In a small town about an hour away from me, I saw a yield sign at a railroad crossing. The crossing has a cross buck, a round, yellow sign that says railroad crossing, and the yield sign. This is not on a main line. It’s on a spur that connects a grain elevator operation with the DM&E in Hawarden Iowa. Granted, the yield sign is on a highway leaving town, and there’s certainly not much railroad traffic at this crossing, but why a yield sign?
The crossbuck and the yield sign each mean yield, but studies have found that a lot of drivers do not know the crossbuck means yield. So there is a trend to add a yield sign to the crossbuck at grade crossings even though it is technically redundant.
I won
I wonder if those are the same studies that concluded that drivers were far less willing to disobey “regulatory” traffic signs (such as STOP and YIELD, etc) than they were “warning” traffic control signs (RR crossing, “Low Clearance”, etc).
Speed limit signs are mostly considered merely a suggestion.
I disagree with the assumption that adding a yield sign to a crossbuck makes a crossing safer. I think the assumption flows from asking the wrong question. While many drivers may not know that a crossbuck means the same thing as a yield sign, I think it is likely that most do know what the crossbuck means. They understand the fundamental concept of yield that is conveyed by the crossbuck as it pertains to trains at grade crossings.
I believe that the reason many drivers do not understand that the crossbuck means the same thing as a yield sign is NOT that they fail to understand the meaning of the crossbuck. It is because they fail to understand the meaning of the yield sign. The yield sign is probably the most misunderstood sign of all. Drivers often either treat it like a merge sign or a stop sign that is okay to run.
In other words, the yield sign tends to convey a message that the way ahead is less restrictive than it appears. A yield sign is sort of a “green light” in places that look like they might need a stop sign. So a yield sign tells drivers that it is okay to compromise their natural sense of caution.
I don’t think it goes as far as what a driver thinks. Most drivers don’t think: they have their minds pre-programmed to react to certain signs like STOP or YIELD, and don’t even see the crossbucks. It’s similar to what many motorcycle and bicycle riders will tell you: it’s as if they don’t exist.
I tend to agree that if a crossbuck means (at least in theory) “stop look and listen” that a yield sign seems to diminish that by suggesting “go ahead if it looks OK.” But the yield sign does suggest it is up to YOU to yield, not the other guy.
I think it is correct that more drivers know what a yield sign means than know what a crossbuck stands for. They think it just means this is a railroad crossing and is railroad property, not that you are being told to stop and yield the right of way.
Maybe even more to the point, in the event a railroad lawyer is arguing to a jury, those lawyers may have told the railroad they’d have a better argument to the “average” jury member if they said “there was a yield sign” than if all they could say was “there was a cross buck.” Remember that the plaintiff’s lawyer is likely to argue to that same jury that the railroad should have stopped at the crossing, or could have stopped but didn’t, and that sort of thing. The people who know those arguments are bogus are routinely excluded from jury duty …
Dave Nelson
For many years now, on a county by county basis, cross buck only public crossings have had yield or stop signs added to the signs. It depends on the county as to which sign (stop or yield) is used and seems to apply to crossings where the counties have jurisdiction, outside of incorporated towns and cities.
While out railfanning once many years ago, I was at one such crossing equipped with cross bucks and stop signs. It was on a gravel crossing on (at that time) a lightly used line, the tracks crossing diagonally at about a 45 degree angle. (That line back then was 1 train, out and back round trip, about once every few weeks or longer. Since then it has gone to 1 or 2 round trip trains daily.) There wasn’t a train that day, I was just out looking for evidence of some rumored work that had been done. A local Co-Op/farm supply truck, placarded for various hazardous materials it might transport for delivery, approached the crossing. Drove right on through, ignoring the regulation stop sign posted there. Slowed down for the crossing itself, but not to look to see if there was a train coming.
To me that illustrates that when tracks are involved, most drivers don’t expect a train to be approaching. Or that they will hear or see one, without actually turning their head from one side to the other, in time to stop. Even if they don’t bother to slow down from the allowable road speed. They don’t give the sign the same respect at a railroad crossing as they would if it were at a road intersection.
Jeff
From the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices 2009 edition:
The meaning of a Crossbuck Assembly that includes a YIELD sign is that a road user approaching the grade crossing needs to be prepared to decelerate, and when necessary, yield the right-of-way to any rail traffic that might be occupying the crossing or might be approaching and in such close proximity to the crossing that it would be unsafe for the road user to cross.
At least that’s the rationale of the FHWA.
Interestingly, that in blue is also the meaning of a crossbuck assembly that does not include a yield sign.
The “yield” concept for highway traffic is absolutely correct for a passive grade crossing. Therefore the yield meaning has been assigned to the crossbuck. Most references state that a crossbuck is equivalent in meaning to a yield sign.
However, I can see the point that drivers might not understand the crossbuck meaning beyond just designating a place where the tracks cross the road. If anything were needed to elaborate on that message, it would be a direct warning of the danger.
It is not the railroads who have conducted these driver surveys. It is the bureaucracy known as the MUTCD, or Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which is part of the USDOT. They are the authority that has determined that many drivers do not know that a crossbuck means yi
I will never look at a yield sign the same way again…
Would you think then, that if you run into the train, you’ll get a ticket for failure to yield right of way?
The following information comes from the Texas Drivers License Handbook:
Railroad Crossing :
This sign means you are within a few hundred feet of a railroad crossing. Slow down and be prepared to stop. If you see a train coming, STOP. Never try to beat a train.
Railroad Cross Buck:
Railroad Cross Buck signs are posted at every railroad, highway, road, or street grade crossing and shows the location. If more than one track is to be crossed, the sign will show the number of tracks. Always slow down, look, listen, and be prepared to yield the right-of-way to an approaching train.
Yield:
This signs tells you the road you are on joins wi
Maybe. If they found enough of you to give the ticket to.
Quote from the Wisconsin DOT:
“As you approach, look and listen for an approaching train. The crossbuck sign means the same as a yield sign, which means that if a train is approaching you must yield and let the train pass. A recently enacted state law will require that a YIELD sign be placed below the crossbuck sign at crossings that do not have stop signs or red flashing light signals. This is being done to further emphasize that a crossbuck sign means that you must yield to trains.”
Wouldn’t it be good if there were a questionnaire at license renewal that required 5 questions to be answered correctly. The above could be one of those questions.
If it is necessary to add a yield sign to the crossbuck for non-signalized crossings, why isn’t it also necessary to add a yield sign to the crossbuck for signalized crossings?
Because if the signals are operating, you are supposed to stop, not yield.
Emphasis mine.
Then why is a crossbuck necessary at a signalized crossing?
Why not?
Fail safe simple overkill in place of enhanced enforcement. … and they don’t erect stupid zone signs (thank you Bob Ed Quillen) because it might hurt somebody’s overinflated ego.
(EDIT: Thanx OM for catching my sleep deprived slip - I wish the man was still with us…Still, the violators think those signs are for other people and not for them. IMHO The law should be that if you tangle with a train and are found at fault, your driving privileges (not rights!) are surrendered. Start the drivers training over again to correct a lethal deficiency.)