Driving alongside trams in Dusseldorf

I grew up in Mumbai, India and am familiar with city trains but they always had their special tracks and the only time that vehicular traffic would interact with them is at railway crossings which have gates and lights and alarms which would open and close to allow the trains and road traffic to cross one another safely. This was similar to the other countries I lived in – US, Singapore and Japan.

However coming to live in Dusseldorf, I have had to learn to drive alongside trams on streets sometimes with scary results. My first experience of driving alongside them was my venture into Nordstrasse in the first week that I arrived here. I was in search of mundane things a dustban and brush, large towel for exercise etc.,

Parking along Nordstrasse is itself a nightmarish experience as I was re-learning to parallel park again after almost 4 years of never using this skill in the US. You also park seitenstreifen – which means half on the pavement half on the street. This is not helped by the fact that the street is only open for one way vehicular traffic but two way tram traffic. I had just managed to parallel park my car on the one available free space on the right side of the street, when the first tram came by. He patiently inched past my badly parked car. The second tram driver was not at all that polite. He came and stopped right beside my car and opened his window and rang his tinkling bell very much like a cycle bell.

I had to perforce roll down my window as well and he vociferously proceeded to tell me to tuck my car in further into the sidewalk all in German of course. Though I did not undertstand a word of what he said, his manner and demeanour was loud and clear. After another four attempts I managed to park my car with no inch of free space between the car tires on the right side and the sidewalk. I was so thrilled that when I returned home I posted on my FB page that I had successfully parallel parked my car.

On most streets which have tram traffic you see two sets of traffic lights at every signal. The first is the usual red, orange, green for vehicular traffic and the second is the same set of three lights but these light up with a white light - a horizontal line, a circle or vertical line. When we first arrived here we would notice these two sets of traffic lights at every junction. When my husband asked someone in the office they said we should not worry about the second set of lights just concentrate on the vehicular traffic lights.

But I learnt to my dismay that you very much had to pay attention to the tram traffic lights as well. When you drive beside trams on main streets – vehicular traffic is on the extreme right and left of the road while the tram traffic goes through the centre of the road. Often when there is a tram stop, there is a traffic light which lights up just behind the end of the tram with the words Linien verkherfrei (I guess literally means leave the road clear ahead for the tram stop) and this turns red and you stay behind this line so that the tram doors can safely open and take in or let out passengers who have been waiting on the sidewalk.

On one such occasion I found myself right beside the tram driver at the head of the tram both of us waiting for the traffic light to turn green. At this particular traffic light I had to make a left onto a main street and since there was no dedicated left turn signal as soon as the light turned green my usual practice was to go forward to the centre of the road and wait for a clearing in traffic from the opposite side before making the left turn. Most of the time I would only be able to complete the left turn when the lights were turning orange and the opposite traffic were slowing down in anticipation of the red light.

On this particular occasion on receiving the green light I made the usual move into the middle of the street to make a left turn. What I did not realize is that the tram driver had received the green light to move ahead as well in his case the vertical white light on the traffic signal and usually trams have the right of way in such situations. I unfortunately did not know this so was blocking the tram driver who needed to go straight across the main street to the opposite side. He was furious and kept ringing his little bell at me and I had no hopes of making a safe left turn until the last minute when the lights were turning orange and by then the tram driver had a stop signal as well.

My husband when I narrated this story had visions of getting summons in the mail for huge fines for having hindered tram traffic. I learnt a valuable lesson to look at the tram traffic lights as well when I am beside them at traffic junctions.