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This is one reason why many drivers consider the signals and gates to be only advisory to indicate an approaching train: When the red lights start flashing, drivers must stop.  Of course, they cannot possibly stop in time if they are traveling too fast to stop within their distance from the crossing when the lights start.   Unlike a traffic light, which has a yellow light warning to give time for a driver to decelerate in preparation for stopping short of the red light, there is no advance warning that the inviolable red lights of a grade crossing are about to flash. With grade crossing flashers on a fast highway; because of the long stopping distance; an approaching driver too close to stop short of the flashing lights upon their startup; could pass through the crossing several seconds after the red lights start flashing. At 50-60 mph, a driver will probably require 6-8 seconds to stop.  In a sense, there is warning built into the crossing activation due to the 20 seconds between activation and train arrival at the crossing.  But, of course a driver cannot consider that 20 seconds as available warning time because it would take him or her right up to the point of collision, and that is cutting it too close.  Furthermore, the gate lowers before that 20 seconds elapses, and the gate is the practical end point of vehicle passage.   And still further; the law does not permit a driver to pass the red flashing lights, so none of the 20 seconds can be considered a warning for the start of the flashing red lights. I believe that the authorities must certainly recognize that some amount of warning interval is necessary for the stopping requirement for the red flashing lights, and so they reason that the warning interval is the time between the start of the red flashing lights and the blockade of the gate.  The authorities realize that the laws of physics require stopping distance, and they see no danger in accepting drivers violating the pre-gate phase of the red light activation because as long as the driver stops for the gate he or she will not get hit by a train. However, this is a flawed concept because the driver is not in on the deal.   The driver is being told by the authorities and the law that he or she must stop short of the red flashing lights.  There are no excuses. However, if for instance, the lights began flashing yellow for ten seconds and then switched to red, and if the law were re-written to define the flashing yellow phase as a “prepare to stop” warning, then it would all make sense to the driver.  But expecting drivers to stop on a dime doesn’t make sense to drivers. So without getting out the law book, any reasonable driver is going to simply conclude that he or she cannot possibly be expected to stop on a dime should the red lights suddenly activate.  And therefore, to a driver, the red lights are just a warning that a train is coming rather than a command to stop.  Simple common sense leads to that conclusion.  What other conclusion could there be?                 So the flaw in the concept is not that running the flashing red lights before the gate comes down is going to lead to a crash.  That won’t happen.  The flawed concept is that the system teaches drivers that they are to use their own discretion as to whether or not it is safe to pass the flashing lights.  Of course, this is not what the system, the law, or the authorities intend for a driver to do. Furthermore, the raised gate of the system tells a driver that it is completely safe to cross even though the red lights are flashing.  The raised gate is like a clear signal telling the driver there is still time to make it across.  The “clear signal” (the raised gate) tells the driver that there is no need to look for a train to judge its speed or proximity to the crossing, so the driver can just focus on getting across the tracks as quickly as possible. So it is not just that drivers will naturally use part of the red flashing light phase to get through if they are too close to stop.  They will go further and use more of the red flashing light phase to get through rather than wait for the train—even if they are close enough to stop. So you can see that the whole system encourages drivers to violate the lights and gate in order to try to beat the train, so they don’t have to wait for it.  It just leads drivers to that natural conclusion and behavior.
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