Train/LRT safety

[urbd]

Quit bringing it up and dragging me back into this. If you think trespassing and risking your life is worth becoming another stattistic or time in jail, go for it.

Seriously, wtf is so hard about following the law? Go to Germany or Japan with that attitude and see how long you last.

OK, I came up with an analogy. This is a bit like drug education. It has been widely observed that it is counterproductive for parents and educators to pretend that moderate consumption of marijuana is the same as regularly taking crack cocaine. Lying about marijuana by saying that it is extremely dangerous leads young people to doubt all authority figures, which increases the chance they’ll try crack cocaine, which actually is extremely dangerous.

We have a similar situation here. Some railway trespassing situations are highly dangerous; others aren’t dangerous at all. Those are the facts. It is possible to have a debate about precisely how dangerous specific situations are, but it is indisputable that lots of trespassing is perfectly safe.

I think railway safety campaigns should concentrate on the situations that may appear safe but really aren’t. For example, people who think if they hear the train they can just get off the bridge or tunnel quickly; or who think that racing the train to the crossing is a good idea (of course at crossings the authorities also have a safety responsibility not to operate the lights/gates when there is no train).

Exactly. I could not agree more... there are degrees of risk and degrees of irresponsibility. Rules/laws cannot and should not be followed blindly, human beings have free will and will sometimes choose convenience (for example cutting through a railway track because there's no other appropriate pedestrian access), or any other reasons. Just like drugs, trying to completely ban/stop/punish usage has only led to way worse consequences than the individual effects of the drugs themselves. Sometimes when enough people 'trespass' a railway to create a desire line, maybe the local government notices and then the path is formalized. It's the same for an endless number of cases of law breaking that end up with positive social change. Err, we have minimum wage and working hours today because in the past, many people broke the law and fought for it. I guess some people were simply born to follow rules.