by Robert Vaughan
Can you judge how long it will take a train to get to the grade crossing? Will the gates come down on time, or do they give you time to ride around them and still make it safely?
Cars often have trouble judging a motorcycle’s distance and speed because we are smaller than cars. A train’s distance and speed are hard to judge for the opposite reason—trains are so large. Large objects appear to be moving slower than they are. When a jet is coming in for a landing, it appears to be moving very slowly, though it is really doing about 150 miles an hour.
Viewing the train almost head-on gives it little apparent motion and makes it seem even slower. The parallel lines of the tracks going toward the train make it look further away than it really is. The combined effect of the train’s looking both slower and farther away than it really is give us a false sense of security. Most trains take about two minutes to clear a crossing. It only seems longer. Yet, many people gamble two minutes against a lifetime, a real sucker’s bet.
Don’t the crossing gates have a safety margin built in so we actually have plenty of time after they first come down? The answer is sometimes, but not always. The gates are timed for a fast train and activate when the train is a quarter mile from the crossing. If all trains were fast, the train would always be at the crossing within 25 seconds. Even slow trains make the crossing within a minute. Unfortunately, the slow trains also make us think that we always have extra time. If everyone took this extra time for granted we would be fine for all the slow trains. However, the first fast train coming down the track would make mincemeat of all the drivers who didn’t make it.
Railroads are now experimenting with new types of crossing signs and new ways to paint engines. Operation Lifesaver has helped to reduce crossroad fatalities. The highway department has even put a radio-equipped officer in the locomotive who looks for motorists who drove around the crossing arms. He has street patrols ticket the driver. Unfortunately, railroads and highway departments can’t help the driver who sees the train but decides he can beat it across the crossing. In case of a tie, the train always wins.
As motorcyclists, this reinforces something we learned long ago—the biggest vehicle has the right of way. It’s easier to fight city hall than Southern Pacific.