Earlier quoted context omitted.
Street car rails probably won't appear from nowhere, but if your tire falls into the gap for the rail, you're very likely to crash. Seattle has a tiny amount of street car rail, but regularly pays out large damages to people injured by the rails.
I've seen people wreck super hard trying to cross the streetcar rails at too shallow an angle in pdx multiple times. But that's an optional behavior. Just the other day I saw a moose crossing the road over in Twin Mountain, and I chose to slow down and not hit it. If I'd made another choice that resulted in a collision, and I'd survived, I wouldn't expect to get some settlement from the town of Twin Mountain, NH. Sim…
For heavy rail, they don't often run in the road, parallel with the road, in the lane of travel. And when they do, it's usually in an industrial area that people aren't walking and cycling through.