How to Spruce Up Your Tracks: The Magic of Green Track 

The lighting seems way better

awesome, the crocodile in the background reigns supreme :)

Totes! Except the lamp placement over your shoulder is a bit distracting! Always look for that hidden Z shape in your shot! And of course tight and bright! That is literally all I learned in my photojournalism class from Sun Media... ;-)

Your decorating looks good. Maybe sometime you can give us a closer look at the model loco behind you

Way better imo

True. It would have been useful on TTC streetcar tracks entering the tunnels to Spadina Station and Queens Quay Ferry Docks

I'm not sure if wiser words have ever been commented

Best comment I have read! Ironically I am watching Virtual Railfan in La Grange Kentucky where a motorist is blocking a CSX freight.

Ugh… having commuted by bicycle in San Francisco for years, I definitely relate to this comment!

That's the best thing about it, yes.

Yeah that's maybe not a bad idea! Better than dead real grass!

Isn’t fake grass just adding micro plastics to the environment though?

@@Zosu22 Bioplastics! Hemp-based ones seem to make the most sense... At least here in Canada... We have an ever-growing surplus. Even my hick hometown of Vegreville, Alberta is opening a facility that will mainline those products into RV's and Winnebago's across America!

Such grass is a good idea in dry places like Arizona too

@@glebsokolov2366 In that Case native plants would bei better.

Yeah that was the "composite" material I was referring to :)

We use same technic 200 km to the east, tho we eliminated most of our green track in current rebuilds, tho the city is almost 30% green soooooo that's not a big problem right now

@@RMTransit The ones I'm referring to aren't made to be an actual ground to run vehicles run on though. Unless you've got something like an Unimog with train wheels, you're not going to have a good time there.

Yes and those are awesome!

@@DiamondKingStudios bees can be easily ignored, they only sting when provoked

@@chickenbokernot2598 Unfortunately, bees don't know the difference between provocation and accidental disturbance

Is that better or worse than installing solar panels on them instead?

@@BluePieNinjaTV the answer depends heavily on whether you’re optimising electrical output or biodiversity really

Oh man that jogs a memory. The first time I rode a tram through that, I wondered if we were going through some kind of tram wash.

I think they look better too, especially since they don’t need as much maintenance and can add color. Poorly-maintained green track looks kinda ugly imo but I’ve never actually seen them in person.

Sedum flowers seasonally

Flowr trak

I think Frankfurt has done that before. Check the VGF blog from 2017 I believe.

Probably yes! But you have to consider whether it will do well with trams driving over it every few minutes

Sedum are my favorite plants.

Not in North America buddy.

As with many things in Europe haha

I dunno, I always have a soft spot for gravel

yes. The tram is nice next to the river

@Valérian thanks for the answer! Do you know which part of the tracé will be green?

And the tramway platforms will be "heated", to melt the snow and ice. As needed.

What?! Québec has a tram line being built?!

Then put some warm water in it.

Who knows maybe the grass might save more lifes on it's own than the extra speed an ambulance could carry by having that right of way

Why are were humans so fast to dig the rails out of the floor because people felt like cars were the future, but slow to do this little good not that expensive things?

@@Duck-wc9de Lobbying

@@ignasanchezl Particularly if you account for people not hit by a car, but lives that weren't hurt will never be seen as as significant as lives actually were at risk and couldn't be saved (unless of course it involves a car accident).

@@Duck-wc9de litterally just having dirt next to the rails and not touching it is all ot takes to make a green right of way, grass is a very aggressive colonizer and the frequent tram will knock down any grass in its way although occasional mowing is recommended. (And the government already mows a massive area including all the country roadsides so its not that expensive of a maintenance task) But perfectly manicured lawns are massively overrated, just let the grass do its thing and mow it as needed to keep it a usuable space.

Yeah! I got disproportionately excited when he mentioned that, haha

Ðe greener, ðe better

Haha thanks! I like the visual intrigue myself!

It's very fun!

working in the emergency service I definetly can NOT agree with you ... I'm happy about every piece of tram track I can drive on to avoid traffic, even if it means to have to squeeze through at some spots, like when passing a tram or pole

@@EnjoyFirefighting In your opinion, why don't emergency services push harder for bus lanes along arterials? Emergency services, particularly police and Fire Marshals, have a large impact on city planning and policy. (I understand your just some guy and not a spokes person).

@@EnjoyFirefighting Does that really work for something that small seen at 5:15 though? A Ziegler HLF20 is 2.5 meters wide, a track -- assuming standard gauge -- is 1.45m wide. And in the video it looks you're getting at most 50cm to both sides. So it seems possible but with a very slim margin. And aren't North American fire truck wider than their European counterparts? I'm not saying that you shouldn't use every cm you can, seriously go for it. I couldn't care less if the grass in the tram median gets a bit roughed up. However, it'd be even better to reduce road traffic as much as possible that you don't even need to use the tracks at all because the cars on the road can smily scoot to the side. That also has the side benefit that everyone gets to their destination faster.

