Yesterday the Brantford Expositor newspaper ran an article about the “deplorable” condition of the CN railway crossing on Hardy Road in Brantford. In response Gorski Consulting attended the site and conducted objective testing to find out how “deplorable” the crossing actually was. As per standard procedures, video cameras were attached to the exterior and interior of a test vehicle and gyro sensors documented the extent of lateral and longitudinal motion of the test vehicle as it passed over the crossing. This procedure is identical to the methods that were used to develop the Road Data database on the Gorski Consulting website. We are now in the process of synchronizing the video and gyro data and should have some results in a day or two.
The numerical values of Lateral and Longitudinal Rotation will be reported in radians per second. One radian is equal to 57.3. High motions of a vehicle travelling at 80 km/h along a poor road surface over a time of 30 seconds might generate average values of motion of about 0.0500 radians per second. Translated, this would be equal to about ( 0.0500 X 57.3) 2.87 degrees per second.
The situation of a singular and short disturbance such as a railway crossing is different since the vehicle motion may be experienced only within a second or two. Thus we need to look at that very short time frame when the test vehicle is travelling over the rail crossing. Previous testing of speed bumps, bridge junctions and incomplete road repairs is published in the Road Data webpage of the Gorski Consulting website. As an extreme example, our test vehicle encountered a depression at an incomplete road repair in London, Ontario whereby the bottom of the test vehicle struck the pavement at low speed of just 32 km/h. The resultant motion documented by the gyro sensors indicated a peak, spike in motion of 0.7000 radians per second or 40 degrees per second !!. Luckily the impact did not deploy the test vehicle’s air bags.
It will be interesting to see what the data shows for the Hardy Road crossing. Stay tuned.