There has been another nasty accident involving a tram and a car at the junction near seilbahn rigiblick. It appears the car (small silver hatchback) was hit in the driver's door and both the car and tram are damaged. The tram is leaking oil onto the tracks beneath it and has been stationary for the last hour. About 3 police cars/troubleshooter vans are at the location.

These accidents seem to be happening every other month and the junction is a hazard for road users and pedestrians alike. This junction could be improved drastically by removing the right-priority (which catches a lot of people out here as visibility is poor) or even better installing traffic lights. Crossing the road at the other end of seilbahn rigiblick (Vogelsangstrasse / Winterthurerstrasse) is also a nightmare for pedestrians.

Swiss road design seems, to me, to be appalling. I've seen all sorts of crazy stunts here in Basel, as car drivers appear clueless at some junctions.

Plus the often complained about zebra crossings right on roundabout exits and just after you turn into side roads. So stupid.

The only reason nothing is done about it is because the drivers here also seem clueless in the main (because of the bad road design primarily), and drive everywhere in cities very slowly, panicking each time something moves. So when they crash, usually no one dies.

What gets me is that there seems to be no attempt to improve the safety situation, either. I've lost count of the number of accidents I've seen on the motorway where the A18 meets the A3 heading towards the French border. There's at least an accident a week on the one-kilometer stretch which features a restricted-use right lane (forcing traffic left), a mandatory-exit left lane (forcing traffic right), and potentially three lanes of traffic to cross (right-to-left) for anyone travelling from the A18 and wanted to take the Basel City exit.

Anyone can see that this is a recipe for disaster, and it's a recipe that's been proven again and again. It's not because people speed through this area, it's because the road signage is incredibly confusing for anyone who doesn't know the road pattern well, and designed to force cars into risky lane-changes even for those who know the area.

The junction can be a bit tricky for anyone not used to the priority to the right rule, but I don't understand how it could cause the car to collide with the tram!! Unless the car was coming from Riedtlistrasse and trying to turn left crossing the path of the Tram, or a car was coming down Winterthurstrasse and verged into the Tram lane to try and avoid a car coming from Riedtlistrasse. In any case it's the car involved in the accident's fault

Its a right-has-priority junction, but in this particular location it feels like you are on a main road (Winterthurerstrasse being an extremely busy road to Oerlikon etc) and the road coming from the right (Riedtlistrasse) approaches from below and behind you as you reach the intersection. People realise its a right-has-priority junction (which it shouldn't be due to the relative traffic density and poor visibility) too late, slightly swerve to the left instictively and subsequently get glanced by the tram. Of course its easy to say 'well if you saw the sign you should know right has priority' but this happens so often that its obviously a problem for many people.