Originally Posted by andr0id

Over the last decade or so, the RRs have been pressured and have gone to great lengths to make grade crossings safer.

Where "safer" means attempting to prevent motorist from being terminally stupid. Somehow it has become the RR's fault that people won't respect the devices that are there to keep you from getting smashed like a bug.

We have a crossing near my house where two gates would block the traffic in each direction. Old style, worked for decades and is well maintained. I've not seen any false alarms or failures at this crossing.

Now there are four gates. They've added a gate blocking oncoming traffic on each side because people would just drive around the gates on the wrong side of the road.

They've also added medians leading up to the RR tracks to prevent crossing to the wrong side in places.