Car ‘Accidents’ Will Derail Light Rail
Car drivers will hit humans and run, so you’d better damn well know they’ll hit trains and run.
I’ve already made the case that cars should have to pay for breaking the law and breaking trains and hurting people.
But I don’t think I made clear that if we allow car drivers to continue their lawlessness with respect to trains, car drivers will be able to seriously degrade train service until such time that the train becomes unfeasible and goes away.
We have the precedents - one of the factors that contributed to the demise of the streetcar in this country was that car drivers had unchecked power to interrupt train service whenever they wanted — they were allowed to operate lawlessly and with impunity. It might be a stretch to suggest that lawless car driving played a ‘big’ or ‘major’ role in the demise of the streetcar, but based on the little evidence I’ve seen so far, I’m confident enough to suggest that lawless car driving was a significant factor in the demise of the streetcar.
We cannot tolerate lawless behavior that degrades the value of our transit systems. Lawless drivers should be met with stiff penalties, up to and including jail time, and they and their insurance companies should bear the full cost of any and all damages, and that includes physical damages to the train and passengers, and possibly other damages such as pain and suffering, lost economic activity for the city and its workers and employers, compensation for any ‘downstream’ transit service that was adversely affected by the lawless driving behavior, everything.
This blog thinks trains need a ‘cattle guard’ to shield them - and that may not be a bad idea, but any guard should be designed to protect pedestrians, first, and the train, second. At no time should we accept any measure that will endanger pedestrians even more than they already are.
The best answer is to start holding drivers and their insurance companies accountable for the damage that drivers do.
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