Decatur Drops Idea of Installing Railroad “Quiet Zones”
Decatur Metro | September 23, 2010Decatur Metro has learned that the City of Decatur is abandoning the idea of installing railroad quiet-zones at its three railroad crossings.
City Manager Peggy Merriss tells DM that safety concerns from residents and a general lack of funding were the major reasons the city is dropping the idea of investing in numerous safety upgrades at the city’s three railroad intersections so trains would no longer be required to blow their horns on approach.
The feedback from community surveys and comments regarding implementation of a quiet zone during the planning process for the railroad crossings at College and Candler has been mixed. Those opposed to a quiet zone have voiced serious concerns regarding pedestrian safety, especially for students, because of the general accessibility and open nature of the railroad right of way. In addition, improvements would have to be made at the Atlanta Avenue intersection where no current source of funding exists. All 3 crossings would require safety improvements in order to implement a quiet zone.
The cost to construct and install the equipment necessary to establish a quiet zone is expensive and implementation anticipated relying heavily on funding by sources other than the bond funds.
Because of these factors, it seemed reasonable to conclude as part of the project update that it was unlikely that the quiet zone would move forward.
Other improvements for two of these railroad intersections is already underway.
Spurred on by the Decatur’s Transportation Plan and a $1.48 million grant from the Federal Transportation Enhancement program, the city is currently finalizing plans to improve safety and accessibility “for pedestrians, bicyclists and others using the street” at the railroad intersections at McDonough and Candler. You can read more on the current progress of that initiative HERE.
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This is really disappointing. I have been hoping for a quiet zone at the Atlanta Ave intersection ever since we moved to Oakhurst 5 years ago. The train is incredibly loud.
I am GLAD the train is incredibly loud! Anyone who thinks it is a GOOD idea to have quiet zones at railroad crossings is really missing the point of safety. Here in Decatur, and ESPECIALLY Decatur, there are so many people that sit on the tracks in their cars waiting for the light to change that is is amazing there have not been more accidents/deaths. If someone does not like the sound of a train whistle than they should not live near the tracks here in Decatur. Safety first, especially for the children! (and need I add the idiots that sit on the tracks…..!)
Wendy, drivers who sit on the tracks waiting for the light to change demonstrate their lack of driving skills and need to go back to driving school. If they are stuck in traffic sitting ON the tracks they would get hit by the train no matter how loud it blows its horns. The decision by the city of Decatur and the dismissive attitude by CSX are only a manifestation of the general decrepit state of this nation’s traffic infrastructure. We want to build high speed trains but we are unable, unwilling, and too incompetent to upgrade our existing railroad intersections. Travel to any other developed country and you will see underpasses, bridges, and fences separating cars and pedestrians from rail tracks. Here in Decatur you see students crossing the tracks right next to a police officer in a patrol car who is more intent on chasing down a speed violator than preventing a teen from his/her own act of stupidity. What could be easier than putting up a fence along the tracks and installing up-to-date barriers?
I lived a block from the tracks less than a quarter mile from the Atlanta Ave intersection for 4 years. I hardly ever noticed the noise and was never, not even once, woken up by it. On the other hand, at least once a week I would see someone do something incredibly stupid at that intersection or the one at McDonough and College. Keep the whistle!
I’ve lived near the Atlanta Ave. crossing for 18 years, and don’t even notice that whistle. Yup, it’s real loud. But I just don’t notice it.
However, I thought we’d voted money for this. Guess it’s not a huge priority, though.
And the choice isn’t between loud horns and safety. As I understood it, there would be other measures installed that would insure safety WO the loud horn.
I guess some people just never get use to it. In college I lived in an apartment right next to the railroad tracks. Not only were the trains loud from that short distance (you could throw a rock out my window and hit the train easily) but it was near a crossing so they almost always blew the horn at night. After about a month, I got use to it and didn’t really hear it anymore.
Though the level of traffic on the lines that pass through Decatur might not allow for the required downtime to reconfigure the tracks and road into separate elevations, it would be a nice solution.
I agree that people act like idiots around the trains. Part of the brilliance of quiet zones is that they put in more safety measures to make it harder to be on tracks at the wrong time. Nothing makes me quite as nervous as that one crossing on East Lake with no arms!
