Crossing railroad tracks while bicycling

Jan Heine of Bicycle Quarterly has posted  a detailed article about crossing railroad tracks safely.  Heine has switched to wider tires on his bike to help with crossing the tracks:

A while ago, we wrote about railroad tracks and how narrow tires can fall into the gap between rail and pavement. We suggested that wide tires are safer, because they don’t fit into that gap. In the comments section, a few riders reported that they or others had crashed on tracks even with wide mountain bike tires. How could this happen?The rider above has it easy: With 42 mm-wide tires, he can cross the tracks in a straight line without risking a fall, no matter which way the tracks are oriented.

He goes on to detail several causes of crashes while crossing tracks, including tires caught in the slots that run parallel to the tracks, tires caught in slot perpendicular to the tracks, and tires slipping on the metal of the tracks.

His recommendations:

The rider above has it easy: With 42 mm-wide tires, he can cross the tracks in a straight line without risking a fall, no matter which way the tracks are oriented.

What about riders with narrow tires? How can they cross tracks that are running at a shallow angle to the road? It’s not easy:

• If you line up perpendicular, your bike is leaning over while crossing the slippery tracks.
• If you go straight, you risk having your tire fall into the gap between rail and pavement.
• If you go slow, you don’t have to lean so much as you cross the slippery track, but your tire has less inertia that will carry it across the gap.

What do you think?  Have you had problems crossing railroad tracks?  What techniques to you use to cross tracks safely?