r/interestingasfuck • u/HomeNowWTF • 22h ago

Tram airbags, coming soon to Zurich

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5.2k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/Bruce-7892 22h ago

I am pretty sure that would still F you up, but at least this way they don't have to clean you off the front of the train I guess.

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u/MinervaJB 21h ago

This lowers the chance of going under the tram, I guess?

My city has a tram, and the daughter of a coworker saw a 12-year-old kid be run over by the tram (tied to cross the street, the tram hit them straight on and sent them under the carriage). Tried to help because she was a first-year nursing student at the time. Kid died anyway, and it was so horrifying the poor girl needed therapy.

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u/Mierimau 19h ago

It also lowers kinetic impact, which gives more saving grace to the body.

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u/peepay 13h ago edited 12h ago

This lowers the chance of going under the tram, I guess?

Not if the track surface is open, with sleepers.

EDIT: For all the smart-ass commenters, so eager to downvote me - yes, I know the difference between a tram and a train (and their tracks). I live in a European city with trams and have been to countless others. That's exactly why I know there often are, especially in the parts outside of the city center, tram tracks with open surface with sleepers.

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u/Evepaul 12h ago

Even inside cities, sometimes trams go over grass or generally areas which are not street asphalt and have more open tracks

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u/peepay 11h ago

Exactly. That seems to be a hard concept to understand for some, though.

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u/Everday6 12h ago

Which it clearly isn't. Closed and without sleepers... This isn't for trains, on normal train tracks, it's for trams in cities, where all pedestrian accessable tracks are closed like the video.

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u/peepay 12h ago

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Let me introduce to you - trams in cities on train-like tracks. Very common in Europe, especially outside the city center. Why else you thought I made that comment?? I live in one...

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u/Everday6 12h ago

Damn, even trains crossings in the middle of nowhere does that in Sweden. And all city trams (that I've seen) that go on regular tracks only do that when there are no pedestrian crossings even close. 

Where in Europe do they have people walking over sleepers?

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u/Galbaatorix 12h ago

Have you ever seen a tram track? Trams share the platform with cars and people.

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u/peepay 12h ago

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Let me introduce to you - trams in cities on train-like tracks. Very common in Europe, especially outside the city center. Why else you thought I made that comment?? I live in one...

-1

u/Galbaatorix 12h ago

Trams, by definition share the platform. They use rails, but travel along cars and pedestrian throught the street, only in certain places they have an exclusive platform, but you cannot have uncovered sleepers and have other means of transportation over it. You may be talking about other type of train-like vehicle or a very specific place where is tram-only circulation. Maybe share a photo of the tracks and the city location and I can tell what the case is for this track.

I'm know what I am talking about I'm have a masters degree in civil engineering.

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u/peepay 11h ago

You may be talking about other type of train-like vehicle

Nope, I know what those are.

or a very specific place where is tram-only circulation

Those places are not "very specific" by any means, they are quite common and they are exactly why I made the comment. Surely, the majority of the tracks tends to be flat surface, but there are still many places where the tram tracks are like I said. You don't need to go far for examples.

Bratislava: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUM9TRZYUPWfVjTb1Dq7WQ8Ym9odZn314vfO2-nocYb5KRMYpyzIvvh6w&s=10

Bratislava again: https://bratislavskykraj.sk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/img_1428-scaled.jpg

Prague: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/%C5%A0koda_52T%2C_Hlubo%C4%8Depy.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original

Prague again: https://www.dpp.cz/data/photo_gallery/3176/thumbs/2025-31-10-14-43-39-1600-1600-2-tram-52t-16-foto-dpp-petr-hejna.jpg

Budapest: https://as1.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/01/36/11/90/1000_F_136119088_d9fQ5vu6Al0RNRT4xYfr84yMhYTQBKZe.jpg

Vienna: https://www.urban-transport-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Wien_2019_078.jpg

London: https://cdn.u.pika.page/jAjSCfyIF5I-NPkphea5Pv6oItg9GzlSGHWhe24OWFc/s:1800:1400/fn:1-London%20tram/plain/s3://pika-production/jk7bb4bh0j7qno9e9y77b0slcrfh

Paris: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Paris_tramway-T2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original

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u/Galbaatorix 11h ago

None of those are acting as a tram. The vehicle cam be the same, but those systems of transportations are not trams. Trams since their incepcion were sharing the streets with horses, cars and people. If trams are alone on the rails it is not a tram.

Those might fall under the term "light metro" (the name can vary along countries), wich is the same vehicle, but a much more intensive sistem. Since there are no other users on the same platform it can transport far more people and is faster.

Many people think light metro and tram are the same but they are quite different and installing a tram in a city is far cheaper and easier than a light metro, because you don,t need to ad a exclusive space for it, just put the tracks on the road/street and add crossings and a depot.

Edit: the paris one is quite known and it even goes underground and up again, is the same network as the underground/subway/tube

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u/peepay 11h ago

Those are trams ffs.