And J_T – perhaps your house has better windows than mine. I hear the train all the time but only occasionally get woken up by it – usually during the winter when all the trees blocking the noise are bare. When this topic first came up, I learned that sometimes the schools near the tracks have to pause what they are doing when the train comes by. That could be an urban legend, but if it’s true, that’s indicative of a noise problem.
I’m for safety, whatever it takes. Have you ever seen a train hit a vehicle? I have. Made an impression on me, but a bigger one on the truck that got hit.
Speaking of noise, could someone install a quiet zone around that darned rooster near the area of the Venetian pool. His wake-up call is great Mon-Fri, but the weekends….that poor rooster doesn’t get a day off.
I’m thinking the rooster lives on Clarion. Wakes us up at 5:30 am if we keep the windows open. It doesn’t sound like an average rooster–more like a rooster being strangled. That said, I like the sound of the clucking chickens–makes me feel like I’m on a quiet farm. . . .
Steve needs to confirm this, but I’m pretty sure the railroad was here before most of the city. We live a block from the tracks, and like the loud whistle – it lets little kids know when to run to wave at the train, and never wakes us up at night.
Re: “stupid motorist” comments – almost 400 Stupid Motorists a year are killed at railroad crossings in the US. More than that lose their lives as two-footed trespassers.
That’s true, but it’s also true that pedestrians are 150 times more likely to be hit by a car, and 10 times more likely to be killed by one, than they are by a train.
That doesn’t minimize the tragedy of any individual death, of course, but it does display a certain irony that people will often cry safety when it comes to railroads yet fall silent (or worse, become oppositional) when the issue is retooling streets to be safer and more ped/bike friendly.
I guess if people took freight trains to work and soccer practice, it might be a different story.
But the railroads “own” the tracks and have more of a say in determining the crossing issues than streets.
The trains were here before any of the current residents. It’s a nice aspect of living in the city.
I have to agree with keep the whistle. We live a metro area founded due to the railways. If you want silence, move to the country.
Being against the train noise is not being against trains! I think trains are the way to go when it comes to future transportation. We should have more trains, and we should have much more aggressive government programs to expand railroad infrastructure for freight AND for passenger use. Wouldn’t it be great to hop on the train in Decatur and get off in Savannah an hour and a half later, or in Charlotte three hours later, or in DC eight hours later? What I find troubling is a false industrial nostalgia that prevents improvements because “things have always been that way”. It’s true that trains were here before any of the current residents; and before the trains came, native Americans lived here, so should we just all pack up and move away to return the land to them?
What I find troubling is a false industrial nostalgia that prevents improvements because “things have always been that way”. It’s true that trains were here before any of the current residents; and before the trains came, native Americans lived here, so should we just all pack up and move away to return the land to them?
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Some of my Native American friends would say, hell, yeah!
IMO what we shouldn’t do is spend several million dollars trying to make things quiet for a few people who bought houses near the train tracks and now wish they hadn’t. It’s not false industrial nostalgia preventing these improvements–it’s sound economic reasoning combined with an emphasis on safety.
I dream of an Atlanta to Miami route.
I’m relieved that it’s been dropped.
I don’t think quiet zones are appropriate for or were ever meant to be used in pedestrian areas and I don’t trust CSX to maintain signals in lieu of the whistle.
Here’s a fascinating series of articles from 04 and 05 on RR safety issues:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/national/deathonthetracks_index.html
So, the Georgia RR has been active for some 165 years, does Decatur have any plans for tunneling more of these at-grade crossings? I assume there must be some long-range plans for the city, right? That would certainly get rid of the train horns and much of the danger.
Atlanta Ave, McDonough and Trinity/Candler are the main ones, right? Are there engineering plans for any of them?
A rough estimate would be $2M to $4M to tunnel a crossing and that doesn’t take into account the disruption to adjoining properties due to change in elevation, etc.
CSX -1 million points
Decatur: 0.1 (Agnes Scott underpass the exception)
This is not a passenger train. This is moving goods and services across the country train. This is a we’re not going to budge one inch for you peons sitting in the middle of the tracks train ….I personally love the sound of a train in the morning … or in the wee hours of the night …but sometimes I wonder if the conductors are a wee bit sadistic blowing on the horn so darn early….that said, people have been living next to tracks for over a century ….And got used to it. One thing I wish we could get is a bridge across the tracks for the Renfroe kids. But CSX bosses Decatur around all the time so I doubt that will ever happen.