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Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle
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Hello All,

https://www.citylab.com/...oad-crossing/535926/

Excerpt:

"The Knoxville crossing is particularly tricky, due to the angle that riders must approach the tracks. The researchers often filmed riders trying to cross at a perilous 10 degrees. If cyclists swooped and sharply turned, they could cross at a safer 45 degrees. If they rode straight through they had a bigger risk of hitting the dust, especially if they were female or riding in a group. Cherry suspects the latter cyclists might be pedaling side-by-side, thus limiting their ability to maneuver across the track, or perhaps chatting among themselves to distraction. As for the gender factor, it could be related to experience, he guesses, or a “torque that occurs in the handlebars that maybe a guy could overcome with more upper-body strength.”

"So what’s the magic angle to bike across railroad tracks? After reviewing both successful and unsuccessful crossings in their bone-bruising footage, the researchers concluded the famed 90 degrees isn’t necessary—a lesser “bronze standard” of 60 degrees is still extremely effective."



Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster
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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [nealhe] [ In reply to ]
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Should have jumped it.
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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [nealhe] [ In reply to ]
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It does not look like those crashes have anything to do with the tracks themselves. It looks like the problem is something on the road that makes it slick. I must now conclude that UT engineers are morons.
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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [nealhe] [ In reply to ]
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These are some of the worst tracks I have seen.

These tracks were on the Rev3 run course and so many people would crash on them when they were trying to preview the run course on their bikes. I remember we were helping one lady who broke her collarbone, and while we were loading her bike up 2 other people crashed.
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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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-- having had experience (and seen numerous other people hit the deck hard) on one particular train track /street crossing in San Diego -- I can say it is HIGHLY likely that it is the steel track itself and the angle of crossing that is causing the crash problem -- NOT something else. Especially on train tracks that are used a lot (not rusty) and almost anything other than crossing at 60-90 degrees to the track. At lesser angles, the bike tire get on top of the track "momentarily" and slides/slips off the track almost no matter what the rider can do. What to do ? Especially if you see a shinny track at that angle, swerve out/around before the track so the bike crosses at 60 - 90 degrees. Good heads up to everyone.
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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [nealhe] [ In reply to ]
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Obviously being more perpendicular helps, but often the pavement is cracked/broken in train crossing areas complicating the issue--I've gone down at a particularly shelled multi-track (double track) crossing on my commute route multiple times. Bunny hopping usually gets around the worst areas but in double track with potholes and cracks on top of the train tracks sometimes the only way to succeed is to not play the game (after the third time in maybe 600 crossings I switched my route and flew the white flag)

//Noob triathlete//bike commuter//ex-swimmer//slower than you

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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [nealhe] [ In reply to ]
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Just watched the video and it seems like 90% of the people crashed on the second of the two tracks. Most people seemed to negotiate the first track at a sensible, square-ish angle and then either lost concentration or wobbled around so much that they hit the second track at an acute angle and went down. I wouldn't be surprised it the surface and/or the inlay depth of the tracks is particularly harsh there.
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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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jimatbeyond wrote:
Should have jumped it.

Bingo! Two quick bunny hops always for me in addition to try coming at the tracks at close to 90 degrees.

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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [nealhe] [ In reply to ]
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That film was 2x speed and it still looked like they were going slowly. It's much easier to take tracks (or cattle guards) at high speed. Unweight and the bike will float over the tracks. Most of them also had plenty of room to take a more favorable angle even if it meant going into one of the traffic lanes.
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Re: Some Info On Railroad Crossing Angle [nealhe] [ In reply to ]
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There is a set of severally angled tracks that we have to cross regularly when riding near our cottage, on almost every ride there. Fortunately, it's on a fairly straight road.

How best to cross? From repeated experience wet and dry, as close to 90 degrees to the tracks as you can get!

A few years ago, we were out on a group ride, on a wet and rainy day. We came up to a set of angle tracks (different ones than above), three inexperienced riders had rolled off the front by about 30m. In a two up pace-line, I was now on the front with another veteran rider. The 3 riders ahead, all went into the tracks straight on with no adjustment. The guy I was on the front with said, "They are going to go down" - and all three did! Other than a few bruises they were OK - but they learned the hard way - to approached angled tracks like that as close to 90 degrees as you can get.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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