See lots of train/vehicle crashes (nothing gory or icky), just morons in charge of 2 tons of machinery. I wonder how many of them were talking on their cell phones when hit.
Interesting. Talk about stupidity![D)]
I will agree to stupidity, however, I don’t know who is more stupid…the drivers or the idiot that designed that section of roadway/right of way. To have rail vehicles operating in an enviornment where other vehicles have the ability to turn in front of the rail vehicle is stupidity to the Nth. Either provide true separation between rail vehicles and highway vehicles or eliminate the designated lane and make the rail vehicles content with traffic in the same manner as the highway vehicles.
Only one problem with that solution…the light rail line in the video is the Metro in Houston, runs from the south side, Astrodome complex, thru downtown and the Medical center, to the north side, ending at the University of Houston.
There is no open land, or any way to separate the grade, the tracks run in the street because there is no where else to put them, and constructing an elevated line would be out of the question, again because there is no where to build elevated stations where the train stops.
The purpose of the light rail is to move people to the places they want to go, it is not commuter rail, bringing people from the suburbs into the city, but more of a bus service on rails, stopping several times at major buildings downtown and places like the Medical center.
Most of the accidents shown occurred in the downtown section, where driving is not just a hassle, but a competitive contact sport.
The one with the overhead glass enclosed pedestrian walkways is almost smack dab in the middle of the Medical center complex…so emergency care was most likely quite good.
The proposed lines north and west of the city will have grade separation, but only because there is real estate that the city can claim under eminent domain.
I doubt 1 Shell Plaza, or the Texaco Tower (two of the major stops) would have been bulldozed to make room for a grade separated rail line.
To build a separated line would have meant removing the very buildings the line serves, so what would be the point?
The only place to put the tracks was in the street, in this case, Main street thru downtown.
If you notice, there are road bumps and warning signs all over the place.
The trains run at street speed, and have to obey the traffic signals, just like automobiles.
They do contend with traffic, and there are flashing signs that warn auto drivers that a train is coming.
The right of way is clearly marked, and the traffic signals the train does not have to sto
YES FOLKS, ONE MORE TIME…STUPID DOES AS STUPID IS! [D)]
The real problem, within the constraints you mentioned, is even permitting cars to make Left hand turns. Left hand turns in metropolitan areas are a prime traffic congester as it impedes the the straight line flow of traffic…better to make 3 right hand turns to make the left hand move…
About half those left turns are made even though the lane is clearly marked (and I suspect the intersection light too) as straight only. I bet the drivers were still wondering how they got hit and where the train came from when they called their insurers. They would have turned left in front of anything!
To add to all the fun, down here you can turn right on a red light, after stopping for the light.
You can turn left on a red, again after stopping, from a one way street to a one way street.
As was pointed out, the folks in the video would most likely have turned left in front of anything in the other lane.
You can’t really tell from the video, but there is enough signage and flashing warning lights that at night, Main street looks like the Strip in Vegas…
Thats amazing. Truely clueless driving there, mirrors? what’er they fer’…
The music was a perfect match.
Yes I watched it several times and yeap the streets are clearly marked straight only, no left turns, but since when do people follow traffic laws?
My favorite was the car that looked like it was changing lanes onto the track to pass slower traffic ahead of it.
PS those round dividers on the ground between the track and the road are BIG, running over one is like hitting a bowling ball cast in concrete!
PSPS check out the other vids there, the Robot Chicken Bob Barker one was a riot!
Maybe an odd topper to this, but Metro Light rail hit a deaf man about two years ago…he couldn’t hear the horn, which sounds like something they took off a 71 Honda CVCC, sorta a beep beep thing…but he was crossing the tracks from one of the platforms, the warning lights were flashing, but you could tell from the video he was looking at some papers in his hand and never looked up, got clipped pretty good.
Now, on the way to the emergency room, less than a block from the accident site, the HFD ambulance he was being transported in was hit by a drunk driver…so three additional ambulances had to be called, one for the guy hit by the train, one for the guy who hit the ambulance, and one for the Paramedics in the first ambulance, who got rattled around in the back pretty hard…the guy who was hit by the Metro was strapped into a gurney so well, he suffered no additional injuries, and was released two days later…the drunk driver received no injuries at all, and I would hate to be his insurance agent!
Vic…those bowling balls are pretty big…if you run over one at the speed limit, 30mph, you will be getting a new front end alignment, maybe a new rim and tire too…for some stupid reason, the contractor placed them just far enough apart that you can easily drive over them by straddling them…
Remember STUPID people can not be held accountable for doing STUPID things. Because they are STUPID.
I wonder how many of them were talking on their cell phones at the time of impact.
99%?
98%?
You must live in a place where 3 right turns will take you back to your point of origin, a square grid pattern. Such heavenly places exist (Savannah, GA being the only one I’m familiar with), but they are only a tiny minority, especially major cities. Most major cities’ street patterns are the result of the roads following whatever pigtrails existed when the first settlers plunked themselves down.
Here in Washington, DC, the strees are on a square grid pattern, but with diagonal avenues shooting all the way across the city and screwing up what could be a fairly logical layout. Over the years, different “traffic engineers” have “improved” traffic patterns by designating certain street main arteries and erecting physical barriers to prevent crossing them. The resulting traffic patterns resemble something devised by a medieval torture expert, or a drunken baboon scrawling with a lumber crayon. If you take 3 right turns here, there’s at least a 99% chance you WILL NOT end up back where you started.