Bollards

Pete Cresswell said:

Quoted message said:

Here's a railroad barrier coming down and causing an idiot to stop
abruptly:

Quoted message said:

Ouch! That must've hurt.

Quoted message said:

You can almost hear the guy saying "WTF!????".

You probably know that before the gate descends, red lights flash and
bells ring warning of the approaching train. This rider must have
been sleeping to:

1. Not see the warning lights
2. Not hear the bells
3. Not see the barrier coming down
4. Running into it as though it were invisible.

He needs to ride into some Bollards to get smart.

Jobst Brandt

(PeteCresswell) said:

Per [email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Here's a railroad barrier coming down and causing an idiot to stop
abruptly:

Ouch! That must've hurt.

You can almost hear the guy saying "WTF!????".

Looked to me like he was trying to beat the gate and lost.

Ron

Per RonSonic:

Quoted message said:

Looked to me like he was trying to beat the gate and lost.

My perception was that he was riding hard - maybe with his head a
little too far down for city riding; saw the thing starting to
operate - but too late; figured he was gonna hit it; and tried to
dive under it.

Probably more of a reflection to my danger-averse nature than
anything else, but it never occurred to me that somebody on a
bike would intentionally mess with all that moving mass.
--
PeteCresswell

(PeteCresswell) said:

Per RonSonic:

Quoted message said:

Looked to me like he was trying to beat the gate and lost.

My perception was that he was riding hard - maybe with his head a
little too far down for city riding; saw the thing starting to
operate - but too late; figured he was gonna hit it; and tried to
dive under it.

Probably more of a reflection to my danger-averse nature than
anything else, but it never occurred to me that somebody on a
bike would intentionally mess with all that moving mass.

As Jobst notes, there are flashing lights and bells
before the gate goes down, so he would really have
had to be oblivious. Another factoid is that he
gets taken out by the _far_ gate - he's already across
the tracks by the time he gets clotheslined. He's
going the wrong way down what appears to be a one way
street, at least for car traffic. The two way bike
and pedestrian traffic is over on the right side.

I would guess that there is a gate on the side closer
to the camera that is out of the field of view.
Although it's a one way street, there should still be
a gate for the pedestrians. You can see that there are
no pedestrians or bikes on the right side until the
very end of the clip, so they all had the wit to stay
out of the way. Our victim probably went under the
postulated near gate just before it started to go down
and miscalculated getting under the far gate.
"Don't do stupid [censored]."

Ben

Ben who? said:

Pete Cresswellwrote:

Quoted message said:

Per RonSonic:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Looked to me like he was trying to beat the gate and lost.

Quoted message said:

My perception was that he was riding hard - maybe with his head a
little too far down for city riding; saw the thing starting to
operate - but too late; figured he was gonna hit it; and tried to
dive under it.

Quoted message said:

Probably more of a reflection to my danger-averse nature than
anything else, but it never occurred to me that somebody on a
bike would intentionally mess with all that moving mass.

As Jobst notes, there are flashing lights and bells
before the gate goes down, so he would really have
had to be oblivious. Another factoid is that he
gets taken out by the _far_ gate - he's already across
the tracks by the time he gets clotheslined. He's
going the wrong way down what appears to be a one way
street, at least for car traffic. The two way bike
and pedestrian traffic is over on the right side.

I would guess that there is a gate on the side closer
to the camera that is out of the field of view.
Although it's a one way street, there should still be
a gate for the pedestrians. You can see that there are
no pedestrians or bikes on the right side until the
very end of the clip, so they all had the wit to stay
out of the way. Our victim probably went under the
postulated near gate just before it started to go down
and miscalculated getting under the far gate.
"Don't do stupid [censored]."

I like to ride under the railroad crossing gates after the train has
passed, while everyone else is waiting for them to be raised.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

Johnny Sunset aka Tom Sherman said:

Ben who? said:

As Jobst notes, there are flashing lights and bells
before the gate goes down, so he would really have
had to be oblivious. Another factoid is that he
gets taken out by the _far_ gate - he's already across
the tracks by the time he gets clotheslined.

I like to ride under the railroad crossing gates after the train has
passed, while everyone else is waiting for them to be raised.

An advantage of not sitting too high up!
As before,

The next time there's a pointless upright vs recumbent
thread, you should post this link and point out that
it shows lowracers are the safest form of bicycle.

Ben

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:52:11 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Per still me:

Quoted message said:

I'm not defending the error of the drivers - I just think the penalty
is too severe. This is not a "vehicle free" area.

In addition, it's non-judicial and uncontrolled.

Great entertainment. Lousy law enforcement.

Actually, it is perfectly controlled.

The transponder makes the bollard go down, once it passes it goes up.
No random, unpredictable ups and downs.
Quite simple- if you happen to be there because you are trying to
sneak by, your car, and perhaps your body, get damaged.

As for being non-judicial..I guess so, but it really does remove any
uncertainty about punishment You can possibly get away with running a
stop sign; you cannot get away with running a bollard-so you get to
choose your own punishment.

RE: Railroad crosssings. For years I always wondered how people got
hit by trains at these crossings. One day while in W. Virginia I came
upon a crossing that had just went down- the Escort in front of me
promtly drove around the barrier! The train came through no more that
15 seconds after he crossed.

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:17:35 -0400, Bob Quindazzi <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

RE: Railroad crosssings. For years I always wondered how people got
hit by trains at these crossings. One day while in W. Virginia I came
upon a crossing that had just went down- the Escort in front of me
promtly drove around the barrier! The train came through no more that
15 seconds after he crossed.

Sounds like he made the right decision!