RobP, yes rumble strips, alternating different road textures, little speed bump thingos, etc, etc. But very much always in conjunction with big glaringly obvious signage…. and the standard sort of red flashing lights that we have right on crossings set well back from the crossing on both sides, at a distance determined by the speed limit and nature of the road……and flashing lights right on the crossing as well.

That’s it in a nutshell. Forget the ridiculous multimillion dollar overpasses.

Boom gates? Mmmmm, maybe in some situations, but not of major importance.

Perhaps the problem with level crossings is exactly that: that they are level. I can remember a time not so long ago where many, probably the overwhelming majority, of 'uncontrolled' crossings were in situations where road traffic had to climb a hump in the form of the rail embankment to make the crossing. This fact necessitated a serious reduction in approach speed of any road vehicle intended to use the crossing.

Part of the problem these days seems to be a sort of 'Bogan's Run' subliminal attitude on the part of some road users, whereby they place their faith in the Theory of Intersections. The Theory of Intersections states that "the likelihood of a collision at any intersection is proportional to the time spent within the intersection". Obviously, one of the implications of the Theory of Intersections is that the faster one travels through any intersection, the less chance there is of being involved in a collision. The 'Bogan Runners' view level crossings as intersections, it seems.

Such 'Bogan Runners' fail to appreciate that the Theory of Intersections only holds validity whilst vehicles are, or closely approach being, 'point entities'. Trains are linear entities in almost all circumstances, with the possible exceptions of fettlers' trikes, or rail-enabled road vehicles. In the circumstances of level crossings, the Theory of Interections ceases to hold good in almost all cases.

An aide memoire for 'Bogan Runners' could effectively be provided by constructing the road approach so as to incorporate two successive right-angled bends: such would both necessitate speed reduction, and bring the railway line in one direction at least into the driver's field of view. Two more such bends would, of course, facilitate a bi-directional along-the-line field of view for the driver.

Returning to my initial observation as to 'levelness', a very cheap and self-enforcing approach speed restriction might be to leave sufficient of the rail projecting above the road surface on all crossings such that anything less than a slow transit would blow both front tyres.

A good wind-up, Ludwig. I like it.

Good thoughts Forrest.

Not sure about the potentially tyre-bursting raised rails though. I can envisage a couple of problems there:

If all vehicles have to crawl across a crossing at very slow speed, it could very significantly hold up traffic if the traffic is heavy, and fray tempers.

All vehicles would need to crawl across the crossing even at times when there is no train for many kilometres.

What happens if a vehicle does burst a tyre or two? What about the prospect of it being stuck across the crossing?

Different vehicles have very different wheel sizes, from small cars to articulated trucks. I doubt that we could have one bump size that is passable by cars with the smallest legal wheel size and still effective as a deterrent for large trucks.

I think that crossings need to facilitate traffic flow when there is no train rather than slow the traffic right down all the time, especially on the open road.

Bends and raised crossings could possibly have merit in some places. However, the crossing on the Bruce Highway between Bowen and Ayr, that now has a huge overpass, had a big bend in order to take highway across the railway line that runs parallel to it. It didn’t prevent a couple of horrendous accidents with the result of the crossing being completely remodelled. There was also at least one accident due to a large truck failing to take the bend, which was at the end of a long straight stretch.

In another post on the Middle East crises I asked for the people, that were against everything the yanks were for, to come up with a their solution for the problem. A Dot Point Senerio. Of course nobody did. I believe the response was that no one was qualified to come forward with their own possible solution. I do believe that these people only want to be empty vessels & make a lot of noise. Anti-Yank anything.

Now with the problem of the Rail Crossings these same people, who have no qualifications to come up with a solution for the crossing problem, have suddenly all become experts. We now have solutions coming out of our ears.

Just goes to show what sort of people they are. Doesn't it?

I get the feeling that most truck – train accidents on the open highway are due to truckies falling into a trance-like tunnel-visioned state due to driving at a constant speed on a featureless road for too long… sometimes to the extent of not seeing signs warning of crossings, sharp curves or the like. This would be especially so at night, but could be relevant at any time of day.

Red flashing lights set well back from crossings would take care of this issue.

Having just completed another big week of driving, to the lower Burdekin, Ravenswood, Cairns and Mareeba (~1500km), in which I crossed many railway lines, I assert that the biggest problem with level crossings is the inadequate lack of forewarning….which could and damn well should be overcome simply by placing the same red flashing lights that we now see at level crossings 200 or perhaps 500 metres (depending on the nature of the road) back from the crossing, as well as at the crossings.

Where there are significant side roads close to crossings, then flashing lights should be placed on them as well.

Where there are no lights, such as minor roads crossing minor railway lines, then big bright signage is needed, instead of the easily missable little black-on-yellow signs. We need conspicuous signs of the sort that we see on the approaches to slow speed zones in front of schools….with bright orange borders around them or something of that sort.

I really do think that the essence of the problem of accidents at level crossing is this simple to address.