The article argues that it's difficult to judge the speed of a moving train, and I don't doubt that's true. However if you're attempting to judge the speed of a train
at all while at a train crossing, you're already doing it wrong. The cautious approach is to stop and wait for the train no matter how fast you think it's moving. This is what I do every time. This is what drivers ed programs teach. It's what common sense dictates. It's what most people do, and is the reason most people don't get hit by trains (3000 collisions per year is not very many at all when you consider how many times people cross train tracks each day.)
Might I still be hit by a train I never saw at all? Sure. Somebody I knew in highschool was hit by a train on a track he believed was abandoned and consequently, never looked down (he lived after being pushed 100m down the track). It's possible that might happen to me, at least if I ever forget that it happened to him. But what won't happen is getting hit by a train I see and judge to be moving slowly or not at all, because I stop for any train I see no matter how much time I think I might have to cross the track.
> Airplane pilots (particularly military fast jet), and ship captains are taught specific techniques to deliberately and systematically overcome these physiological limitations.
The "specific technique to overcome this physiological limitation" is: Don't race trains. Don't race trains even when you feel certain you can easily beat the train. Racing trains is stupid.