2010 and trains still have to blow horns?

[torea]

Illinois is indeed just an example where people are trying to tell the FRA that train honking is not a solution for safety.
Permanent train honking everywhere in the US is unacceptable. This could only be invented by useless bureaucrats trying to defend their (useless?) jobs.
California, Washington, NY are sending you the same message to explain you he same: STOP THE NOISE POLLUTION.

I'm just an example of a citizen in the Midwest OKC, KC, and many others.
I am just inviting you to use taxpayers money (=your salary) to defend the quality of life of all of us working here in the US .
Please don't defend or protect these few idiots breaking the law and creating accidents on railroad crossings!

[OKCisOK4me]

Maybe you should get a job that pays you a little more so you don't have to worry about our salaries or your own spending habits, cause it seems like that's the issue. You spend so much of what money you have that you blame what you don't have on the government. Sounds like you need to checks and balance your bank account. I'm far off from being a millionaire but jeez, your constant nagging is a bit over the top.

[Roadhawg]

nagging? I was thinking of another word

[Roadhawg]

Illinois is indeed just an example where people are trying to tell the FRA that train honking is not a solution for safety.
Permanent train honking everywhere in the US is unacceptable. This could only be invented by useless bureaucrats trying to defend their (useless?) jobs.
California, Washington, NY are sending you the same message to explain you he same: STOP THE NOISE POLLUTION.

I'm just an example of a citizen in the Midwest OKC, KC, and many others.
I am just inviting you to use taxpayers money (=your salary) to defend the quality of life of all of us working here in the US .
Please don't defend or protect these few idiots breaking the law and creating accidents on railroad crossings!

Did you even read what I posted? You said Illinois has most of the horn exemptions and I show where the Illinois death rate has gone up... try to stay on track, no pun intended lol

[torea]

I don't need a job anymore since I worked my ..ss of all my life.
I enjoy traveling a lot to all kind of countries, for example to India (where jmakross declares that the curry-stench is overpowering)
But also a lot to a lot of nice places in the US, South America and to European countries (where I was born):
I can assure you, my dear friends, that public money, safety and noise (or other) pollution free living conditions are important in the rest of the world.
Not in the US ... as long as your house is far away from the railroad you to stop the discussion by declaring "Move if you don't like the noise".
Good luck to you all if this is the attitude of the public servants in the US! I have the time now and will react, publish comments and vote AGAINST you!

[Roadhawg]

Sounds like you've found a solution to your problem... move to a different country where they don't blow train horns

[torea]

Nope, just traveling right now.... I like to live and love the way of life here in the USA.
But as a responsible US citizen I would like my (and your) tax money to be spent to improve our living conditions and environment.
And that's not what the FRA does.
The FRA increases the train honking noise for everyone without any reason.

Can anyone tell me why all trains recently started to honk at least 4 times for every railroad crossing in the US (day and night?)

[torea]

FRA bureaucracy:
http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010...ons-too-small/

We really need to add a few hundred employees at the FRA.
This will assure that the high speed trains will honk permanently, day and night.
Safety first!

[torea]

To prove that I'm not always negative, here is an example of positive work done by the FRA:


An FRA study revealed that there had been an average of two incidents of “catastrophic structural failure” of railroad bridges each year from January 1982 to December 2006, according to an FRA statement in the September 11, 2007, Federal Register. Approximately 61,000 bridges and 800 tunnels are owned and maintained by the nation’s major (class I) railroads, and another 15,000 bridges are owned and maintained by the regional (class II and class III) railroads. At least 50 percent of these bridges were constructed before 1920, according to a 1993 FRA survey.

In its September 2007 recommendations, the FRA noted that while most major railroads follow the FRA guidelines on bridge safety, some do not adequately address problems discovered during bridge inspections quickly enough to prevent critical failures or near failures; moreover, “a considerable number” of smaller railroads have inadequate inspection and maintenance programs or show “absolutely no evidence of bridge inspection, management, or maintenance.”

(published by The American society of Civil Engineers in http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=25562 )

[jmarkross]

You just don't like train horns. Nothing wrong with that.

[torea]

That's right, I don't like extreme loud noise. (whatever is the source)
Trains can make more than 100 decibel noise while honking and that can be deafening.
An administration imposing trains to honk all the time all over the US is just deafening and keeping awake the people without real justification.
All these people need some rest to be able work hard and pay taxes to finance e.g. the administrations.

You just don't like train horns. Nothing wrong with that.

[jmarkross]

I would be far more amenable to an array of crazy-wild LED lights--which would also help the deaf--and ditch loud horns altogether.

[torea]

Yes, jmarkross, in a way you could extend safety measures as far as you want

But when I have to ave to stop for a railroad I see 6 flashing red lights, I hear a loud bell ringing and half of the road is blocked by lowered crossing arms.

What can you do better for the safety of law respecting people?

