I guess he learned to slow down at crossings... doesn't matter what the posted speed limit is...he was obviously going too fast for conditions.
I watched several of those videos, looks like all the cars are going at least 10 to 20 mph over what is probably a 30mph zone. If I see the road dip precipitusly, I slow down, just common sense driving, of course that is highly discouraged as you'd have to put the phone down and stop texting to do it.
Have fun with your trains
Wandering around in Google Earth Street View, I finally found a speed limit sign on the divided N/S street, several blocks north. It reads 25MPH, and I would assume, given the looks of that area in compareson to the area around the tracks that the speed limit is the same near the tracks.
Now I am going to try to figure out the actual speed of some of the cars by measuring distances on Google Earth's images and time the car movements across the measured distances.. If I think I am getting close to valid answers I'll post back what I find.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Some of you won't like this.
To find the camera location on Google Earth's images, I drew a line from the western most crossing gate next to the street, over the corner post of the chainlink fence on the near corner. Then I drew a line from the corner of the white building (left of the red building), through the crossing gate/lights on the south east of the grade crossing and extended it until it crossed the 1st line. That puts the camera on the S side of the building on the NE corner of the street intersection. The camera location being about 1/3 of the way across the S side from the SW corner..
I then drew a line from where that 2nd line crosses the middle of the street, to the 2nd track from the south (3rd track from the north) or where the car LANDS after the 1st ski jump.
That distance is about 65.3 ft. Sorry for the "exact" looking measurement (that ".3") but that is what the measurement is, but I have to say "about" because I have no surety that I got the end points of the lines at any sort of actual precision for the view from the camera.
I then used my QSpeeder program to time how long it took the 'Mega Fail' car to traverse from where the front of the car is obscured by the crossing gate, until where the car goes crunch the 1st time hitting the up-hill side to the 2nd track (from the south).
Throw into all this my inexact clicking of my mouse to start the timer in my program and the same for stopping it. BUT, I measure anywhere from 2.128 to 2.003 seconds and that translates to a speed of from 20.9 to 22.2 MPH.
Draw yer own conclusions, but I don't think the driver of the car was "speeding" per the posted speed limit, although it can obviously be argued he/she was driving too fast for the road/grade-crossing condition.
Whoops, I thought this system didn't allow duplicate posts... sorry...
(Maybe what I had to say was so important the system decided to post it twice for me! ???
No?! Oh, okay. )
My son and I think the driver should have been going faster. The car went up one hill and came down on the up-side of the next hill. If it was going a bit faster it would have cleared the valley between them completely and come down on the down-side of the 2nd hill. Then up the up-side of the 3rd hill,clear the 3rd valley and land on the down-side of the 4th hill... ain't that how they do it in Motocross?
Here is the street view.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
Quite a different track arrangement on this earlier Bing image.
Semper Vaporo Throw into all this my inexact clicking of my mouse to start the timer in my program and the same for stopping it. BUT, I measure anywhere from 2.128 to 2.003 seconds and that translates to a speed of from 20.9 to 22.2 MPH. Draw yer own conclusions, but I don't think the driver of the car was "speeding" per the posted speed limit, although it can obviously be argued he/she was driving too fast for the road/grade-crossing condition. Y
Y
Doesn't matter...he was going too fast. If you don't think so watch the video again and ask yourself if a car is supposed jump through the air like that going over a crossing. BTW...you can get a speeding ticket for going 40 mph or even 20 mph in an 80 mph zone. The posted speed limited is the maximum speed under IDEAL conditions (which usually refers to weather but can include other factors such as children playing in the street or roads that are in bad repair).
This video is cool though... looks like something right out of the Dukes of Hazard.
Maybe they should pay more attention to that "Dukes of Hazzard" technic, if they up the speed 20 MPH they would hit the first ramp and sail clean over the crossing! Yeeeeee hhaaaaaaaah!
I've hit dips like this at +/-20 mph, but I've NEVER gotten airborne though
Zwingle Quite a different track arrangement on this earlier Bing image.
If you click on the rotate arrows in the upper right corner you can see 4 different views of the same place, but each view is of a different time frame and you can see the upgrade sequence as the track layout was changed.
