I read your article about a safety review of Croydon’s tram network after the death of cyclist Roger De Klerk (Death Prompts Safety Probe, January 28) and having had a near miss myself I thought I would document this.

My concern is that where cyclists share the road the tram rail is about three to four feet from the kerb edge, but when it gets close to a tram stop, Lebanon Road in my case coming out from East Croydon, it suddenly narrows to less than two feet.

This means it is almost impossible to ride the length of the platform without hitting the platform edge with your pedal so you are forced to cross the tram rail and ride in the middle of the two tram lines then cross back again after the platform ends.

In my case as soon as I crossed the rail, which is like a recessed channel, the bike wheel got “grabbed” by the channel, the front wheel dropped in and the result is I was thrown off the bike and hit the road hard.

I was very lucky as a car that was travelling behind me braked very hard and stopped in time to avoid running me over.

Luckily, I just suffered severe bruising, but it could have been very serious.

In a recent episode of the BBC show Top Gear Richard Hammond suffered the same fate when riding over a tram line.

I do not know what the solution is, but something needs to be done where cyclists are forced to cross the rails at station stops.

It is OK when you cross a rail at right angles, but when you have to cross a line when riding parallel it is really dangerous.

I am an experienced cyclist so like to think I know what I am doing, but this just shows you how one can be caught out so I have told many fellow cyclists about this danger point.

Hopefully your article has helped alert other cyclists to the dangers of tram tracks.

NIGEL ORTON By email