The Mc Kinney Ave Trolley,Mata, has been serving the Uptown area for 20 years and will have a celebration in early September. That will also be the 100th year birthday for the smallest trolley ,Rosie, the Crescent Rose. September will be a busy month for the politicians . The Mata celebration, DART green line opens and construction on Woodall Rodgers Park begins for real.
Within the last couple of days I have seen some amazing attempts at thinning out the herd. Cars pulling in front of the Trolley, a train on tracks, and of course expecting a 80-90 year trolley to stop on a dime. Thank goodness the volunteer drivers are paying attention as this seems to happen often. Even saw one guy step in front of the trolley like he had the right of way. With only a few exceptions the Trolley always has the right of way.
Getting hit by a Trolley. Take your choice.Here are the weigh in facts. Petunia, 636 , weighs in at 10 tons of solid iron. Matilda , 369 , tops out at 17.5 tons of Australian steel. The Green Dragon , 186 , leads the weigh in at 21 tons, that's 42,000 pounds, the heaviest of the Trolleys. These are trains not cars and only a semi-truck is going to put a dent in one of them.Even at 5 mph this Trolley will total your car and it will be your fault for not yielding.
The Mc Kinney Ave Trolleys have the right of way . You are by law supposed to stop when the trolley stops. Let passengers get on and off the Trolley and even walk across the street.On Mc Kinney where the trolley runs down the middle of the street you are legally supposed to stop ,on both sides , for boarding or deboarding. A bright red sign will be displayed when you are supposed to stop .
Give the Trolley the right of way,like the turn lane at Blackburn, and yield to passengers. There are more Trolleys and Streetcars coming to Dallas in the near future. Downtown and Oak Cliff are both going to have Trolleys in the very soon. I guess you could say we are going back to the future.
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