METRO Claims 3rd Victim, Continues to Terrorize Houstonians

Have you seen any of these intersections that the accidents have occured on? The problem isnt drivers ignoring the signs and violating the law, the problem is that it is difficult to see the signage indicating it is a train crossing. For those that dont make it downtown often (myself included) the constuction makes it very difficult to see street signs let alone a small sign indicating no left turn.

The train is near silent, the signs blend it with the environment, and the construction makes most of the intersections chaotic. I suspect there will be many more accidents when the train is actually running.

 

I have driven down the rail line many times in the four months since I've moved back to Houston. My car is

STILL INTACT.

 

come on, I didnt say that eveyone that drives downtown gets run over by the train. I am saying the signs are not as good as they should be and the accidents to date are not necessarily the fault of the drivers.

Given an average driver who rarely goes downtown, or maybe someone from out of town, what are the odds that ...

That person notices the signage indicating a light rail crossing?

That person would hear the train coming?


I'd give the first one about 70% and the second 0%.

 

I drove the length of the rail line this afternoon. What really struck me about the whole train/rail setup is that is offers absolutely no advantages over a bus along the same corridor. If a bus were running along that dedicated lane the train uses it would accomplish the very same thing as this ridiculously expensive solution our tax money has gone to. If you put a device on a bus that was able to override traffic signals, I think the bus might even be faster than the train on that same route. The only advantage I see in this train is that it will enhance the opinion that others have about our city, a point that actually does have some quantifiable value, but not enough to justify its cost.

 

It would not be the same, ridership wold be much lower. People like trains and are more willing to ride them than buses. It's a simple fact of life. I've lived in Houston, Chicago, Paris, New York, among other places. I can count the number of times I have taken the bus on one hand, whereas I have probably taken thousands of subway rides. I just don't like buses that much. It might not be entirely rational, but its the way people think and act.

 

I kinda like that idea bigtexxx. However, if people are already having a hard time adjusting to trains, how long would it take people to remember that buses coming the other way don't have to stop?

I do wish an elevated system had been discussed.

 

Have you seen any of these intersections that the accidents have occured on? The problem isnt drivers ignoring the signs and violating the law, the problem is that it is difficult to see the signage indicating it is a train crossing. For those that dont make it downtown often (myself included) the constuction makes it very difficult to see street signs let alone a small sign indicating no left turn.

Call me crazy, but if you're making a left turn across a lane, wouldn't you naturally look at what you're crossing before doing it? At when you did that, wouldn't you see this massive train in your path. The train may be silent, but I presume it's not invisible, right?

 

What if the light turns green and the train is coming from behind you? My instict would be to go, especially if I didnt see a sign indicating it was a train crossing.

I havent seen the train in motion yet so I dont know of all the warning signs that are apparent. I did see a clip on channel 2 after the first accident showing the accident scene and honestly, if I was in the right place at the wrong time, I would have done the same thing. The "no left turn" sign was immediatly adjacent to, but smaller then the sign indicating that you could only turn one way on that street.

 

Hmmmm... I thought this was going to be a thread about a crazy Metrosexual. Instead I get T_J aka 'Amtrack - king of the derail’ howling about killer 'light' rail, we do live in a perfect world.

 

What if the light turns green and the train is coming from behind you? My instict would be to go, especially if I didnt see a sign indicating it was a train crossing.


But there's a lane there to your left for the train, no? If it was a car lane, you wouldn't just cut across it and make a left without looking to see if there's a car coming up behind you in that lane. Why wouldn't the same apply here?

 

You can never make the streets safe enough to keep idiots from killing somebody. Take the most recent DART example:

Girl dies in wreck with light-rail train

03:56 PM CST on Sunday, December 21, 2003

From Staff Reports

A girl was killed after her mother drove through a warning gate and slammed into a passing DART light-rail train Sunday afternoon.

The accident occured about 1 p.m. in Dallas at the Plano Road crossing just north of Miller Road.

