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I'm living in a German city near (but not directly on) a busy street (as in: lots of cars and tram service every 5 minutes on workdays and every 30 minutes at n

I'm living in a German city near (but not directly on) a busy street (as in: lots of cars and tram service every 5 minutes on workdays and every 30 minutes at night). Trams are about as loud as cars, but there are fewer trams than cars, so cars rank slightly worse than trams for me. The only mode of transportation that's "practically silent" is bicycles. (Pedestrians are silent, too, except for those drunk idiots who like to loudly argue before my house at night.) > Buses, trucks, trains, and motorcycles all make drastically more noise. Motorcycles are THE WORST. > Especially when the buses are operating their airbrakes and audible announcements, WTF? Announcements happen inside the bus, not outside. (Except if there is a blind person on the platform. They have devices that make the tram or bus announce its destination. But blind people are exceptionally rare, especially at night.) > trains are blowing their horns as they crawl away from stations WTF? I only ever see trains blowing their horns when approaching one of the few ungated level crossings in the countryside which have not been outfitted with gates yet.

closeparen 8y ago
In the US cities I’ve lived in, announcements always happen outside the bus in case there might be a blind person, and the tracks used by freight and regional passenger service have boom gates, flashing lights, bells, and three blows of the train horn at every level crossing (every few blocks). Those trains still kill pedestrians pretty frequently, so there is little appetite for relaxing federal railway safety regulations. In Chicago, some bus shelters also have continuous beeps whether or not a bus is present to alert the blind to their location.
- majewsky 8y ago
  Interesting. Level crossings between railway and streets within cities seem like a colossally bad idea to me, and I don't know of any in Germany. (Except for trams, obviously. Those operate very differently from railway, and at much lower velocities.) And I'm surprised that the buses don't adopt the same tech that we have, where blind people carry devices that trigger the announcement.

closeparen 8y ago

In the US cities I’ve lived in, announcements always happen outside the bus in case there might be a blind person, and the tracks used by freight and regional passenger service have boom gates, flashing lights, bells, and three blows of the train horn at every level crossing (every few blocks). Those trains still kill pedestrians pretty frequently, so there is little appetite for relaxing federal railway safety regulations. In Chicago, some bus shelters also have continuous beeps whether or not a bus is present to alert the blind to their location.

majewsky 8y ago
Interesting. Level crossings between railway and streets within cities seem like a colossally bad idea to me, and I don't know of any in Germany. (Except for trams, obviously. Those operate very differently from railway, and at much lower velocities.) And I'm surprised that the buses don't adopt the same tech that we have, where blind people carry devices that trigger the announcement.