Hello, yes, local correspondent BigPharmaSutra here on the scene. Please feel free to ask any questions about the colloquially termed “Murder Magnet” and I will do my best to answer them. I know absolutely nothing about trains other than I would love them to become a thing so I don’t have to spend 30 minutes in traffic getting anywhere.
I do want to comment on a few things I read so far:
“And also, the level crossings that brightline uses are dogshit, they’re basically the same as all low speed rail crossings in the USA, a single bar for each direction of traffic (covering only the lanes going that direction, not the whole wide-ass roadway), depending on street layout they can be trivial to drive around, and often placed high enough that small vehicles can reasonably drive under it with minimal damage (it will hit their windshield and deflect up out of the way. I don’t think people are doing this intentionally but it’s not a serious barrier is my point).”
-No, they’re not “basically” the same, they ARE the same. All the trains run on the same tracks down here. Frieght and Brightline on the same tracks. Also, because we’re at sea level and we don’t believe in avoiding flooding, the trains all run at basically ground level. You might go over a very tiny hump but generally, you just drive right over the tracks like they’re part of the road. Some of the time they’re built into the street!
“Are there actual design problems or is it just that Burgerlanders have no respect for train right-of-way? I mean, it’s not like it’s going to sneak up on and surprise people…”
Florida has the highest density of dumb motherfuckers in America. There’s a reason Florida Man is a thing. That being said, as I stated above, the fact that they’re using the tracks that the freight train uses causes a number of issues. Sadly, a lot of the deaths are just people walking or driving onto the tracks or doing other insane Florida shit.
“This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.”
-The crossings have one wooden “gate”/“barrier” which is basically like something you’d see at a home development front entrance. The gates are painted red and white and have some very tiny circular red lights on them at some crossings, others don’t have lights on the gate. There are red blinking lights on the streets though and in the middle of the road warning drivers.
“Supposedly this line has barriers at every crossing, so it’s just car-brained people doing their thing I guess.”
-Oh no, the Murder Magnet manages to pull in a number of pedestrians as well.
As a reference point, Delray Beach, FL is the rehab capital of the South, and possibly the entire USA. Drug use is a huge problem here and this thing seems to manage to kill a number of crack zombies on the tracks every month for some god damn reason.
Any other questions I’ll be happy to answer if I can. Again, I am not a train expert, just a poor schmuck that lives in the heart of Murder Magnet country.
Hello, yes, local correspondent BigPharmaSutra here on the scene. Please feel free to ask any questions about the colloquially termed “Murder Magnet” and I will do my best to answer them. I know absolutely nothing about trains other than I would love them to become a thing so I don’t have to spend 30 minutes in traffic getting anywhere.
I do want to comment on a few things I read so far:
“And also, the level crossings that brightline uses are dogshit, they’re basically the same as all low speed rail crossings in the USA, a single bar for each direction of traffic (covering only the lanes going that direction, not the whole wide-ass roadway), depending on street layout they can be trivial to drive around, and often placed high enough that small vehicles can reasonably drive under it with minimal damage (it will hit their windshield and deflect up out of the way. I don’t think people are doing this intentionally but it’s not a serious barrier is my point).”
-No, they’re not “basically” the same, they ARE the same. All the trains run on the same tracks down here. Frieght and Brightline on the same tracks. Also, because we’re at sea level and we don’t believe in avoiding flooding, the trains all run at basically ground level. You might go over a very tiny hump but generally, you just drive right over the tracks like they’re part of the road. Some of the time they’re built into the street!
“Are there actual design problems or is it just that Burgerlanders have no respect for train right-of-way? I mean, it’s not like it’s going to sneak up on and surprise people…”
Florida has the highest density of dumb motherfuckers in America. There’s a reason Florida Man is a thing. That being said, as I stated above, the fact that they’re using the tracks that the freight train uses causes a number of issues. Sadly, a lot of the deaths are just people walking or driving onto the tracks or doing other insane Florida shit.
“This is very true. It is becoming more common to use 4 actual gate arms to fully block vehicles, but many (most?) crossings only block the right-side lane on each side of the crossing, which means cars can do a diagonal maneuver to go around the gate arms. I’m guessing this is probably what is happening in many of these cases.”
-The crossings have one wooden “gate”/“barrier” which is basically like something you’d see at a home development front entrance. The gates are painted red and white and have some very tiny circular red lights on them at some crossings, others don’t have lights on the gate. There are red blinking lights on the streets though and in the middle of the road warning drivers.
“Supposedly this line has barriers at every crossing, so it’s just car-brained people doing their thing I guess.”
-Oh no, the Murder Magnet manages to pull in a number of pedestrians as well.
As a reference point, Delray Beach, FL is the rehab capital of the South, and possibly the entire USA. Drug use is a huge problem here and this thing seems to manage to kill a number of crack zombies on the tracks every month for some god damn reason.
Any other questions I’ll be happy to answer if I can. Again, I am not a train expert, just a poor schmuck that lives in the heart of Murder Magnet country.
and that reason is a sunshine public records law that means we get to see everybody’s nonsense in a way that is not repeated elsewhere.
Cute, but wrong. After a lifetime here, I’m firmly convinced there’s something in the water. Either that or its all the drugs.
They need to cover Florida in these. It would solve a lot of society’s problems.