[thephyber]

If you are worried about this incident, just wait until you hear about crude-by-rail! Crude is transported through LOTS of residential neighborhoods and zoning doesn’t matter. Additionally, railroads are governed by federal law so states / local munis can’t put additional restrictions on where, when, or speed limits.

[ssl-3]

Is crude-by-rail worse for people than crude-by-pipeline?

Either way, our current methods of doing modern human things require crude oil to get from A to B eventually...somehow.

And the pathway this takes isn't necessarily one that is devoid of humans.

(I live in a small city that sees all kinds of rail fright, with many dozens of trains on any normal day. I'm very interested in your opinion.)

[thephyber]

They have different risks.

LA had a construction company tap into a crude oil pipeline this weekend causing a leak into the LA River.

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/east-los-angeles-rup...

San Bruno had a buried gas main explode in 2010 in a residential neighborhood (which was a few blocks from a family member of mine).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion

Once a pipeline path is built, it’s inevitable tech debt that requires regular upkeep. You now have to trust PG&E (or whatever faceless expense-minimizing company) with regular maintenance of that pipeline.

Many railroads are interconnected, so the higher risk payloads can be routed further from residential areas when possible.

Ultimately risks can’t be completely avoided. The risks should be transparent to homeowners / renters. The city / county emergency crews are supposed to already have this info, so we know it’s available to some people but apparently not to every person whose life is impacted by these risks.