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Dragoman,  <o:p></o:p> I am glad you see my point because the guy I spoke to at U.P. sure did not.  And yet, he could not clearly tell me what the statement means.  However, his very extensive explanation did center on the fact that a driver has free will to either obey the law or not.  But if you are instructing someone about the rules, you generally concentrate on what the rules require.  You don’ t throw in the proviso that all of us have free will, so there is nothing to prevent us from breaking the rules.  I don’t think you would see that in a railroad rules class.      <o:p></o:p> It is true, as you point out, that the U.P. statement could include non-signalized crossings as well as signalized crossings.  And with a non-signalized crossing, a driver does have more discretion perhaps.  But still, the driver has to comply with the laws, and they tend to stipulate quite clearly the need to yield when the train is in dangerous proximity or other measures of speed and distance.  If it were only left up to the definition of “yield,” you could say that a driver who tries to beat the train and makes it by ten feet has yielded in that he gave way to the train as evidenced by the fact that he did not get hit.  But police would regard that as reckless driving, and it would violate the crossing law’s detailed stipulations.   So I would not say that it is ultimately the motorist’s decision whether or not it is safe to cross the tracks with either the signalized crossing or the non-signalized crossing.   <o:p></o:p> What makes this unintended meaning to their statement so ironic is the fact that studies have shown that many drivers believe that the crossing protection system is advisory rather than regulatory.  In other words, they believe they are permitted to use their own discretion in deciding if they should wait for an approaching train or not.  A lot of drivers think it is safe to cross if they are pretty sure they can make it without getting hit.  <o:p></o:p> So the industry and its representative organization are waging a battle to overcome that misperception on the part of drivers that the signals are merely advisory.  And here you have the U.P. in a section on crossing safety inadvertently telling drivers that the crossing protection measures are safety aids, but ultimately it is driver’s decision whether or not it is safe to cross the tracks.        <o:p></o:p> I have formally presented this issue to U.P. in writing, and am awaiting their reply with great curiosity.
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