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[quote user="CNW 6000"]So, Bucyrus, you're advocating that an additional stage of warning be incorporated into at-grade crossing warning protections - not unlike an "approach" signal for cars? [/quote] Dan, That’s right, but my point is not so much to advocate for adding the yellow light phase, but rather to point out that it is missing.  And the issue of it being missing is not so much that it directly causes crashes.  A driver running the flashers in the first 5-7 seconds, because he or she is going too fast to stop, is not going to directly cause a crash. The larger issue is that this event tells the driver that the red flashing lights are equivalent to a yellow light at a traffic signal.  And since the first 5-7 seconds are a “yellow light” in the mind of the driver, then so is the entire 20 seconds.  After all, it is only after the 20 seconds that the interfering vehicle (the train) enters the crossing.  If the gate comes down and there is a way around it, a driver can easily rationalize that the gate too is part of the 20 second “yellow light” warning.  The traffic authorities are interested in discovering why drivers do not comply with laws and traffic control devices.  They question drivers about their understanding of laws and devices, and they make changes accordingly.  Clearly some drivers are simply incorrigible.  They know the rules and they break them.  But not all the rule breakers do it intentionally.     The best reference to this kind of study is this: <a href="http://www.bytrain.org/safety/sealed/pdf/clearrpt.pdf">http://www.bytrain.org/safety/sealed/pdf/clearrpt.pdf</a> I have mentioned it before.  It goes miles deep into these matters.  There are other references to the problem that has been identified by the authorities in which a significant number of drivers do not realize that the flashers and gates are regulatory.  In other words, they don’t realize that you must stop for the flashing red lights no matter what.  Instead, these drivers believe that the warning system is advisory.  In other words, they believe the lights and gates; and particularly just lights without gates, are only there to tell drivers that a train is approaching.  And beyond that, they believe that drivers are allowed to use their own judgment as to whether or not it is safe to cross.  When you add this misunderstanding to the fact that drivers don’t want to risk being held up by a train, it is no wonder that there are close calls. I can see several distinctly clear and logical reasons why drivers would believe the warning system is advisory rather than regulatory.  One of the reasons is the traffic control logic defect that I am describing here.  Some of the other reasons come right out of the grade crossing tradition of over 150 years.   I am not sure how many of these reasons have been identified by the regulatory authorities.  I might write to them about this one to see what they say.
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