r/interestingasfuck • u/HomeNowWTF • 22h ago

Tram airbags, coming soon to Zurich

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5.2k Upvotes

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230

u/Remote-Cause755 22h ago

Does it normally go that slow?

141

u/UnhappyAddition7281 21h ago

Ex-zürcher here, they go rather slow but can go extremely fast, fatal accidents aren’t uncommon unfortunately, i had a friend who’s father remained completely paralysed after a tram accident.

26

u/I_Play_Boardgames 13h ago

Yeah, but completely paralyzed without this airbag would mean bad injury but likely full recovery or near-full recovery with the airbag. 

•

u/pioneer76 6h ago

Yes, this seems like a very good invention considering the danger to a human in an actual collision.

21

u/Worth-Appointment-41 16h ago

Most accidents are at slow speeds, when pedestrians share the way with trams.

52

u/1B75__Penicillin 22h ago

It's a tram, they are all slow

27

u/herdek550 16h ago edited 5h ago

Depends on what you consider slow. For example in Prague, there are sections where trams go up to 60 km/h (~37 mph).

Edit: The speed is lower in crowded city center, but it's not unusual to have crosswalk crossing a tram tracks where tram goes 45 km/h (pedestrians don't have priority over tram even on crosswalk)

8

u/NucleosynthesizedOrb 14h ago

In the Utrecht Science Park, the fast sections are fenced and the sections where people may cross the tram goes slower

4

u/Narrow-Barracuda618 12h ago

Yup, same in Zürich.

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u/CrestedMacaw 5h ago

You wish... Trams in our city can go 80 km/h and they do on certain straight parts of the routes. And that's just because the law of our country doesn't allow bigger speed than 80 km/h in the settlements (the normal limit is 50 km/h but a town/city can add up to other 30 km/h max if they decide it's ok).

And if there were not such a restriction, for example outside of the city, the trams could actually go even faster.

7

u/Thoughtful_Tortoise 17h ago

It's a dummy, it can't move.

2

u/weirdbr 13h ago

Yep, speed limits in most urban areas in Zurich (and Switzerland in general) are low - 30Km/h is rather common, 50Km/h a bit more uncommon. In reality it ends up being less than that because of traffic.

3

u/Amerillo_ 22h ago

It's the camera perspective, it's likely going at a normal speed (50km/h or so)

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u/Nervous_Green4783 5h ago

Yes, maximum speed is maybe 50 km/h. But usually they are between 20 and 40 km/h