Not all rail crossings have mechanical gates. Trains use horns for safety. Trains have done so for more than a century. A lot of motorists ignore checking for trains at rail crossings. I assumed everyone knew this.
Trains cannot slip through towns on tippy-toes while wearing slippers on their wheels to protect the delicate ears of some city dwellers.
Doesn't a lot of RTD light-rail track parallel the tracks of railroad companies? Companies that still drive big diesel-electric locomotives on those tracks? With rumbling and train horns? Or are government trains automatically noisier -- and easier to complain about?
I used to live in a high-rise apartment building just a few blocks from the railroad tracks along Santa Fe Drive. I liked hearing the trains rumbling by, and I slept through the train horns.
These are the same kinds of people who are shocked that jet airplanes make noise.