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I had never seen one of these before today. They're great. Way better than reaching for a single pole in a crowded car and wrapping your hand around some stranger's fingers. And If you have the whole thing to yourself you can hook your arm through it.
Cool idea, but hooking your arm through it looks like a great way to break said arm if you stop fast.
So don't do that...
I feel like the comment above is from someone who almost never rides commuter rail.
These trains have been designed for people to stand, walk around, and sit unbuckled. They simply don’t stop that quickly.
I ride Atlanta's MARTA for my daily commute. There's a few stops that will spill inexperienced riders to the floor they're so fast.
There's a lot of inertia when stopping on the airport trams I've been on with these. It could very possibly break a weak arm if one were stuck inside two metal bars.
They can take about 15-20 second to decelerate in an emergency. This is a link to some train geeks talking about it.
In my experience being stuck on a lot of light rail, those numbers sound about right. Those things never stop like a car when the e brake gets pulled. It’s too dangerous to stop them quickly since people are standing, walking, and sitting without buckles and headrests.
The existence of the handrail is proof of the potential for heavy inertia
Its existence is also kind of proof that emergency stops are slow enough that people can remain standing and squeezing a poll with 5 fingers will suffice for safety.
Unless they do.
Even if you hit emergency stop, they don’t stop like a car. They take a while to slow down.
Here are some trains nerds talking about e brake times.
https://www.railroad.net/braking-deceleration-distance-or-time-of-wmata-trains-t164252.html
I was thinking more like a crash or something...
Which is pretty rare for a commuter train system with tracks that are often underground or raised above road traffic.
Especially since I think this is in the Denver airport where the trains are all computer controlled and going in a loop
E: ah I was wrong, but the comment still applies to the ones in Denver
Trains like this don’t decelerate that quickly when you pull the emergency break. If they did, you’d have injuries from standing, not being buckled, not having headrests, etc.
I'm not sure it'd be worse than hooking your arm through a single pole. Presumably in that scenario you're trying to stay put, right? If you're getting shoved hard enough to break your arm by being yanked off the pole you're getting shoved hard enough to crack your skull against one as well.
Realistically, the only way a commenter train is going to change direction or decelerate that violently is if something derails it or slams into it.
Trains like this don’t slow down very quickly, even if you pull the emergency break. That’s why people are allowed to stand, walk, etc.
People are allowed to stand and walk around on these things. They’re not cars. They almost never come to a violent stop. Even the emergency brake takes like 15 to 20 seconds to bring one of these things to a stop.
You say this, but I see unexpected tourists fall from stopping all the time in metro systems all around the world 😂
lol. True dat. They don’t know that you have a wide stance, perpendicular to the train’s direction. You have to ride that bitch like a skateboard.
Yup this is how you do it. I ride the train standing up without holding anything all the time. If you stand perpendicular and lean during accel/decel it's very stable. If you are facing parallel to the trains direction you're gonna faceplant.
If this is Sea-Tac, the rails are completely walled off. Doors open onto the tram only when it arrives. Everything else is walled off, like an elevator.
? I mean falling/tripping onto the ground of the train when it stops, not falling onto the rails. If I was used to seeing tourists fall onto the rails... that'd be... concerning 👀 . The only place I've ever seen non-workers on the actual rails is NYC, because NYC.