Shouldn't there be some kind of bar to prevent vehicles and people from crossing a railroad track when a train is about to pass by?

Where I live, the train isn't even there and the railroad crossing bars already go down and red lights flash. You have to wait 5 minutes in traffic waiting for the train to arrive and it's still not there. Then 15 minutes later, finally the train starts passing, but it's a very long train that takes 5 or 10 minutes or so to finish completely passing lol!