Welcome to our Quiet Zones blog!
We are a group of Northwest Corridor (Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville, Westminster, Niwot, and Longmont) residents who are urging our City Councils and the RTD to implement Quiet Zones for the existing freight line, soon to be converted to commuter rail as part of the Fastracks program.
We invite you to join our blog to share your thoughts about train horn noise along the Northwest Corridor.
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2 comments:
During the 7 years that I've lived at my home, I've noticed that the noise from train horns has become much more disruptive. It certainly seems that the train horns now blare for a ridiculously long time prior to each crossing. I live in Boulder, at a spot 900 feet from the RR crossing on 47th St., near Mitchell Lane. There are a few homes in Boulder that are less than 150 feet from tracks where trains are blowing their horns ... I can't imagine how much the train horns disrupt these peoples' lives.
We drive our cars through road intersections without blowing our car horns in order to tell vehicles on the intersecting road that they shouldn't run their red light; why should a train have to blow its (much louder) horn in order to warn a motorist who has chosen to cross a railroad crossing that is already displaying flashing red lights, has dropped a gate across the road, and is sounding a bell? Let the negligent bear the risks of their carelessness, rather than penalizing the recuperation and tranquility of the innocent in order to protect the negligent.
Some people may respond that trains should always blow their horns because "safer is always better", which might appear to be true when taking a simplistic approach. However, I seriously doubt that hardly anyone has quantified the negative safety effects of train horns. In addition to the annoyance to neighborhoods from blaring train horns, certainly there are many people whose sleep is consistently and seriously degraded by blaring train horns. This certainly results in unnecessarily-tired people less-safely performing dangerous everyday tasks including driving cars. My guess is that the overall effect upon the safety of society from trains blowing their horns at RR crossings which already have gates, bells, and flashing lights isn't even positive ... the corresponding sleep disruptions probably cause more safety problems than the horns eliminate.
Hear, hear citizens of Greater Boulder. While greater public transportation is an ecological and economical important direction, go with the Quiet Zone and let peace return to the region.
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