video: European drivers vs concrete pillar

Stephane Dumas wrote:
> I spotted this funny video of drivers trying to beat the retractable
> concerte-reinforced pillars at
> http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/30/v...oncrete-pillar
>
> Stéphane Dumas

ROTFL! If Europeans are that stupid, I'd love to see the Darwin
attempts by my fellow Americans.

Forwarded to r.a.d. for entertainment of those folks as well. (PING:
Scott en Aztlan, necromancer, Brent...) WWAJD?

My Land of Misery wrote:
> Stephane Dumas wrote:
>> I spotted this funny video of drivers trying to beat the retractable
>> concerte-reinforced pillars at
>> http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/30/v...oncrete-pillar
>>
>> Stéphane Dumas
>
> ROTFL! If Europeans are that stupid, I'd love to see the Darwin
> attempts by my fellow Americans.
>
> Forwarded to r.a.d. for entertainment of those folks as well. (PING:
> Scott en Aztlan, necromancer, Brent...) WWAJD?

Two words: Angle grinder

>
Ulf

Ladies and Gentlemen (and I use those words loosely), My Land of Misery
said in rec.autos.driving:
>
> Stephane Dumas wrote:
> > I spotted this funny video of drivers trying to beat the retractable
> > concerte-reinforced pillars at
> > http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/30/v...oncrete-pillar
> >
> > Stéphane Dumas
>
> ROTFL! If Europeans are that stupid, I'd love to see the Darwin
> attempts by my fellow Americans.

I could imagine..... Though some of the higher clearance pickups some in
my neck of the woods drive *might* beable to clear the pillars.

> Forwarded to r.a.d. for entertainment of those folks as well. (PING:
> Scott en Aztlan, necromancer, Brent...)

Thanx for the ROTFL!

> WWAJD?

Try to find the person who installed the retractable pillars and kick
his teeth in?



--
"Hell i once painted a whole car with a bunch of spray cans."
--Laura Bush murdered her boyfriend, 3/29/06

Ref:http://tinyurl.com/qqaeq
Message ID:

necromancer wrote:
> Ladies and Gentlemen (and I use those words loosely), My Land of Misery
> said in rec.autos.driving:
> >
> > Stephane Dumas wrote:
> > > I spotted this funny video of drivers trying to beat the retractable
> > > concerte-reinforced pillars at
> > > http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/30/v...oncrete-pillar
> > >
> > > Stéphane Dumas
> >
> > ROTFL! If Europeans are that stupid, I'd love to see the Darwin
> > attempts by my fellow Americans.
>
> I could imagine..... Though some of the higher clearance pickups some in
> my neck of the woods drive *might* beable to clear the pillars.

Like the ones who retorfit pickups with tractor tires and Bogfoot
setups?


>
> > Forwarded to r.a.d. for entertainment of those folks as well. (PING:
> > Scott en Aztlan, necromancer, Brent...)
>
> Thanx for the ROTFL!

All in a day's work.

>
> > WWAJD?
>
> Try to find the person who installed the retractable pillars and kick
> his teeth in?
>
>
I doubt AJ would go for that delay when running over the contractor
while doing 41 in a 25 would be more effective.

In article .com>, My Land of Misery wrote:
>
> Stephane Dumas wrote:
>> I spotted this funny video of drivers trying to beat the retractable
>> concerte-reinforced pillars at
>> http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/30/v...oncrete-pillar
>>
>> Stéphane Dumas
>
> ROTFL! If Europeans are that stupid, I'd love to see the Darwin
> attempts by my fellow Americans.
>
> Forwarded to r.a.d. for entertainment of those folks as well. (PING:
> Scott en Aztlan, necromancer, Brent...) WWAJD?

The driver of the silver car was funny, he sizes it up then tries to
sneak past with the bus.... but the others seemed quite unaware of the
pillars existance while behind the buses. The pillars didn't even start
to come up until they were out of the driver's line of sight.

There is the large sign, but I could see how that would be obscured by
something as large as bus. But that might only work for the driver of the
black minivan like thing.

The guy in the white truck should have seen the sign though...

"Scott en Aztlán" > wrote in message
...
> "My Land of Misery" > said in rec.autos.driving:
>
>>
>>Stephane Dumas wrote:
>>> I spotted this funny video of drivers trying to beat the retractable
>>> concerte-reinforced pillars at
>>> http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/30/v...oncrete-pillar
>>>
>>> Stéphane Dumas
>>
>>ROTFL! If Europeans are that stupid, I'd love to see the Darwin
>>attempts by my fellow Americans.
>>
>>Forwarded to r.a.d. for entertainment of those folks as well. (PING:
>>Scott en Aztlan, necromancer, Brent...) WWAJD?
>
> And an entertaining post it was!
>
> It occurs to me that these retractable pillars would be IDEAL for
> grade-level railroad crossings. If you can't afford to grade-separate,
> this is the next best thing.

Good idea. In reality though, how would you handle a situation where a
vehicle stops OVER the pillars just as the train trips the switch?
Then when the train clears the roadpath, the tripswitch fails to operate the
pillars. Nobody can move.

"richard" > writes:

>> It occurs to me that these retractable pillars would be IDEAL for
>> grade-level railroad crossings. If you can't afford to grade-separate,
>> this is the next best thing.

>Good idea. In reality though, how would you handle a situation where a
>vehicle stops OVER the pillars just as the train trips the switch?
>Then when the train clears the roadpath, the tripswitch fails to operate the
>pillars. Nobody can move.

