Passenger Trains > Google Maps will map every RR crossing in the US

Google Maps will map every railroad crossing in the US to keep drivers safe
The Next Web
by Napier Lopez

> Google wants to help you get around a little more safely. According
> to the New York Times, the mapping service will soon include data
> from every railroad crossing in the US, in a bid to keep drivers
> safe.
>
> Google will add both audio and visual cues to help alert drivers when
> they’re about to pass through a crossing while using turn-by-turn
> navigation.
>
> Last year, accidents increased 9 percent nationally at 200,000+
> railroad crossings. There were 270 deaths, up from 232 the previous
> year.
>
> The crossing information will be provided via a partnership with the
> Federal Railroad Administration, which suggests most accidents at
> crossing have been the result of driver inattention.
>
> The FRA has also reportedly reached out to other mapping services to
> implement similar features, including Apple, MapQuest, TomTom and
> Garmin. It’s a sensible move for everyone involved, and will
> hopefully lead to fewer accidents overall.

LINK:

Google Maps will map every railroad crossing

"Most accidents are a result of driver inattention", how about nearly all a result of driver inattention.

Will they be paying attention to Google Maps and miss something else, getting into a wreck?

That's a really good suggestion, and one that fits directly into the driverless car initiative.

I can see a huge application, documenting that school buses, haz-mat trucks, etc actually stopped at railroad crossings. Even private crossings.

In some places, STOP signs have been installed on railroad crossing buck posts. I'm guessing Google will incorporate these into their mapping.

"Google will add both audio and visual cues to help alert drivers when  
they’re about to pass through a crossing while using turn-by-turn  
navigation." 

My experience is that dependency on audio and visual cues via a GPS device can cause accidents because people dont pay attention to their actual surroundings. Numerous vehicles have been towed off of railroad right of way,  due to what we call GPS fail, which is driver fail due to immediate and automatic response to a dashboard device telling you what to do. This especially occurs where highways paraellel railroad right of way and where multiple intersections converge close to tracks.  

=17pxAlthough these devices are handy and helpful, they also contribute to the dumbing down of drivers as well as contribute to the lack of attention required to navigate the real world. 

Yeah, like cars did when they replaced horses...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Great analogy.

A lot of peoples brains are headed for the ' dumb a$$ bin ' already. This will help speed up the process .

Funny how google maps drops more useful features and replaces it with things we dont need. I could see this, while potentially helpful, cause incidents down the road/rails.

Real men don't use GPS anyway ...

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

Or they do, except with the volume on 'mute'!

Last time I looked, all railroad crossing had " ... visual cues to help alert drivers when they’re about to pass through a crossing ..." - generally referred to as Crossbucks, Flashers, or Gates.

And what of our Mothers' admonition: "Look both ways ..." ?

The "Milleniums" think they are entitled to do anything they want without fault of their own.

SP4360 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The "Milleniums" think they are entitled to do
> anything they want without fault of their own.

The parents of the "Millenials" are of course, Baby Boomers.

Most people ignore the fact that peripheral vision works better when looking to the sides. Doesn't work as well looking up and down. Most distracted drivers are looking down at their "Smart"phone, or at a gadget console in their cars. Maybe this new RR crossing app will sound an alert right when the distracted driver is ON the crossing about to get hit with a train, because he or she was too busy interacting with the virtual world, instead of paying attention to the real world.

Interesting assortments of comments in this thread. I wonder what the average age of the previous posters is!

Regarding "average age"--I was in junior high before we got dial telephones in my home town, and didn't see a computer until I was 18 or 19, and then it was as big as a garage.  So many things that were "Sci-fi" when I was a lad are part of everyday life.  I'm reminded of a Mother Goose and Grimm comic strip of a few years ago: it showed Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock of the Starship Enterprise visiting early 21st Century Earth.  Mr. Spock says, "Captain, have you noticed that the Earth people of this period have communicators that can send and receive pictures?  Ours cannot do that, Sir.  This is highly illogical."