The "index page" image - the green way to travel. lawn trackage on route 8 in Basle, Switzerland.
Lawn track is an attractive feature which brings more 'greenery' into town.
With the trackage virtually invisible the effect can be almost as if one is flying over the grass!
Lawn track also helps to further reduce the already low level of noise made by the tramway.
Both types of barrier have their advantages - the hedges may be more attractive visually, whilst the fencing is maintenance free. Perhaps though green coloured fencing would have blended in better with the surroundings.
This picture shows how it is possible to extend an attractive linear 'Parkland Walkway' by
extending the lawned area over the trackage.
Almost hidden in the shade someone can be seen sitting on a park bench.
The building just visible in the distance is the main Railway station for Swiss
and (beyond passport control) French trains. Basle is on the border of three nations.
The above view comes from right in the heart of the Swiss city of Basle. Note the park-type benches which on a sunny day provides a pleasant place to sit (almost in shadow, right). The low pricket hedge is designed to encourage pedestrians to keep away from the tracks whilst also blending unobtrusively into the local scene.
Left: Here the trackage is located down the median strip of a dual carriageway.
There is only one track because it is part of a large terminal loop around a housing area on the city's outskirts.
Right: A wide 'green space' flanked by local roads with tracks on the intermediate borders (between the roadway and a tree-lined footpath).
For the EuskoTran - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuskoTran
For Freiburg - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Combino_VAG_auf_Rasengleis.jpg
This link leads to a second Freiburg image, showing the same location without the tram - -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Freiburger_VAG_Rasengleis.JPG (all links open open in new windows).
here are examples from Strasbourg (left) and Lyon (right).
"Greening" overhead wire supports.
Sometimes people comment that overhead wire support poles can be visually intrusive.
A solution which is much favoured in many areas is to hang these wires from rosettes attached to buildings or street lighting poles, but for locations where this is not possible so another option would be to mask the poles by growing climbing evergreen plants over and trees around them.
These images come from Melbourne, Australia, (left) and Grenoble, France, (right)
The inset shows a close-up of the pole.
In this location the street lighting is also hung from the support poles, with the actual lamps being centrally located above the roadways.