It's not a different system. It's just a segment of the track - a few stops before and a few stops after it's flat surface again. They just opted to use open-surface tracks when building this particular part of the tram tracks. It would be a light metro if the whole line was built like this. From the construction and engineering point of view it may be called a "light-metro-like track type" in this particular place, but from the operation perspective it's still a tram.

At least for my home town, Bratislava, I know this with 100% certainty, we've only had trams for over 130 years - and the tracks are of mixed type, majority is flat surface, some parts are this open surface type (and no, not "some lines", but some parts of the same line. We only have tram lines. Some short parts just have tracks like this. But they are trams.)

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u/Galbaatorix 10h ago

Call them flying carpets if you want, then

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u/Trifle_Useful 9h ago

Peak Redditor pedantry

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u/Kooky_Attention_98 22h ago edited 21h ago

Yeah, also I think these things go way faster, it's not a bad idea necessarily but one could still get caught underneath

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

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u/catlover2410 20h ago

I think they still have to get out of the tram and check on that person as standard procedure...

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u/Bruce-7892 20h ago

Me as a train engineer;

"I didn't see shit. Oh that? It was like that when I got it, someone should fix that windshield and clean the thing".

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u/Strange-Spot-3306 14h ago

i don't know about trams - but with trains standard procedure for them (in switzerland at least) is to sound the horn, initiate emergency braking, and then turn away, close their eyes, hands over ears. After a collision with a human they are expected to make an emergency call and stay on the train (maybe check on the passengers etc.), they should absolutely not go out there and look for the remains of whatever they hit.

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u/Meewelyne 13h ago

That's quite sensitive towards the driver, I don't think there's much they can do once they actually hit someone.

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u/Kooky_Attention_98 20h ago

Yeah, that as well in case of the worst-case scenario

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u/314159265358979326 20h ago

In reality, you'd expect the brakes to be hammered on, so the speed might not be too wrong.

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u/Cool-Newspaper-1 15h ago

Accidents don’t usually happen on empty straight roads where the trams are fast, they happen when people run across the rails in stations/at stops.

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u/ChemicalRain5513 14h ago

The speed limit is 50. A lot of the time they will be going 30 or slower, especially around busy intersections and crossings.

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u/agiantdog33 13h ago

I don't know about Switzerland currently, but there are also often a lot of trackworks going on that they need to slow down for because previous governments somehow got away with neglecting them since around the early 2000s.

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u/Tjaeng 12h ago

”Previous Government” is a bit of a weird fit in Swiss context seeing as the same permanent grand coalition with the four largest parties have been forming the Swiss federal government since the 1950s.

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u/LordVectron 14h ago

They mostly dont go much faster than this. Tram stops aren't very far apart, mostly.

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u/-Majgif- 13h ago

Even if they are just pushed along by it, it's going to do some serious damage from the gravel rash, unless it's almost stopped already.

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u/Everday6 12h ago

You can see part of the airbag explicitly inflates to block the small gap to stop people going underneath.

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u/Hokulol 21h ago

I mean, yeah, if the tram is going fast enough it's probably not going to save you.

That being said there is probably a sweet spot of speed where this will reduce casualties.

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u/Konrad_M 14h ago

It will definitely help. Trams in cities don't go too fast. This thing won't prevent any damage. But it can definitely make a difference between death and severe injuries. Or between severe injuries and only bruises.

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u/spicygayunicorn 9h ago

Yeah trams aren't like regular trains going fast all the time they usually go pretty slow in most places and don't need to long to break enough to a speed where this could save lives

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u/Leggy_Brat 19h ago

Just have to scrape you off the ground instead

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u/Bruce-7892 15h ago

You’re still going to get hit by a train but we’ll give you this memory foam mattress and a coupon for your next ride.

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u/xarcastic 21h ago

Yeah, like using a cheese knife to spread you out into a thin layer that’ll pressure wash off quickly.

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u/Yuzumi_ 14h ago

Just like airbags etc its all about mitigating, not actually reducing damage to 0.

An airbag hitting you with full force can still mess you up pretty badly, but its better than hitting your head on a metal surface with a full swing

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u/throwaway098764567 18h ago

yeah i could feel that street rug-burn watching it <shudder>

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u/spektre 12h ago

Many safety systems are based on the fact that it's better to break your arms, legs, ribcage, and get your face remodeled than to become a meat crayon.

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u/VladimirBarakriss 10h ago

You don't get blended by the wheels

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u/DJinKC 20h ago

If that train is at speed, it's gonna smear you like jam on toast

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u/Quitcha_Bitchin 19h ago

its why trains have those big mustache looking things on the front of railroads designed to roll you away. Of course at speed it's going to roll you like a golf ball off of a pitching wedge face.

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u/braaaaaaainworms 13h ago

That's a tram and they don't really go any faster than a fast biking speed