Should all railroad crossings be replaced with overpasses?
16 Feb 2020, 11:29 pm
pete1061 wrote:
johnny77 wrote:
Here in the us 55-65% of bridges get a failing grade for safety it would be mad to overpass the billions of crossings the crossing isn't the issue it is the drivers it is your responsibility to look before crossing even if the gates are up. Commonsense you wouldn't drive thru a busy intersection without looking no different at a train crossing. I have no pity for some one who tries to beat a train or the one who won't leave there car when it gets stuck on the tracks. 97 % of track crossing accident are because of driver error not the train or gates.
It's amazing how many drivers fail to use common sense. With the gate down, lights flashing and bells going off, some people still think that they can beat the train.
I think heavier, more obstructing gates could be installed that block the entire road.
Don't that have some like that in europe?
I say a 4-quadrant gate system be used (a crossing with 4 half-barriers blocking the road rather than just two half-barriers or two barriers that extend all the way across the road.)
I lived in Germany twice and from what I remember, including in a town I lived in for two years as a pre-K kid, there were crossings with gates that went down all across the road, not just halfway, which could have allowed escape for exiting traffic, but thankfully unnecessary gate drive-arounds was impossible! Now like the U.S. and many other places, they have gates that only block half the road and only have 2 gates per crossing (not counting pedestrian gates). I've seen a couple four-quad gate/full barrier with four half gate crossings in Germany, only one of them had lights, the other didn't. But there have been crossings with gates and the sign but no lights. The ones with gates but no lights had gates that blocked the whole road. And at those crossings, it would be a 3 minute wait between the lowering of the gate and the arrival of the train! These were at manually operated crossings which were still in use through the 80s or 90s unlike the U.S.
At crossings with lights and automatic warning devices, half gates are used and the wait time for trains is much shorter. Also in Germany, the more modern signals have red and yellow lights, they work like traffic signals except without a green light and the red lights don't blink (they do on the older models, the ones that don't come with yellow lights.)
They also do yellow lights in the U.K. but they're red lights flash. And they have crossings with 2 half barriers, 2 full barriers, and my favorite: full barrier crossings with four half-barriers (4-quadrant gates!)
Here's an article on 4-Quad gates https://trains-and-locomotives.fandom.c ... rant_Gates. It includes photos of 4-quad gates in the U.S., U.K., and other places!
24 Nov 2021, 9:22 am
Quote:
I'm only saying this because I like railroad crossings as indicated in this post on this same website.Who Like's Railroad Crossings
No I don't think all crossings should be overpasses (or underpasses) I say some should stay around even though I understand they are dangerous and risky and the warning devices in place are expensive to buy, build, maintain, and replace (like the gates which risk their lives more than the other railroad crossing paraphernalia (because they get in the way of traffic and some inconsiderate idiots crash through them as if they were long multi-striped bowling pins, WHICH THEY'RE NOT!
And it would be impossible (and I'm sorry but I'm glad it is) to replace every single railroad crossing with overpasses and underpasses).
I mean I guess there should be less railroad crossings than there are now and I admit some of them are dangerous, even for me, but I don't think they should all be closed and replaced with grade separations, but if it happens, I hope the Atlantic Ocean dries up before every crossing is replaced with a grade separation or just closed off altogether (Sort of a repeat of what Ladonna Compson from the P.B.S. Kids show ARTHUR said.)
But I don't think it's possible to close absolutely every crossing. But it would be nice if there were less crossings with just the crossbuck and nothing else (lights, gates, bells, etc.) I mean if the railroad line is out of service, that's one thing, but if it's still in service, even if there's only two or three trains a day, or a few a week, there should at least be lights if not gates.
What would be nice is an increased 4-Quadrant Gate system, but that's not a perfect solution. There's also those Safety Barrier gates (or vehicle arresting gates) that actually stop cars from crossing the tracks (which are ugly to me but admittedly are stronger). Or even more median barriers, although they're very inconvenient to people who want to make a U Turn.
As someone said, drivers who race trains to crossings should be replaced with drivers that stop when they see a train coming, that way overpasses and underpasses won't be needed (except at extremily busy rail lines or busy high-traffic roads, or where a railroad crossing is too close to a freeway like we have a few here in Tucson, and one crossing was changed to an overpass because of that and it's going to happen to two more crossings. Increased numbers of gates won't be needed either.
Sadly, there are always going to be people trying to beat trains, not knowing trains are coming, and people getting hit by trains, there's almost no way around it the world we live in.
I'd say more but I have to go now.
No I don't think all crossings should be overpasses (or underpasses) I say some should stay around even though I understand they are dangerous and risky and the warning devices in place are expensive to buy, build, maintain, and replace (like the gates which risk their lives more than the other railroad crossing paraphernalia (because they get in the way of traffic and some inconsiderate idiots crash through them as if they were long multi-striped bowling pins, WHICH THEY'RE NOT!
And it would be impossible (and I'm sorry but I'm glad it is) to replace every single railroad crossing with overpasses and underpasses).
I mean I guess there should be less railroad crossings than there are now and I admit some of them are dangerous, even for me, but I don't think they should all be closed and replaced with grade separations, but if it happens, I hope the Atlantic Ocean dries up before every crossing is replaced with a grade separation or just closed off altogether (Sort of a repeat of what Ladonna Compson from the P.B.S. Kids show ARTHUR said.)
But I don't think it's possible to close absolutely every crossing. But it would be nice if there were less crossings with just the crossbuck and nothing else (lights, gates, bells, etc.) I mean if the railroad line is out of service, that's one thing, but if it's still in service, even if there's only two or three trains a day, or a few a week, there should at least be lights if not gates.
What would be nice is an increased 4-Quadrant Gate system, but that's not a perfect solution. There's also those Safety Barrier gates (or vehicle arresting gates) that actually stop cars from crossing the tracks (which are ugly to me but admittedly are stronger). Or even more median barriers, although they're very inconvenient to people who want to make a U Turn.
As someone said, drivers who race trains to crossings should be replaced with drivers that stop when they see a train coming, that way overpasses and underpasses won't be needed (except at extremily busy rail lines or busy high-traffic roads, or where a railroad crossing is too close to a freeway like we have a few here in Tucson, and one crossing was changed to an overpass because of that and it's going to happen to two more crossings. Increased numbers of gates won't be needed either.
Sadly, there are always going to be people trying to beat trains, not knowing trains are coming, and people getting hit by trains, there's almost no way around it the world we live in.
I'd say more but I have to go now.
