Good News, Bad News - Ames, Iowa

[SirKrunch]

Good news: The automated horns are no longer in use.
Bad news: All 6 East-West crossings on the main are now "Quiet Zones".
City of Ames press release

The crossings along the North-South Jewell Subdivision still have escaped the whistle ban, however now only 2 crossings remain that are guarded with flashing lights only. 24th, 20th, and 13th street have quad gate installs now, and Bloomington Road has been converted to a divided 4 lane highway with gates that block off the highway making going around the down gate impossible. (Almost exactly like this except for the AHS system.)
The city continues to state that as the Jewell line only sees 2-4 train movements per day, they are not actively pursuing quiet zones for these crossings yet.

[TrainmanKight]

Good news: The automated horns are no longer in use.
Bad news: All 6 East-West crossings on the main are now "Quiet Zones".
City of Ames press release

The crossings along the North-South Jewell Subdivision still have escaped the whistle ban, however now only 2 crossings remain that are guarded with flashing lights only. 24th, 20th, and 13th street have quad gate installs now, and Bloomington Road has been converted to a divided 4 lane highway with gates that block off the highway making going around the down gate impossible. (Almost exactly like this except for the AHS system.)
The city continues to state that as the Jewell line only sees 2-4 train movements per day, they are not actively pursuing quiet zones for these crossings yet.

I thought they already had Wayside horns out there

[SirKrunch]

I thought they already had Wayside horns out there

Yeah, for quite a few years... but now they've been silenced.

[TrainmanKight]

I thought they already had Wayside horns out there

Yeah, for quite a few years... but now they've been silenced.

[SirKrunch]

All the wayside horn equipment was disassembled and removed this spring. Ames went full quiet zone the beginning of the year when they turned off the waysides and put up "no train horn" signs below all the advance warning signs.
And no, there never were wayside horns on the Jewell Sub. Nor are there whistle bans either. That's only on the Clinton sub (main).

[SirKrunch]

A little update to this topic...
Crossings in Ames on the Jewell Subdivision are not quiet zones yet... however the last remaining at-grade street crossings have been converted from being protected by flashing lights only to fully gated.
I guess this means now that (since they're all located in heavily residential areas) if residents want to bitch to the city council and the city is willing to pay the money, they could easily petition for Quiet Zones now.