Little Known Facts That Affect Me More Than You
Seventy to ninety trains a day go through Ames, IA. When I tell people this--including people who actually live in Ames--they hardly ever believe me, but it's true. There are two different sets of train tracks so really, that's only about three trains an hour on each track, twenty-four hours a day. This morning when I was sitting in the park with Billie, five trains went through in the space of forty minutes. Sometimes there are two trains at once, which is a bitch if you're running errands at lunch and you have to sit through two entire trains. There are very few over/underpasses. Most of the crossings are at-grade. There are actually very few accidents--and this, even though one of the crossings has a fairly nasty traffic flow.
But, when I'm driving through town, one of my decision points is when to cross the railroad tracks--if I can go one way and cross right away and a different way and cross later, I will always choose to cross right away because odds are if I wait, there will be a train.