• train/rail infrastructure really does need to be isolated from carbrains. i live in a small city with a little freight rail switching (as a treat). much of the rail is elevated over street traffic, but there are a few roads where it’s not with the crossing bars and lights. at certain times of day (really only late afternoon 5pm-ish), those roads can be a little stop-n-go on week days. i was on one just the other day and when i get to the tracks, of course i don’t cross over until i have room on the other side, because sometimes the traffic won’t move for 4-5 minutes.

      i was literally the only one that did this out of the dozen+ people i saw. everyone else just blocked it when their turn came. thank fuck no train was coming then. but this shit is inevitable in america, because i literally see the conditions for it all the time.

      the burgerlanders only think of their yummy treatos and will straddle a fucking railroad if it means they can pull forward 4 feet in the majestic line of petroleum chariots.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    This is partly why Brightline can’t be said to be HSR: FRA rules require true HSR speed rail to be grade separated from car infrastructure, full stop. The segments of CAHSR in LA and the Bay Area that aren’t rade separated are set to run around 110 mph instead of the 220 mph it’ll be rocking in the tunnels (yeah, you heard me) and the almost fully grade separated central valley.

    Also, it’s bewildering to me that train vs car crashes happen at all still, unless they’re suicides. These are all preventable and easily predictable outcomes that any reasonable person should be able to anticipate.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I can understand not paying attention to a train coming down the tracks, because it’s such an ordinary thing. What I can’t understand is:

        1. Parking on the tracks at all. It’s not like your blue lights mean shit to a freight train. Just, why?

        2. Detaining that person in the one vehicle on the railroad tracks. You’ve got like five cars to pick from, and you choose the one sitting on railroad tracks and then don’t move it. Come on.

        All in all, it was an extraordinarily careless mistake and they should be held accountable for it the same way anyone should be held accountable for grossly negligent choices.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      The question is, when you come to a train crossing and it’s safe to cross, do you go fast or slow down ‘just in case’? I slow down but can’t help thinking that’s more dangerous. But then I think, do I want to be going fast if I do get hit?

      • OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Probably just adds more force to the equation unless it’s the difference between hitting the front and back of the car.