MetroRail's crash rate 25 times U.S. average (Houston)

[PfcHammer]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2522354

MetroRail's crash rate 25 times U.S. average
MetroRail records 36th collision of year
By LUCAS WALL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

The collision rate for MetroRail trains during the first quarter of this year is about 25 times the national average for light rail systems, according to data from the Federal Transit Administration.

MetroRail's crash total reached 36 on Wednesday after a driver in a Pontiac Grand Am turned into a train shortly before 5 p.m. near Reliant Park, then hit a sport utility vehicle.

With 26 collisions in the first quarter of 2004, MetroRail is on pace for 104 wrecks in its first year, which would represent a crash rate of 13.87 per route mile. That is 25 times the national average of 0.55, based on 2001 data the FTA collected from 17 cities operating light rail.

If Houston does tally 104 rail crashes this year, it would be almost double the number experienced recently in any other city. San Francisco, with 61 light rail wrecks, led the nation in 2001 (the last year for which FTA data is available).

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[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Since trains can go only where there are tracks,

I would suspect that this is due to pigheaded drivers more than anything else.

As an experienced rider of Portland's light rail system, I often saw drivers take dumb risks, such as turning in front of an oncoming train. There were also pedestrians killed when they tried to run across the tracks (couldn't wait ten seconds for it to pass) or, in one case, when they passed out drunk across the tracks.

I can well imagine Bush voters proclaiming that they ain't gonna let no socialistic trolley git in the way of their God-given right to drive anywhere they dang please.

[Zan_of_Texas]

2. It is due to that, but more.

You can partly blame Tom DeLay. He pigheadedly made sure Houston got no money from the feds for mass transit. To cut corners, the transit folks put up this little line, totally along Main Street, no grade separation at all.

They should've done a monorail, or at least set up better barriers, or set the line five blocks over, away from the absolute center of downtown.

The transit head got a big bonus too. And went on her way.

The signage and engineering are really bad. I am a careful driver, and I find it's almost impossible to follow the wild nest of signs near those trains, AND watch for the train, AND watch for traffic coming in three directions.

Yeah, sure, we have bad drivers. But good design at least helps them avoid catastrophes.

[demdave]

4. 5 blocks over? What about the handicapped using public transportation?

Maybe they should close the main streets to anything BUT public transportation and let those who have the ways and means to drive....walk.

[denverbill]

3. Same thing happened in Denver.

They slapped the thing in, and it seemed like there was a crash every day for a while. Gradually, they added better warning lights and people started to figure out the routes, etc, and things got better. I rarely hear about accidents anymore. And light rail is very popular here.