Yes, the driver was going too fast for the condition of that grade crossing even though under the posted speed limit.
But that does not seem any more unusual than the other driving habits in the area... I have watched the live cam for quite a while now and it seems that "STOP" (the white letters on that large red octagonal sign atop the post near the corner) in SLC, Utah is just an acronym for "Slight Tap On Pedal". If there are any police officers that need to empty their little ticket book they could do so quickly by parking near this intersection. They might also then notice the deplorable condition of the grade crossing and report it to the city council.
It looks as though I am going to have to go into Salt Lake City to see the crossing first hand. I commented to my wife that after reading all the posts maybe I should go, and her reply was to the effect, "Why not?"
The speed limit on most secondary streets in Salt Lake City is 25 mph.
I'm sure you all noted that Bing showed North at the bottom and South at the top unless you rotated the picture.
In case you are wondering about the street names, the intersection of South Temple and Main Street is the zero point for all Salt Lake county street numbering, and the settlers thought it quite simple to number major streets in accord with their orientation to the zero point. Originally, many of the outlying settlements had their own numbering systems, but now everything in the county is numbered from the above-named intersection.
When we moved here in 1974, there had just been a re-naming of the north-south streets west of West Temple and the east-west streets north of North Temple--(the three Temple streets and Main Street bound Temple Square)100 West was the first street west of West Temple and 100 North was the first street north of North Temple; now 200 West is the first street west of West Temple and 200 North is the first one north of North Temple. It was a bit confusing at first when trying to find a newly corrected address from an old map.
There is one consolation in the possible confusion stemming from the numbered street naming system: as you go away from the zero point, all even house numbers are on your right and all odd house numbers are on your left.
When I was working I had occasion to talk with vendors, and when I talked with a new vendor I had to explain that 9000 South (in West Jordan) was the name of the street my company was on.
Johnny
....I'm not here to purposely put down anyone's figures on establishing the vehicle's speed. By my eyes, watching it over and over....I believe the vehicle was speeding to what might be the speed limit in a location like this appears to be.
That vehicle was on the edge of being out of control as it "landed" on the nearside street. It could have easily rolled over into another car coming towards it, or done a head on.
Quentin
Would be interesting to see a more extended video showing other cars going across. That would tell the tale. Somehow I don't think every car goes across like that..
Ulrich Would be interesting to see a more extended video showing other cars going across. That would tell the tale. Somehow I don't think every car goes across like that..
Go to the web site listed earlier in this thread, (namely: http://www.failroadtracks.com/ ) and then watch the cars all you want. Most cars CREEP over the crossing, but some seem to enjoy the carnival ride.
There are also on that site, 5 OTHER pre-recorded "fails" showing other cars doing similar (but not as spectacular!) "stunts". The night time ones are pretty showers of sparks from the vehicle undercarriages.
This would be one of those situations where the 'locals' know the condition of the crossing and proceed accordingly....those that are unfamilar with the specifics of the crossing get surprised by it when they attempt to cross it a posted or posted+ speeds. The area where this crossing appears to be, while urban, could still have a posted speed limit as high as 45 or 50 MPH for the route crossing the railroad. This crossing at 45 MPH or greater is a 'Thrill Ride'.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD This would be one of those situations where the 'locals' know the condition of the crossing and proceed accordingly....those that are unfamilar with the specifics of the crossing get surprised by it when they attempt to cross it a posted or posted+ speeds. The area where this crossing appears to be, while urban, could still have a posted speed limit as high as 45 or 50 MPH for the route crossing the railroad. This crossing at 45 MPH or greater is a 'Thrill Ride'. Ulrich: Would be interesting to see a more extended video showing other cars going across. That would tell the tale. Somehow I don't think every car goes across like that..
Ulrich: Would be interesting to see a more extended video showing other cars going across. That would tell the tale. Somehow I don't think every car goes across like that..
Yesterday, when I saw some other cars go across, they proceeded more slowly and did not bounce about.
