly because cyclists get their wheels in the streetcar tracks or fall when crossing them.
De Lijn is investigating different solutions to increase traffic safety around streetcar tracks. One of the solutions is to use bicycle-safe streetcar tracks. In this project, we are specifically looking for a sustainable filling of the groove of the existing groove rails. This backfill should be seamless to the running surface to help make the passage of cyclists safe and will only be compressed when a streetcar is loaded without posing a danger of derailment and/or electrical contact loss of the streetcar wheels with the rails.
