Trains News Wire had a report about the oddball circumstances surrounding collisions with Houston’s streetcars since testing began in November, 2003.( I still call them streetcars instead of trams or light rail.) According to the report most of the accidents were due to illegal left turns across the streetcar tracks. My guess is many residents of Houston are not used to the presence of streetcars unless they recently lived in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, or Toronto, and more recently, Baltimore, San Jose, or Sacramento sothey are not used to sharing the street with the streetcars.
When we had streetcars in Washington, DC drivers used to drive along the streetcar tracks to make left turns. Driving along the streetcar tracks is prohibited in Baltimore as are left turns across their tracks. Streetcars ran in the middle of the streets in Washington, and where there were no safety islands or platforms in the streets, just streetcar stops, drivers had to stop 10 feet behind the rear door of any streetcar that was stopped at a streetcar stop to pick up or discharge passengers.