Today's death at Caltrain Palo Alto, California's Charleston Road Caltrain Commuter train tracks of an elderly pedestrian has some people commenting on the web that the victims are "stupid".  This is callous.  It clearly indicates that such comment authors have little personal experience nor feelings about the causes and impacts of such deaths by (Democrat monopoly) government-run and subsidized outdated surface trainsets in our midst. I ask the writers to please not be so insensitive, if they can help it.

I go to some of these Caltrain death scenes afterwards to politely "picket" to raise awareness of the need to replace this inherently dangerous, unhealthy, (GHG and brake particulate) and 100k cars of daily cross-traffic polluting, noise-making, congesting, HSR placeholder trains on the 1863 vintage street-level trackway--when the Peninsula was absolutely rural.  Relatives and friends of Caltrain's deceased victims--and some related to at-risk potential victims come up to me to express the reality of this deadly, outdated trains on them.  Caltrain deaths are not a matter of being "stupid". Far more.  

Caltrain just spent another of our $1M to re-time signals at this and other intersections "for safety". Grossly Insensitive Peninsula Democrat elected officials, many of who served on the Caltrain governing board during their careers, simply cannot bring themselves to review this dangerous train in our midst that has killed so many and will continue to until it is replaced. The worse of the worst is the hypocrite, San Bruno PG&E Blast Headline-a-week GrandStander Par Excellence, State Senator Jerry Hill, who refuses to do anything, but authorize more $$ to perpetuate this Caltrain killer train monster rather than move to consider safer BART down the Peninsula.  This week Hypocrite Hill's bill to solidify electrification of Caltrain's/HSR-funded ($600Million+) outdatedness went to Gov Jerry Brown, a rail zealot at any cost. This is like "perfuming the pig" or developing a new horse-buttock attachment for a horse drawn buggy to catch its fecal outflow to make streets cleaner and "safer".  The latest $1M "safety" improvement did is lengthen cross traffic and parallel road (Alma) idle wait times and GHG exhaust from delayed vehicles--but nothing to stop this carnage. Indeed, this is the third death here at Charleston in the past year, the 9th this year on the Caltrain trackage, and the 197th since 1995 when my count started.  
Not one of the Democrat politicians who "care" so much has ever lifted even a pinky to investigate bringing safer BART down the Peninsula to the current planned, and safer, terminus at Santa Clara University, despite the sales taxes we pay now for BART.  

Note: BART has suicides, but far fewer and far far fewer deadly accidents than this incredibly dangerous 75mph Caltrain "mini-bullet train" that kills so many on its trackage so fast, in addition to the regular, slower "local" Caltrain runs. BART's top speed is about the same as Caltrain's Express trains--but separated from people! 

It is time now to start planning to replace Caltrain with BART, the last 28 miles from Millbrae south to SCU/SJ in this innovative "Silicon Valley" and stop these stopgap ineffective "safety" improvements. Caltrain has to go away and replace it with the (not perfect, but better) BART Around the Bay (my blog name, too), electric, street-separated, quieter, safer, and mutually beneficial "one-seat" (no transfer) high capacity rail solution around our Bay--true, intraregional mass transit from/to the Peninsula, East Bay, South Bay (soon) and all those sports, education, business/downtowns, shopping centers et al --without a car. Democrat voters have the upper hand to elect responsible new politicians who truly care about our safety, transit capacity effectiveness and modernization to serve us and our growth.