Eastern Railroad Discussion > Michigan to try new type of road crossing devices

An Ohio firm, Intelligent Perimeter Systems, will be experimenting with pop up reflective posts at Denton Road in Van Buren Township in Michigan in hopes of discouraging drivers from going around traditional crossing gates. Should be interesting to see how these work out.
Aaron 19

MI buys a RR safety device from OH... What else can us Buckeyes sell you, besides a bill of goods! ;-)

I wonder how well these things will work once they become packed with ice and snow.

I just wonder who will be the moron that will drive over top of these and get caught with them holding the car up.

Take a look at the website for Intelligent Perimeter Systems.
Using these barriers does not appear to be a good idea for anyone on a leading locomotive in a consist.
The locomotive will pass through the debris thrown forward from vehicle that impacts the barrier.
This would seem to increase the risk of injury and damage to railroad personnel and equipment, analogous to anti-personnel devices used by military forces.

If the train doesn't kill you, at least the giant posts will.

-Justin

I suggest looking at the following rail cam web site from the Netherlands that was posted over on the International Board recently in a thread asking about European freight operations. It clearly shows a busy road crossing with signals and what appear to be four quadrant gates that would keep autos from going around. What is really interesting is to see the behavior of pedestrians and bicyclists when the gates go down. There are pedestrian gates, but it looks like they could easily be walked around, if the people were inclined to do so. I can hardly imagine Americans having the patience these people do. Note also, no train whistling.

http://www.railcam.nl/

(Click on the Rail Cam 1 when you reach the home page; bear in mind that the Netherlands is 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. If you scroll down a little, you see a link to the "Program", or schedule, for the next 10 passenger trains and for the most part, they pass through the crossing on time to the minute)

>>An extremely busy line with 100-120 trains a day-- mostly passenger traffic, but a lot of freights, too, especially at night. An >>entertaining site with good video and sound. They're 6 hours ahead of Eastern time.

We have four-quadrant gates on the Union Pacific through Pomona California. Seems to be quite effective.

SantaFeRuss