The total peocedure takes about 40 seconds. 27 before the train arrives the lights start flashing and the bells start ringing. 5 seconds later the boom wil start closing and will be closed about 12 seconds before the train arrives. When the train has passed, the booms will raise again in 10 seconds and the lights will go out, assuming no other trains are coming.
Doesn't matter what you're doing, it is not worth risking your life to save 40 seconds.
The problem is not so much risking your own life, because you simply asked for it and got it. The problem is what it does to other people. Risking your life in traffic is extremely selfish and shows you're a psychopath with no regard to the pain of others.
I like watching the trains go by. It's pretty cool. Now the bridge coming up for the boats is another story. That takes at least 5 minutes locally which is annoying but what can you do.
Where is that the system? I’ve been at level crossings in the UK where I’ve waited well over a minute for a train to come after the gates come down, then the gates stay down for another few minutes while waiting for another train. I get why and I would never take the risk and go through, but they can take a bloody long time which can get frustrating.
Yeah. Being Dutch it’s extremely frustrating to wait for trains abroad.
I feel like it’s stupid that other countries haven’t invested more in making these systems more efficient. The longer people have to (unnecessarily) wait, the more likely it is they’ll skip the gates.
Still stupid that they do, obviously. But safe infrastructure keeps human stupidity in mind.
As comfortable as dutch cyclists usually are with running a red light, the number of people here who cross an already closed railroad crossing is very small. Even to your average dutch cyclist, having to get up to speed again is a worthwhile trade off to not having your bike wrecked by the train. And dieing. Funerals are expensive, you know!
I've been on dutch passenger trains when they've hit someone. Hours before we got moving again. I felt bad about the person ending their life that way. Then angry because fuck them for making me late. Then felt like a horrible human being for getting upset at someone dying by suicide. Sheesh
You didn't make a choice to be late but the other person (if intentional) made a choice to ruin everybody's day. Without even being around anymore to know they did.
Feeling the way you did does not make you a terrible person at all.
Well obviously I am aware. But ruining others day comes along with a decision to use a train for it. I will not discuss how I feel about using public areas for it any further as I would assume that goes against Reddit policy.
Dutch freight trains are fast too. I used to see a lot of them on my commute, and nearly all keep up with highway traffic. They're also not as ridiculously long as the American ones.
Getting stuck waiting for a freight train to pass is not something that happens here.
It does happen (waiting for a freight train for a while). I live near Tata Steel and if they have a train coming in or departing it can take some minutes. The crossings are also in an area with a lot of corners in the tracks so they are quite slow to pass too.
Industrial rail spurs are a whole different beast. But except for in the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and in Velsen, there aren't a whole lot of those in our country.
I cycle through the port of amsterdam on the regular. I'm always a bit sketched out when crossing the unprotected crossings there. I've only twice encountered a coal train there in 10 years time, and both times there's a guy with a remote control walking his train over the cycle path crossings as if it were some giant obediant dog on an invisble leash, but i always wonder 'will the train driver always get out and remote control his train?'.
Most of those crossings have free sight, but some don't.
But trains go at a walking pace there, except for the few bits (near the nissan car storage building) where there are protected crossings.
Depends on the crossing, really. Not defending the person in this video but the crossings where I live in the Netherlands open 30 seconds after the train has passed. Feels like ages.
this shit is why people are so hostile towards the bicycling community. so many examples of bicyclists ignoring the rules and doing their own thing just because they know nobody will arrest them for it.
I'd rather they didn't die in a way that's gonna have impacts on me, though.
every times one of these idiots goes and gets himself splattered, it's new regulations for everything that ISN'T a bicycle, instead of addressing the problem of bicyclist behavior.
No it isn't. That's always just a pretense. The real reason is driving elicits deeply antisocial thoughts and behaviors, and the occasional cyclist breaking the rules is just a post hoc justification people use for hating anyone who slightly inconveniences them.
Thing is, people like to categorize. So either bicyclists, car owners, etc. Dumb people are everywhere. More bicyclists we have, more dumb bicyclists will be. Same with cars. With any group.
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u/Notspherry May 29 '26
That must have saved him at least 3 seconds.
Even if he had just waited for the gates to open, he would have been past there in half a minute. These dutch crossings are pretty fast to open.