Fellow reader Jerry Supe (who I know of from FAU (Florida Atlantic University) [1]; he's also a friend of Mark's [2]) sent me the following about the rail road crossing picture [3]:
The CSX crossings in Boca are notoriously dangerous. They have been mucking with them for 10 years and they still don't work right. I remember riding Tri-Rail many times and seeing the arms up like that. The conductor would get off the train prior to the crossing and act as a flagman for oncoming traffic. In fact, many crossings don't work right and CSX has been very lax in addressing the problem. I suspect part of the issue is the harsh weather, which seems to affect the signaling systems after heavy thunderstorms. There doesn't seem to be any redundancy in their system to contend for this.
How nice.