Comments on: on and off-track http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2008/03/14/on-and-off-track/ Getting around the Bay Area with Denis Cuff and the Queen of the Road Tue, 17 May 2011 06:04:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: DensityDuck http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2008/03/14/on-and-off-track/comment-page-1/#comment-2500 DensityDuck Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:08:40 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2008/03/14/on-and-off-track/#comment-2500 Down here in Silicon Valley we have a perpetual problem with the train tracks along Monterey Highway; people are always running across the tracks to get from one side to the other, and occasionally some silly bastard gets run over.

Which, y’know…how can you be so inattentive as to not see a FREAKING TRAIN COMING AT YOU? It’s not like there’s obscuration of the sight lines, the thing’s dead straight for twenty miles.

]]> By: John T http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2008/03/14/on-and-off-track/comment-page-1/#comment-2501 John T Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:39:39 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2008/03/14/on-and-off-track/#comment-2501 Living in this area, I’m constantly amazed by the risks people are willing to take when it comes to putting themselves or their vehicles in the way of oncoming trains. The fact that vehicles can travel parallel to the trains on this stretch of road without any separation from the trains leads some drivers to treat the trains like they’re other cars and not trains. More weight = more momentum = diminished ability to stop quickly.

Depending on where in this stretch of roadway you are, there are two or three tracks running along the road. I’ve seen people wait for the train that’s blocking them to pass and without looking, charge across the tracks. I believe that the woman who was killed by a train at Broadway & Embarcadero several months ago did.

When I’m trying to go to sleep in my apartment, I sometimes get annoyed at the engineers that seem to lay on their horn for the length of this stretch, but I understand why they do.

Don’t cross the tracks until the gates are up and the lights and bells are off. You may be delayed by a couple of minutes, but it could save your life.

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