This came up in one of the local news sites today: "FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) - Federal officials have agreed to consider changing train horn regulations blamed for disturbing Fort Collins, Loveland and Windsor. Current regulations require train engineers to sound their horns for at least 15 seconds when entering a road crossing. The rules give communities the power to create quiet zones by rebuilding intersections to make them safer, but those intersection improvements can cost millions of dollars. The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports Colorado Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet have been pushing for the Federal Railroad Administration to reconsider." Wait and see, I suppose. My take has always been that safety rules are in place for a reason.
Nobody can figure out that horns are needed because there are too many stupid people, on foot or in cars. Many, many of these crossings, since the railroad was very often there first, are via easements granted by the railroad. I contend that railroads need to get tough and start revoking these easements. There'd be no horns, and we would see how people would like being inconvenienced... It is always amazing how people settle near and next to tracks, then whine. Why is someone else always responsible for the ignorant home site choice they've made? No matter what happens, someone will still be stupid, get smashed by a train and then get a lawyer to hide behind.
Ken, it's not limited to just railroads and grade crossings, residents near airports can be just as self-serving. Approaches to Reagan National in D.C., Lindberg in San Diego, and a few others are dangerous for pilots and passengers due to noise abatement ordinances demanded by residents and enacted by their local governments.
Many grade crossings here in Lake County, IL have been 'no horn' for several years - namely CN through Mundelein, Grayslake, etc. Not sure what the accident stats show, but I've yet to see an impact (pun somewhat intended).
A similar kind of back-and-forth that's always annoyed me has to do with people living around military bases. In my case, most notably, Fort Carson. And unlike private planes, I don't think mufflers on cannons are much of an option...
Feel lucky you did not have complaints about O.D. green, and demands to paint those cannon pretty pink.
I just don't get it, people who complain about that stuff irritate me. it's common sense as to why a train has a horn, or airports are loud, etc. I literally just want to shake my head and walk away some times.
I've seen this going on here in California. In Novato, in order to build the SMART train service through town the got the agency in charge to agree to no horn use. On the San Francisco peninsula, CalTrain gets complaints about the train horns, and there have been a number of high school kids hit by trains! What really gets me are those people that move close to SFO and complain about the sound of the planes! People move near the municipal airport in San Jose complain about the planes there, too (of course, those are about planes crashing in the neighborhood). My favorite are the people who moved near a racetrack in San Jose and then tried to get it closed because the cars were too loud. In all cases, the noise was there first. You KNEW it was there before you moved near it therefore you have no right to complain!
True. But what happens is they get a lawyer, sue and win! How they can win such a case is beyond comprehension, but they get away with it.
Seems to me , that these folks that are being mentioned here are mostly progressive type liberials, with some being from California. We have them in Idaho as well , they come up here with their retirement money , buy a spendy house in the woods or on the lake or some nice new housing development and almost instantly want to change the area to suit them. On time we even had one couple from Fresno complain about the snow as if 3 feet of snow that year was the first time it ever snowed around here and they did not like it . The newest crazy for the progressive liberals is to paint bicycle path arrow/ lanes on the streets so we know who has the right of way. But the town has a woman for a mayor so my guess is she just wants everything to be nice and comfy .... no matter what it costs . They have not got around to the train horns yet.
There's an expression that caught on for a while about a lot of these kind of things, NiMBY (Not in My Back Yard). Everyone wants the benefits but nobody wants any form of inconvenience. I'm sure everyone can think of a particular instance, from train horns to airports to wind turbines to (fill in the blank). Seems to come down to a kind of selfishness, a don't dare inconvenience me attitude, than anything else.
Mike- Selfishness is indeed the word. Unfortunately this attitude has permeated the USA, and even worse has become quite acceptable as a belief. How sad that self-inflicted stupidity has become normal.
You guys are reading way too much into this. These "silent crossings" are being considered in most states right now. If you watch it play out, it almost seems like a standard deal. A bunch of old bitties and yuppies complain to the City Council about the noise that has always been there. City Council (knowing they need the votes) says they'll fix the problem. They tell the railroad to be quiet, the railroad laughs and explains the FRA. The FRA comes out and with the railroad comes up with a plan to make a "silent crossing". This typically takes different gates, lights, sensors and barricades on the roads. The crossing has to be made idiot proof. The railroad hands the city the estimate and tells them if they want it they can pay for it. Some cities pony up the money, but most realize they would rather tell the citizens they can't do anything than try to raise property taxes (again) for one or two crossings. I know of a few communities that have paid the dough to get them and it makes a big difference if you silence a half dozen crossings. But call be crazy, I have 10 crossings within earshot of my house and I like listening to the airhorns at night.
When I was a kid, one crossing close to my house had a set of parabolic mirrors so people could see down the tracks because the area was thickly wooded. In their infinite wisdon the railroad also installed a sign saying " Do not shoot mirrors". Might as well have been a bright red bullseye. You can't make this stuff up.
