Posted on 08/20/2004 10:14:14 AM PDT by Jalapeno
Houston has more train crossing per mile of road than any other city, and is three times more than who was in second place.
What makes the METRO Train so dangerous (stupid) is running down the middle of the street.
Oh! Thanks. I wondered.
Any turn is illegal if it takes you into the path of a vehicle with the right-of-way.
Is this a good time to remind everyone that this little project went over the $300,000,000 budget before it was completed.
It's only a matter of time?
Someone already has. Although it wasn't a direct impact; she got her wheels stuck with the track and flipped her car over trying to get lose. No actual impact with the train, just the track.
Chances are it's just a buzz word for the real "crime" - coming within physical contact with a METRO train. METRO's UNELECTED administrators have effectively enacted provisions that make it "illegal" to touch the thing under virtually any circumstance save boarding and exiting. In short, they've rigged the system so that their trains can never be at fault even though the exact same type of collision between two automobiles may indeed put the other guy at fault. The only exception is when METRO conducts its own investigation of its wreck and determines its driver "could have avoided the collision," which it's done only once to date. But if you think he's getting a ticket and a huge repair bill like every driver this boondoggle has victimized, think again. METRO's drivers get put on paid vacation for a month before being "retrained" on how to drive their choo choos and presumably plow through cars only in cases where METRO can self-investigate it in a way that assures the car will be at fault.
I have been on all along the Metro Rail line as a passenger, driver and pedestrian.
Only a moron could wreck his vehicle into the train.
I fail to see the problem:
Are the Big Signs that say Look and Listen for train and the diagram of streets and tracks not clear enough?
Do people not understand what a Red Light means?
Do people actually not know what not to do when a train signal is on and the cross bar blocks the tracks from vehicle traffic?
Can people not read the No Left Turn Signs?
Is the Big Yellow Stripe and the Big Bumps that separate the street from tracks not an obvious indicator that one should not drive over the YELLOW LINE and Big Bumps?
Now, if you want to discuss the merits of a light rail system is a sprawling metropolis that is an whole different topic.
But, how people could be so stupid as to get in a crash with the Metro Train, I will never know.
I disagree. Only a moron could steer directly into the train on such instances as running a red light. An average driver with reasonable intelligence and a decent, though imperfect, driving record could collide with the train as a direct result of its flawed interface, confusing and contradictory street signals, and lack of grade separation. Many cases of both have happened to date.
Are the Big Signs that say Look and Listen for train and the diagram of streets and tracks not clear enough?
Oh, they're perfectly clear. The problem comes from those intersections where green traffic lights and "train approaching" indicators have been known to display themselves simultaneously. I've been told that METRO was either fixing or planning to fix these, though I did observe at least one still doing this the last time I was down there.
Do people not understand what a Red Light means?
Again, except for the red light runners who probably do the same stuff at intersections that don't have trains, they generally are not. Those green lights are though and appear to have contributed heavily to several of the early collisions on the accident prone corridor outside of midtown.
Do people actually not know what not to do when a train signal is on and the cross bar blocks the tracks from vehicle traffic?
There are no crossbars at the majority of the train's intersections. Of those that do have them, I know of only one incident where they were neglected, that being when a METRO bus and a truck plowed through two of them in the first week or so of operation during a power outage on the rail line that left them blocking traffic. If you are referring to the other incident in which the Union Pacific truck went underneath a lifted crossbar, please note that this did not occur on METRO's tracks but rather on a UP line south of 610 that is paralleled briefly by a track segment that METRO uses to give light rail joyrides. The truck that got hit was one of at least two working on top of the UP tracks for scheduled maintenance purposes and if you still think UP is to blame, ask yourself what would happen if your car plowed through a road maintenance crew on I-10 despite your advance knowledge that they were out there.
Can people not read the No Left Turn Signs?
Some people violate them just like they do with the no U turn signs and any other number of directions. That said, many Metrorail accidents have NOT been on left turns, this recent one with the prison bus included.
Is the Big Yellow Stripe and the Big Bumps that separate the street from tracks not an obvious indicator that one should not drive over the YELLOW LINE and Big Bumps?
To date I do not know of anybody driving on those lines and bumps save in the wee hours of the morning when all those drunks splashed through the main street fountain. I do however know of some four dozen or so accidents that have occured at street intersections with the rail line where there are no bumps.
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