EVALUATION OF SAFETY AT RAILROAD-GRADE CROSSINGS

AN INVESTIGATION WAS CONDUCTED INTO THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF THOSE FACTORS WHICH SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCE THE ACCIDENT PATTERNS AT RAILROAD-HIGHWAY GRADE CROSSINGS, THE DEVELOPMENT OF MATHEMATICAL MODELS THAT MEASURE THE RELATIVE SAFETY OR HAZARD OF GRADE CROSSINGS, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PRIORITY RATING SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING PROTECTION IMPROVEMENTS. MATHEMATICAL TECHNIQUES OF REGRESSION ANALYSIS AND DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS WERE USED TO DEVELOP MODELS FOR PREDICTING THE RELATIVE HAZARD AT RAILROAD-HIGHWAY GRADE CROSSINGS. THE MODELS WERE FUNCTIONALLY RELATED TO FACTORS AND VARIABLES WHICH WERE DESCRIPTIVE OF ENVIRONMENT, TOPOGRAPHY, GEOMETRY OF THE CROSSING, AND RAIL AND HIGHWAY TRAFFIC PATTERNS. FOR RURAL GRADE CROSSINGS, A REGRESSION MODEL WAS FORMULATED TO EXPRESS RELATIVE HAZARD AS A FUNCTION OF AVERAGE DAILY HIGHWAY TRAFFIC, AVERAGE DAILY TRAIN TRAFFIC, ROADSIDE DISTRACTIONS, PAVEMENT WIDTH, AND NUMBER OF TRACKS. FOR URBAN CROSSINGS, A DISCRIMINANT MODEL WITH LINEARLY ASSIGNED PROBABILITIES EXPRESSED POTENTIAL HAZARD AS A FUNCTION OF PROTECTIVE DEVICE, AVERAGE DAILY HIGHWAY TRAFFIC, AVERAGE DAILY TRAIN TRAFFIC, DEGREE OF EFFECTIVE SIGHT DISTANCE, AND ROADSIDE DISTRACTIONS. A METHODOLOGY WAS DEVELOPED FOR SELECTING A MINIMUM LEVEL OF GRADE CROSSING PROTECTION AND ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF PROTECTION AT URBAN RAILROAD-HIGHWAY GRADE CROSSINGS. /AUTHOR/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • No 23, 68 PP, 31 FIG, 4 TAB, 8 REF, 1 APP
• Corporate Authors:

  Purdue University/Indiana Department of Transportation JHRP

  Purdue University, School of Civil Engineering
  West Lafayette, IN  United States  47907-1284
• Authors:
  • Berg, W D
  • Schultz, T G
  • Oppenlander, J C
• Publication Date: 1967-9

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash rates; Discriminant analysis; Environment; Evaluation; Geometry; Highway safety; Mathematical models; Prevention; Protection; Railroad grade crossings; Regression analysis; Rural areas; Safety; Sight distance; Topography; Traffic flow; Travel patterns; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Traffic patterns
• Old TRIS Terms: Discriminate analysis
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00219945
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 13 1994 12:00AM