Re: Cost of a Traffic Signal ??

On Wed, 3 Dec 2003 10:45:56 -0800, the renowned "Baphomet"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>> for one would not like a man in front of my car with a red flag but it
>would
>> certainly stop most of the fatalities.
>
>Unfortunately, stupidity (the biggest hazard of them all) doesn't lend
>itself easily to legislation.

There are also budget issues. It might be nice to get rid of 100% of
all railway level crossings, but it would cost too much for taxpayers.
So they pick what they think are the most dangerous crossings and put
the $millions each into upgrading those first. Aside from the capital
cost, they require maintenance and eventual replacement. At some point
they do have to put a value on a life- if it's going to cost $5M to
upgrade the crossing and one person on average will be killed every 5
years, in a place with an average income of $xxK, maybe it won't get
done. 

A hotel I stayed at recently (in Indiana) was located on a service
road beside the interstate. The service road had absolutely no
lighting and ran dead-straight parallel to the interstate until it
made a sudden unusually sharp and poorly marked right turn to curve
down and intersect the cross street. The cross street was somewhat
elevated and shielded by earth etc. so you could not see traffic there
as an indicator. There were five or six different shrines to dead
motorists at the sharp bend. 

Best regards, 
Spehro Pefhany
-- 
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
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