"T i m" wrote in message
...
At a level crossing near me, large gaps in the queue result in the tail
of the queue backing up into a roundabout, eventually blocking traffic
from four other roads that lead into it. Better awareness by some
drivers of the effects their actions are having would help.

This is often an issue when you have anything past a junction or
access where you may have two lanes that merge into one ahead (where
there may be as you say, a railway crossing).

There was a sad case in the USA some years ago where a railway ran parallel
and close to a road which had traffic lights to control access from a side
road over a level crossing on the railway. Vehicles were queued on the side
road at the traffic lights and backed up as far as the level crossing. A bus
(I think it may have been a school bus) stopped *on* the crossing. And the
lights started to flash because a train was coming...

The TV programme I saw which analysed this crash mentioned that city
authorities looked as ways of integrating the level crossing with the
traffic lights, so that when a train was due, traffic on the side road got a
green light which cleared the queue and prevented it backing up on the level
crossing. They completely missed the point that all level crossings should
be treated as what we in the UK call box junctions: do not enter unless
there is sufficient space on the far side to accommodate your vehicle. It
sounded as if in the USA, the concept of not stopping *on* a level crossing
was somewhat alien to them ;-)



Box junctions at side junctions work well, apart from one little flaw: you
can be on the major road, with traffic from a side road on the left obliged
to give way to you. And you stop at the box junction. As soon as the traffic
ahead moves, a car on the side road turns left and occupies the space. And
then another one does when the traffic moves again. And you on the major
road are stuck there like a lemon, never able to go because no-one on the
side road gives you the priority that the HC rules decree. Without the box
junction, you'd be right behind the car ahead, and the side-road car would
not be able to get out - unless you *allowed* it, as courtesy suggests
should happen *occasionally* (as opposed to every time, as a defined right).
But this would block oncoming traffic which wants to turn right into the
side road and is why the box junction is there. It could be solved by the
box junction only covering the patch of main road that right-turners need to
turn into the side road, whereas often it covers the whole width of road in
front of the side road, including the bit used by side road traffic turning
left.