Such pillars should be between the retractible barrier and the railroad.
They should rise only after the barrier is fully down.
It appears the pillars in the video stop rising when they encounter
resistance, good idea. I see no problem for when a car is over them
when they rise, they should stop rising when they hit the car, and
once the train passes they retract when the signal that the train has
passed raises the barrier and turn off the flashing lights. The pillars
should retract first, of course.

The real problems are maintenance, esp in icy/snowy areas. Between the
lazy railroads and underfunded DOTs, will they even work after a couple of
years?

Also lawsuits. Some bozo who strikes one or is parked over one will find
a way to sue for a few million. Just because they pillars are different
here. Also when they _don't_ work and some bozo tries to go around the
gates and gets creamed by a train rather than stopping for/being stopped
by the pillars.

Brent P wrote:
> In article .com>, My Land of Misery wrote:
> >
> > Stephane Dumas wrote:
> >> I spotted this funny video of drivers trying to beat the retractable
> >> concerte-reinforced pillars at
> >> http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/30/v...oncrete-pillar
> >>
> >> Stéphane Dumas
> >
> > ROTFL! If Europeans are that stupid, I'd love to see the Darwin
> > attempts by my fellow Americans.
> >
> > Forwarded to r.a.d. for entertainment of those folks as well. (PING:
> > Scott en Aztlan, necromancer, Brent...) WWAJD?
>
> The driver of the silver car was funny, he sizes it up then tries to
> sneak past with the bus.... but the others seemed quite unaware of the
> pillars existance while behind the buses. The pillars didn't even start
> to come up until they were out of the driver's line of sight.

The silver car also looks like it had some cooling system damage, as
evidenced by the steam. The piller went right up into the front end of
his car.

The second car seemed well aware that there was a barrier. He was
driving pretty fast behind a bus that was accelerating from almost a
complete stop, and appeared to be in a hurry to speed over the barrier
before it closes. Oops!

The third car I can't really judge from the short clip length. It did
appear that the passanger (yes, passanger, sides are reversed as it
appears to be in the UK), put his head through the windshield!

>
> There is the large sign, but I could see how that would be obscured by
> something as large as bus. But that might only work for the driver of the
> black minivan like thing.
>
> The guy in the white truck should have seen the sign though...

Michael Moroney wrote:
> "richard" > writes:
>
> >> It occurs to me that these retractable pillars would be IDEAL for
> >> grade-level railroad crossings. If you can't afford to grade-separate,
> >> this is the next best thing.
>
> >Good idea. In reality though, how would you handle a situation where a
> >vehicle stops OVER the pillars just as the train trips the switch?
> >Then when the train clears the roadpath, the tripswitch fails to operate the
> >pillars. Nobody can move.
>
> Such pillars should be between the retractible barrier and the railroad.
> They should rise only after the barrier is fully down.
> It appears the pillars in the video stop rising when they encounter
> resistance, good idea. I see no problem for when a car is over them
> when they rise, they should stop rising when they hit the car, and
> once the train passes they retract when the signal that the train has
> passed raises the barrier and turn off the flashing lights. The pillars
> should retract first, of course.
>

I see a problem. Look at the video and see what happens when a car
hits the pillars as they are rising! But notice they don't rise under
the bus. I'm assuming that once a vehicle allows the gate to lower it
stays down until the vehicle clears (all that would be needed is a
laser beam, which when broken, holds the gate down). If that system
were used for a RR crossing, that might work.

> The real problems are maintenance, esp in icy/snowy areas. Between the
> lazy railroads and underfunded DOTs, will they even work after a couple of
> years?
>
> Also lawsuits. Some bozo who strikes one or is parked over one will find
> a way to sue for a few million. Just because they pillars are different
> here. Also when they _don't_ work and some bozo tries to go around the
> gates and gets creamed by a train rather than stopping for/being stopped
> by the pillars.

I could see a big lawsuit if the pillars rise stopping a vehicle, which
has its front end sticking onto the track, and then the car gets
clobbered because the driver cant back off.

Scott en Aztlán wrote:
> "richard" > said in rec.autos.driving:
>
> >> It occurs to me that these retractable pillars would be IDEAL for
> >> grade-level railroad crossings. If you can't afford to grade-separate,
> >> this is the next best thing.
> >
> >Good idea. In reality though, how would you handle a situation where a
> >vehicle stops OVER the pillars just as the train trips the switch?
>
> How do we currently handle the situation where a vehicle stops under
> the crossing gate arms just as the train trips the switch?
>
> >Then when the train clears the roadpath, the tripswitch fails to operate the
> >pillars. Nobody can move.
>
> Same thing can happen if the arms fail to raise after the trains
> passes. But how often do such failures actually happen in the field?

Hopefully less often then the arms failing to lower.....they are
supposed to be failsafe, as in, they are supposed to lower and stay
down if power goes out (batter backup) or anything else goes wrong.

> Apparently the Europeans have the bugs sufficiently worked out to feel
> comfortable deploying these pillars in real-world situations like
> those in the video; I suspect they're reliable enough to satisfy your
> objections.

THey are beginning to be deployed in the United States as well.
Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House is now blocked off by
these instead of a huge door-latch looking barrier sticking up out of
the street. Since PA Avenue is like a pedestrian mall now, and bikes
are allowed in too, it is much more user friendly from an urban design
perspective...the bikes can go between the poles, and it doesn't look
horribly ugly, but apparently they do a good job stopping cars. These
pillars may only stick up out of the ground something like 3 feet, but
are probably buried 10+ feet underground. If the US Secret service
thinks they work well, then they are pretty good barriers.

> --
> I'm a wreckless driver and damn proud of it!