@@neolithictransitrevolution427 In general you want to reduce Bus lanes as much as possible and build tram in their stead. Trams are more efficient at moving people for a unit of energy. Yes, they aren't as flexible but in a well designed city you ideally want to push people to use bikes and their own foot. Busses are a very good thing for inter-city connections in rural areas where building train tracks is simply too expensive.

@@Ruhrpottpatriot I flatly (but respectively) disagree with this. There is an unnecessary, I'll call it disrespect, for buses. Yes Trams are more energy efficient because of rails, but we don't need the most energy efficient, we're basically the most energy inefficient at the moment. Maybe well designed cities would focus on trams, but we mainly have poorly designed cities (particularly in NA), where houses are widely spaced out, communities are not walkable, and there is no seperated ROW for trams. Placing bus lanes on Arterials is a low capital cost (literally paint) way of massively increasing the speed and reliability of transit, and makes purchasing more buses far more useful. Buses can collect on and uses these main routes where high frequency can connecting to exisiting shoping, office, and high density, and operate on suburban streets at lower frequency where trams can't reasonable go. Buses are fast to roll out, offer low capital cost, provide important local connections, and are flexible both if an issue blocks a route right now or if they are being reassigned in 10s because a Tram was built along the bus lane. Expecting or wanting everthing to be Trams is unreasonable, not just because politically it won't happen, or because financially it has a huge upfront cost, but also because the car centeric model doesn't provide for many existing corridors with the density to support them. Building out BRT first and fast provideds an anchor for density to grow around and connections to transit through existing sprawl allowing gentle density to grow, and uses exisiting assets or repurposable assets.

Absolutely, if you must have a hard surface you can make it much better!

“Grasscrete”

Big problem: cars leak poison all the time. Mainly oil, and salt in wintertimes. This makes grasscrete only usable on mildly used parking spots.

@@wernerrietveld Solution: Ban cars so they're only for commercial vehicles or buses. It works!

@@planefan082 how do commercial vehicles and busses not leak oil and salt?

I was going to mention New Orleans, but you beat me to it. In New Orleans, it's called "neutral ground". By the way, there's not much cool in New Orleans. It's really hot and humid there.

@@Jeff-uj8xi Well, I have friends living and working there. It's a nice city given its history, food, and lifestyle IMO.

@@alistairlee7604 Yes, I agree it's a beautiful city. But it certainly isn't cool there. The weather in New Orleans is quite hot.....far from cool. Go to Boston if you're looking for cool weather.

@@Jeff-uj8xi Weather can influence those where to live. I live in DC and it's humid. But I like DC.

Ya you can't really turn bus lanes into nice linear parks.

Absolutely, though I'd dispute the "linear parks" bit haha, don't want to have a picnic on the Tramway!

@@RMTransit It depends, if you walk your dog at night after Trams stop running, this might not be an issue. Even during the day its much lower risk then walking on a standard road, a tram that comes as frequently as 5 minutes means only stepping aside 4 times on a 20 minutes walk. But I more meant having a linear park with the tram on one side and a walk way on the other, and a ~10 meter green space between. It's much safer walking along side a tram route then a road way, both because they stay on rails and they're less frequent.

Just strap a lawnmower to the front of the tram ^^

@@chrisX1722 That sounds hilarious. No, what I mean with it is If you need to remove the tracks itself, you also need to remove the grass around it because its literally embedded. If the tracks lay on top of the grass, its much easier to do

@@chrisX1722 that's a really nice idea

@@alexanderlammers6980 but how often do cities move entire lines? not often.

@@alexanderlammers6980 yes but with in-pavement tracks you have to remove the pavement or asphalt or whatever it is the track is embedded in

Happy you enjoyed!

That sounds so cool!!!

Yeah I'm from Perth and I laughed when he said that 😂.. You're right though, compared to Montreal or Toronto it's baking hot lol

It's a lot warmer than Toronto, though right now it's already unbearably hot here

Then that's what I call "cool". To me, "cool" is a temperature, not something nice to look at. Cool is what my refrigerator and air-conditioner does. When I went to school, I learned how to speak English, not getto..

well you will see it on Eglinton

Less value when it's out of sight!

Happy to hear it!

Absolutely and sorry about that!

That's how it's pronounced, calling the thing which's overuse is responsible for most of our urban and climate problems Ass-Fault is a little to in the nose don't you think.

Indeed it did!

Or sometimes their truckers.

Or their planes.

or their deliberately unnecessarily loud Harley bros desperately seeking attention