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I think Mookie has hit upon one of the most salient observations in post #9 where she speculates about drivers having a "buried reaction" that makes them want to challenge trains at grade crossings.  There is almost a magnetic attraction that draws road vehicles into the path of trains.  However, I do not believe that it is due to a lack of intelligence on the part of drives as is so widely trumpeted by the railroad industry.  If that were the case, the unusual risk taking would not just be confined to confrontations with trains.  It would instead include conflicting routes with all vehicles.  And when I speculated that the buried reaction that motivates drivers to try beat a train is based upon the driver's worry about a delay, I was not referring to a 3-5 minute delay typical of a long train passing at road speed.  If that were all that drivers anticipated, there would be no more motivation to risk their lives or the chance of getting a ticket.  Drivers take 3-5 minute delays without complaint at every traffic light.  They even usually tolerate being bogged down in slow moving traffic jams for much larger delays while refraining from recklessly escaping on the shoulder.No, what drivers dread about railroad crossings are the 10-30 minute delays that can develop as a slow moving train stops and waits.  From a driver's point of view, a train that blocks a crossing for 20 minutes with impunity can just as easily bock it for 90 minutes.  And the worst part is that there is no way a driver can know how long the delay will be.  Granted these severe delays don't happen that often, but most drivers have experienced them.  And they bring the recollection of this experience to every encounter with a train at a grade crossing.  It does not matter that a train is destined to clear the crossing in just 3 minutes.  Drivers have no way of  knowing that until after the train clears, so just expecting the possibility of a delay, some of them don't want to take that chance of a delay, so they take the risk.
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