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Train crossings. I live in a port city with tracks that run right through the middle of the city. No, the safety lights don't always work. No, you can't always hear them coming. Yes, I've had to floor it to avoid being hit. This just seems like a bad idea on the face of it to me. It makes people drive in a way that other drivers may not expect them to, and that's always dangerous.


This isn't an acceleration limiter. How fast did you need to be going to cross those tracks before the train arrived? And why was stopping not an alternative? Are you a stunt driver for '70s action movies?


I don't understand this scenario, how long is the piece of track that you had to clear? Does the road not simply cross over the track? Even at 10km/h, you'd clear the <2m of track in 0.72 seconds, barely enough time to notice the train was coming and start accelerating. Is this instead a situation where you were nearing the track with too much speed to stop before reaching it, so you had to accelerate instead to clear it?


It's a bit more than 2 m because trains are wider than the tracks. In the US they can be up to 3.25 m wide and in Europe up to 3.15 m wide.


    > No, the safety lights don't always work.
Do you report the incident to the local city when they don't work? Or you can send a letter to your national safety board that regulates freight trains.

    > "avoid being hit"
You were not careful enough when crossing the train tracks. When you get a driver's license in Japan, they strictly train (and test!) you to stop at a train tracks (regardless of lights), roll down the window, and listen. If we are talking about a 200 ton diesel locomotive, you shouldn't have any issue hearing it. If you follow these simply instructions, you can avoid most safety issues at railroad crossings. Many trucking companies are required by company policy to do the same.


Trains move quickly enough that even someone on foot may not hear them before being run over. It's why one should never walk along railroads.

If someone on foot may not hear a train in time, how well is someone in a car with the windows down going to do?


if you are a serial speeder that has been caught multiple times doing 100+ mph, then maybe you shouldn't be speeding over the train tracks in the first place. Maybe, go over them traveling, you know, the speed limit so you will be able to floor it for a couple of seconds if need be.




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