Railroad

What is the deal with the railroad crossing on Reed Market Rd? I know all the recent fuss has surrounded the Hwy 97 & Cooley intersection.

But from someone who drives through BOTH of these "problem areas" on close to a daily basis, the railroad crossing bothers me more.

Hwy 97 & Cooley is fairly consistently bad. I can count on the delay to be the same every day, every time. And it's not that much of a delay - not more than 2-3 minutes per trip.

On the other hand, you just never know when the railroad crossing is going to slow you down. It could be a train. It could be a really slow train. It could even be a train that stops on the road. Or it could be the worst of all - a crossing malfunction.

And you just never know how long one of these delays will last. There are ways around the crossing, but how does one know if that will actually save time? It could be a short train. It could be a minor, less than a minute malfunction. Or it could be 20 minutes.

Today I got to experience my least favorite of these delays - the dreaded crossing malfunction. Twice. Heading to the store to pick up two items, I turned the corner and then down went the gates. So I waited. Then the gates went up briefly - just long enough for me and maybe two other cars to get across. When I came back from my quick shopping trip there was a backup, but the gates were up. Sure enough as I crept towards the crossing (traffic was also backed up due to the light at 15th and Reed Market) the gates went back down. Overall I probably waited almost half an hour between my two delays.

Unpredictability - not my favorite thing. Unpredictable traffic delays - even lower on the list.