Two of six train passengers were injured, and the woman was also taken to a hospital for treatment. Their names and the nature of their injuries was not known, although a Dallas Area Rapid Transit spokeswoman said the passengers initially declined medical treatment. It was not immediately known which hospital the injured were taken to. The driver of the train, which was headed southwest from the Forest/Jupiter station, was not hurt.

Agency spokeswoman Estela Hernandez said a “bus bridge” was running to take passengers from the Forest/Jupiter station to the LBJ/Skillman station. It was not known how long train service would be disrupted, she said.

Now, this wasn't a simple mistaken turn in front of a train that runs on the same street as traffic. This was a "Well, the gates are down and that only happens when a train is coming, but I'm in a hurry...." thing.

 

Rumor has it that Trader_Jorge is in fact, a failed metrosexual. Unfortunately, he doesn't really have the ass to fill out a pair of Diesel jeans and he has a well publicized fear of mud masques, so he is not a very good one.

 

its all those damn anit-rail spyies who will do anything to dely this project!!!

 

dude, this city needs a differernt direction. With a percent in change of 19% in growth, the city needs more then just adding freeways and parking lots(ugh). It needs more public transportation. Plus stripmalls , and hideous parking lots are really making this city really ugly. I went to downtown last week, and between MMP and TC there are like 5 parking lot zones. They should call it the parking lot district. It just makes downtown incrediblt ugly, and suberban like. Public transportation and reduction in stripmalls will lesson the need for the parking lots.

 

its a start, but soon the state in voting maps will soon turn blue!!!

 

It just makes downtown incrediblt ugly, and suberban like. Public transportation and reduction in stripmalls will lesson the need for the parking lots.

You'd think so, but in a city like Houston (or Dallas), even a mature rail system isn't likely to pull enough people off the roads to make even a noticable difference.

If the city really is growing at a 19% clip, the trains couldn't possibly hope to keep up with the growth, let alone take a bite out of current traffic.

There will continue to be need for more highways and more parking in Houston even with rail.

 

then houston will really have to do something different. btw i got the 19% from The Time 2003 Almanac. Maybe houston needs to start a major subway system that extends to suberbs. Im sure enginners can come up with a way to build the system with life as normal on the ground during construction. Its just an issue of money. Sooner or later there wont be any more room for extending lanes on freeways. because 19% for a city with 4 million already around its vicinity is a scary number.

 

These DART Rail trains fly past the gates too. That S-10 Blazer was toast.

It just seems like they'd have seen one fly by before, and wouldn't be so stupid.

 

I agree -- with that many accidents, in such a short period of time, in broad daylight -- there is a problem with the train. They need to make some kind of changes with the signage -- it's confusing and has made the traffic patterns more difficult to navigate.

The left turns, at least in the medical center, are not well marked (including, I believe, the one where accident #4 occured this weekend. The left turn lane is ON the tracks. There is a small sign, about the size and shape of a pedestrian crosswalk signal suspended about 14 feet above the middle of the road. It has small lights showing a picture of a train, with tracks, and a slash, and NO LEFT TURN in small letters. They are NOT very noticible (Picture a lite-bright).

When the train approaches, the left turn lane gets a green arrow (To clear the lane) and the sign comes on with the lite-bright train picture. People don't see the very non-standard sign -- only the green arrow, and they go. Considering that these are very busy intersections, with numerous lights and signs, its not surprising that they ignore the little, out of the ordinary sign with a picture of a train.

Keep in mind that METRO keeps making comments about people making illegal turns in front of the train, then in the same breath talks about how quiet the train is, and how difficult it is to detect until it's on top of you. It is very quiet, and has a non-standard horn, that's really not that loud. I'm not saying dump the train, but they need to re design these intersections to make them safer. Put in some railroad crossing signs and a bell for an approaching train. If you aren't used to the area, it's very difficult to navigate anyway --- they need to make it as idiot proof as possible.

 

Tell me another intersection in Houston where you have to take a left across a lane in which traffic is coming from behind you? Normally it would be coming towards you in the lane you are crossing.