As to locals knowing the road, there is a cross street not far from my house, and when you cross it on my street, you proceed very slowly, for there is a gully on each side of the cross street--they make excellent speed bumps. Many drivers of low-slung cars do not go straight across the gullies, but turn to the right and then to the left so that no more than one wheel at a time is in a gully.
Just wanted to point something out real quick: Looking at the overhead Google Maps satellite view, those tracks are all in a curve in that area; so the 'roughness' of the crossing is likely due to the superelevation of each track. That's not likely to get fixed, short of closing the crossing.
silicon212 Just wanted to point something out real quick: Looking at the overhead Google Maps satellite view, those tracks are all in a curve in that area; so the 'roughness' of the crossing is likely due to the superelevation of each track. That's not likely to get fixed, short of closing the crossing.
Here in Los Angeles, the main RR double track crossing along N Main St crosses the LA River and the UP/Metrolink tracks, where the super-elevation creates the same problem on both sides of the bridge, its also a 30 mph zone and there are numerous scrap marks in the pavement on either side. I beleive its worse on the west side where you have to slow down below 20 mph or risk recreating a General Lee stunt.
Watching the webcam feed on page 3 every car slowed down, some way down, before crossing in either direction, so its clearly a case of local knowledge or simply people paying attention to the road contitions in front of them -vs- speeding or distracted drivers plowing over it at speed.
Semper Vaporo But that does not seem any more unusual than the other driving habits in the area... I have watched the live cam for quite a while now and it seems that "STOP" (the white letters on that large red octagonal sign atop the post near the corner) in SLC, Utah is just an acronym for "Slight Tap On Pedal". If there are any police officers that need to empty their little ticket book they could do so quickly by parking near this intersection. They might also then notice the deplorable condition of the grade crossing and report it to the city council.
I've watched the cam for awhile now and I would have to say at least 50-60% of the vehicles just slow down to a "country stop" (down to about 10mph). 25% do a rolling stop (under 5mph but never a complete stop). 10% comes to a complete stop while the rest just blow right through the stop sign whether going straight or turning right.
Oh, and its about 50-50 when cars are turning left at the stop sign go on the left side of the island.
Another thing, today i saw the gates go down on a dump truck trapping it but when the truack moved, the gate in front of it raised up to let it go
http://www.youtube.com/user/pavabo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulvbox
I last made it to the crossing this afternoon.
Yes, there is a diamond sign on each side that warns of the rough crossing and suggests a maximum speed of 5 mph. I did not bottom out, either going south or going north, for I ahd been warned. The peson who had trouble may not have seen the warning sign, as it is close to the track and does not stand out.
Yes, there is definitely superelevation of one of the rails on each track. It seems to me that there is no way to smooth the crossing unless each track to the north is elevated so that its low rail is the same height as the high rail on the previous track. Imagine the final result on the northernmost track; I hope this makes sense.
As I commented in an earlier post, the tracks see the traffic from SLC to LA and from SLC west on the former WP. North Yard is north of this point.
There are not many structures along 8th West--a few houses, and an International hostel. There may have been more houses before I15 was put in, for the area close to the highway is rather weedy.
I did not notice any general speed limit sign, but I do not doubt that it is 25 mph (the usual speed limit in residential areas in Salt Lake CIty.
If yo are in the area, and want to try the crossing: Be warned!
Quoting myself: "Yes, there is definitely superelevation of one of the rails on each track. It seems to me that there is no way to smooth the crossing unless each track to the north is elevated so that its low rail is the same height as the high rail on the previous track. Imagine the final result on the northernmost track; I hope this makes sense."
I do not know why, but I have the compass directions reversed. If each track after the first one to the north were elevated, there there would be quite a difference between the south rail on the southernmost track and the terrain around it.
[There was no warning that the system is configured to prevent double post--because the system itself doubled the post.]
I watched a police car just do a roll through of the interesection. Never stopped. I agree with the percentages given. So far today the only thing that stopped at the stop sign is a tow truck.
It looks to me like there is a small hill just before the crossing, and he went airborne because he went too fast over the hill. There is a crossing with a hill like that on the old EJ&E in Crest Hill, and if you fly up the hill too fast you'll go airborne.
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