can we all just agree that it is a little unsettling to see construction guys with tiny, handheld signs standing by the gates of a railroad crossing?

because, although i realize that a certain amount of human error is involved even with the normal gates-lower-lights-flash-bells-clang method of warning drivers that a train is approaching, it just seems safer and more authoritative than two guys standing beside the crossing, holding those little slow/stop signs and smoking cigarettes or gazing off into space or abandoning their position to go stand by the other guy and chat.

update: or, you know, talking on their mobile telephones or listening to their ipods or just plain turned around facing the other way. PROTECT ME FROM TRAINS, PEOPLE!

it's been like this for days. sheesh.