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Tangential, but I'm a subscriber to a YouTube channel called VRF - virtual railfan - that shows essentially "traffic cams" of trains throughout North America. P

Tangential, but I'm a subscriber to a YouTube channel called VRF - virtual railfan - that shows essentially "traffic cams" of trains throughout North America. People do take selfies for the cam but always from a safe location. Over the years, the cams have caught some extraordinary events: maintenance equipment starting fires, trains on fire, numerous derailments, and, I'm not kidding, probably about 100 occurrences of people driving onto the tracks and getting stuck. A disproportionate number of them occurred at Ashland, VA. Which makes me think it's a bug in the traffic design.

mschuster91 2y ago
> and, I'm not kidding, probably about 100 occurrences of people driving onto the tracks and getting stuck. A disproportionate number of them occurred at Ashland, VA. Which makes me think it's a bug in the traffic design. Can't speak for Ashland, but... educated guess, too steep elevation on the crossing, either from faulty design or bad road maintenance (the segment of road outside the compacted zone surrounding the rail settles from the load of the trucks). In Germany, we solved that issue mostly by demanding automated radar or manual visual (direct or by camera) checks before clearing a crossing for the passing of a train at intersections that carry heavy haul traffic. However, we have on rarely-used crossings no monitoring, sometimes even no signalling, and just a day ago a freight train absolutely demolished the shit out of a rubble hauler [1]. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/1hdjzek/a_truck_full_with_building_rubble_apparently/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/1hdjzek/a_truc...
- gosub100 2y ago
  many of the drivers simply couldn't get back on the road. If there were a ramp instead of a drop-off, the could have, however it would have been at the extreme risk of backing into traffic. Probably due to coincidence, train tracks are the perfect height to prevent drivers from turning (to drive over the rail). Some very determined drivers have done it, but probably 1/10 of the ones who become trapped.
  - toast0 2y ago
    Oh, I didn't understand what you had meant by driving onto the tracks. I've been at least one crossing where I almost turned left onto the tracks instead of left onto the street before or after the crossing [1] If this is happening much more often at one crossing than others, there's probably some feature of the crossing design that is encouraging this improper use. It's possible an inexpensive intervention could help a lot: painting lane lines and dashed turn indicators from the left turn lane could help. Otherwise, it might be possible to put a gate over the rails, that was down at rest, and only raised when a train is crossing; but I've never seen that outside of rails at a park of some sort. [1] https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vrz5HtB23dDV3mcg7?g_st=ac https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vrz5HtB23dDV3mcg7?g_st=ac I think this should be a link to the street view. If not, Sunnvale Ave and Hendy Ave in Sunnyvale, CA. Heading south on Sunnyvale. I feel like this intersection has changed since, but I'm not sure.
    - gosub100 2y ago
      https://youtu.be/fooTJBfvT3Y?si=B-jqDuREdiNtYxQn https://youtu.be/fooTJBfvT3Y?si=B-jqDuREdiNtYxQn This one is probably an altered state of mind, but still funny.
toast0 2y ago
> A disproportionate number of them occurred at Ashland, VA. Which makes me think it's a bug in the traffic design. Without knowledge of the crossing, it's definitely possible. Some crossing designs are better than others, and changing the design of a crossing can be very difficult depending on the site details. Changing the path of rails is always difficult due to the constraints of trains, so a poor crossing will almost certainly need to have the alignment of the road changed, but sometimes there's not enough buildable space around the crossing to build an over or undercrossing (grade separation) and it is expensive and disruptive. Sometimes it's possible to close the road if the crossing is bad and the road is deemed unnecessary, but it's pretty rare to deem roads unnecessary.

mschuster91 2y ago

> and, I'm not kidding, probably about 100 occurrences of people driving onto the tracks and getting stuck. A disproportionate number of them occurred at Ashland, VA. Which makes me think it's a bug in the traffic design. Can't speak for Ashland, but... educated guess, too steep elevation on the crossing, either from faulty design or bad road maintenance (the segment of road outside the compacted zone surrounding the rail settles from the load of the trucks). In Germany, we solved that issue mostly by demanding automated radar or manual visual (direct or by camera) checks before clearing a crossing for the passing of a train at intersections that carry heavy haul traffic. However, we have on rarely-used crossings no monitoring, sometimes even no signalling, and just a day ago a freight train absolutely demolished the shit out of a rubble hauler [1]. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/1hdjzek/a_truck_full_with_building_rubble_apparently/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/1hdjzek/a_truc...

gosub100 2y ago
many of the drivers simply couldn't get back on the road. If there were a ramp instead of a drop-off, the could have, however it would have been at the extreme risk of backing into traffic. Probably due to coincidence, train tracks are the perfect height to prevent drivers from turning (to drive over the rail). Some very determined drivers have done it, but probably 1/10 of the ones who become trapped.
- toast0 2y ago
  Oh, I didn't understand what you had meant by driving onto the tracks. I've been at least one crossing where I almost turned left onto the tracks instead of left onto the street before or after the crossing [1] If this is happening much more often at one crossing than others, there's probably some feature of the crossing design that is encouraging this improper use. It's possible an inexpensive intervention could help a lot: painting lane lines and dashed turn indicators from the left turn lane could help. Otherwise, it might be possible to put a gate over the rails, that was down at rest, and only raised when a train is crossing; but I've never seen that outside of rails at a park of some sort. [1] https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vrz5HtB23dDV3mcg7?g_st=ac https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vrz5HtB23dDV3mcg7?g_st=ac I think this should be a link to the street view. If not, Sunnvale Ave and Hendy Ave in Sunnyvale, CA. Heading south on Sunnyvale. I feel like this intersection has changed since, but I'm not sure.
  - gosub100 2y ago
    https://youtu.be/fooTJBfvT3Y?si=B-jqDuREdiNtYxQn https://youtu.be/fooTJBfvT3Y?si=B-jqDuREdiNtYxQn This one is probably an altered state of mind, but still funny.

toast0 2y ago

> A disproportionate number of them occurred at Ashland, VA. Which makes me think it's a bug in the traffic design. Without knowledge of the crossing, it's definitely possible. Some crossing designs are better than others, and changing the design of a crossing can be very difficult depending on the site details. Changing the path of rails is always difficult due to the constraints of trains, so a poor crossing will almost certainly need to have the alignment of the road changed, but sometimes there's not enough buildable space around the crossing to build an over or undercrossing (grade separation) and it is expensive and disruptive. Sometimes it's possible to close the road if the crossing is bad and the road is deemed unnecessary, but it's pretty rare to deem roads unnecessary.