PLEASE don't add loud honking, day and night > 100 decibel .

[OKCisOK4me]

Nope, just traveling right now.... I like to live and love the way of life here in the USA.
But as a responsible US citizen I would like my (and your) tax money to be spent to improve our living conditions and environment.
And that's not what the FRA does.
The FRA increases the train honking noise for everyone without any reason.

Can anyone tell me why all trains recently started to honk at least 4 times for every railroad crossing in the US (day and night?)

I don't want my tax money to be spent the way you want your tax money to be spent & I really don't care how yours is spent. Hey, here's an idea...since none of your ideas are going to go the way you want them to, unless you go back to work as a political lobbyist then I suggest you move out of the US and enjoy life in other countries that aren't f'd up like the good ol' US of A!

[torea]

Oh my God, good old Sachem OKCisOK4me (only 4 himself?) has finally spoken.
Please consider the following thoughts, my friend:
- You cant want or have any influence on how your (or my) tax money is spent. That's why we live in a democracy.
- I might go to work as a political lobbyist to stop this idiot day and night train horn blowing imposed by the FRA in the USA.
- I love to live in the US of A, I only want to improve our living conditions and reduce all kinds of (and including) noise pollution.

Nobody really answered the question of many US citizens
Can anyone tell us why all trains recently started to honk at least 4 times for every railroad crossing in the US (day and night?)

[OKCisOK4me]

Well, I can tell you for one thing that every whistle sign is at least a 1/4 mile from any crossing AND when upon a city like Edmond, downtown OKC or Norman, those crossings are one city block away from eachother. Therefore its a constant whale. Again, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you want to lobby for companies and federal subsidies to spend money to alleviate all road crossings, those companies and this country will go broke. I'd rather deal with a national debt that is for the most part due largely to protecting this country from foreign And domestic terrorism than worry about the complaints of you and fellow NIMBYs!

[torea]

No Sir, I don't need any subsidies. I'm just working (volunteering since I have a lot of free time ) to make the USA a better (and quieter) place to live.

Please don't confuse this discussion with national debt .. and stop trying to scare everyone for "terrorism", this is really another discussion.

This is just a unrealistic and stupid noise rule invented by he FRA.
Everyone understands that it makes no sense to force trains to blow the horns all the time.



Except you, because ... OKCisOK4me... good luck!

[OKCisOK4me]

I live five miles from the closest tracks...y u keep it up is beyond me, but whatever. Best of luck torea. I'd like to meet u some time..

[UnclePete]

TOREA, if you live in Kansas City, why are you wasting your time and ours by posting on an Oklahoma City message board?

[Thunder]

Well, I can tell you for one thing that every whistle sign is at least a 1/4 mile from any crossing AND when upon a city like Edmond, downtown OKC or Norman, those crossings are one city block away from eachother. Therefore its a constant whale. Again, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you want to lobby for companies and federal subsidies to spend money to alleviate all road crossings, those companies and this country will go broke. I'd rather deal with a national debt that is for the most part due largely to protecting this country from foreign And domestic terrorism than worry about the complaints of you and fellow NIMBYs!

Norman is raising the tracks by making traffic go under on Robinson. So.... How about not only the companies and states pay up, the cities can pay up. Its not going to break anyone.

[torea]

UnclePete, don't be so narrow minded man... Is Oklahome the only part of the world you know and privileged to have the only people to publish on this blog?
A while ago we saw jmakross telling on his blog that the curry-stench in India is overpowering ... well, I like curry and it seems to be very healty too.

I like your proposal, OKCisOK4me: make the railroad companies and the states pay for the bridges and tunnels. Finaly we will all pay for it anyway but small cities and communities have no means to "quiet" their railroad crossings. In fact they even don't have the people and the money to think about it.

[Thunder]

You are wrong there, Torea. Cities are just as much responsible, too. They became established long after the railroads was there. And they build houses and business too close to the railroads, so yeah, I think cities should pay up, like what Norman did.

[torea]

I agree that the cities should also contribute (proportional to their size).
May be a first initiative to limit all these expenses could be a traffic study to count the number of cars using railroad crossings.
Close to my home is a small road where more trains than cars are crossing. So 120 daily trains have to honk 4 times for 40 cars stopping anyway?

[torea]

And you are also right that businesses were created close to railroads.
A lot of these busnesses are railroad customers and pay for the railroad transportation services.

Nobody could not imagine that suddenly te FRA introduced a new rule to blow the train horns a full 5 hours per day.
During these 5 hours these businesses have to interrupt any conversation (including phone calls to their customers).

If I was one of these business owners I would relocate (and use truck transportation) or go broke!

[bluedogok]

torea - I just find it a bit ridiculous that this thread is the only thing that you have posted in on OKC Talk, a thread that you created. You obviously are passionate about this subject but there is much more to the world than this one pet issue.