In NJ, the Jackson Street Bridge connects Newark and Harrison, and is a very old “swing” bridge. It was finally renovated in the early '90s in order to remedy its problems, but I can vividly recall problems with that bridge “jamming” in very hot weather (due to expansion), back in the '60s & '70s.
In order to cool-down the joints on very hot days, they had to keep a pump running, in order to cause river water to flow across the joints. If you wanted to have the lower portion of your car washed, all you had to do was to drive over the Jackson Street Bridge.
I did speak of this accident and I even quoted you previously 3-days ago because of your experiences on it…
The latest news about this accident is “There is No New News…” It was a single car accident, no one else was involved, it was in good weather, and as the Police say, “The Accident is under investigation.”
So, you wonder why they are so “closed lip” about it?
“… an avid train-spotter, has written several letters to both his congressman and senators to eliminate all grade level RR crossings in the U.S.”
Has the dolt also requested that all street intersections be eliminated?
Many times more collisions and injuries and deaths occur at street intersections.
And street intersections are more complicated with vehicles crossing from left and right and head-on left-turning drivers plus pedestrians.
Hope that the sewertruck driver was OK. DUI of marijuana or alcohol?
How does one stop and miss seeing an approaching train with horn blasting? (Not a Quiet Zone grade crossing.)
Or does he not stop because there is never a train whenever he is crossing?
As an Operation Lifesaver presenter I rode in Amtrak locomotive from Goleto, CA to San Diego videoing grade crossing behaviors.
One locomotivengineer told me of a driver who knew when Amtrak usually arrived.
But the train was delayed 50 minutes and almost hit the driver who assumed the train had already passed.
Oh, was the train horn sounding for this Private Crossing? (No horn required for Private Crossings.)
On one of the social media platforms train crossings came up. One person complained the train aggressively blew its horn! Just how does a train aggressively blow its horn. When and how often trains blow their horns are mandated by law.
In Edison, NJ, there is a RR freight crossing that sits fairly close to a townhouse development, and the residents of that development objected to the sounding of train horns in the middle of the night, thus waking them. After much back & forth, Conrail agree to silence the horns, and signs were erected at that crossing, stating something along the lines of… Trains do not sound horn at this crossing.
Takes a certain amount of gall or stupidity to buy a house next to a railroad and then complain about the noise.
Long long short long is the legally required train horn sounding requirement.
Last shop I worked at, the back parking lot backed up to a RR right of way. Between Amtrak and freight trains we heard that probably a dozen times a day. Even in the office we often had to pause phone conversations it was so loud. We were close enough to the RR yard that the shop had the maintenance contract for the Union Pacific shop pickup trucks that they used. Man, did those trucks get beat to ■■■■.
This is somewhat similar to the folks who buy a home next to an Interstate Highway, and then demand that noise reduction walls be built–at taxpayer expense–to shield them from the traffic noise that existed for decades prior to the construction of their home.
Highways, airports, railroads, etc. The auto wrecking yard that used to be out in the middle of nowhere is now adjacent to a sprawling housing development and 2 blocks away from a grade school. A group is calling for closing down the yard because it may be dangerous for kids to play around there. Nobody forced them to buy a house there.
Not to get off topic but just had a guy turn in front of me with the newly installed blinking yellow light. I like being able to turn but they are dangerous if you have a green light. I think they are rushing to beat a red arrow o4 something. I think it is about $80,000 to change the signal lights so don’t lecture me about wasted tax dollars.
I think they’re not fully understood. And to add to the confusion, sometimes they go out of sequence from what we expect. Usually a light is green, then yellow, then red, then green again. There’s a busy intersection near me with a left-turn lane and the light for a left goes from red, to flashing yellow arrow, to green arrow, to yellow arrow, to red.
The blinking yellow light law is EXACTLY the same if there isn’t one. If you have one - it means you can turn left with caution but must yield right-of-way to oncoming traffic. If you have just a green light with no arrows and the light is green - people who are going straight have the right-of-way and people turning left must yield right-of-way to oncoming traffic
