Safety Analysis of At-Grade Railway Crossings in Hungary

Railway crossings are crucial points in the rail and road network. This paper addresses a thorough methodology with two objectives: 1) to calibrate accident prediction models, and 2) to gather information on road users’ behavior when encountering at-grade railway crossings. A sample of about 1700 railway crossings was collected; accident data, AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) for rail and road, speed limits and geometry data were gathered. Modeling was conducted by using the Generalized Linear Modeling approach (GLM) assuming a negative binomial error structure. The sample was also split up into subgroups based on the type of control devices in order to analyze their effect on safety. Annual daily road traffic and annual daily train traffic turned out to be significant predictors, however, a number of geometric predictors were not significant. As far as the type of control devices are concerned, as expected coefficients are decreasing, hence safety is increasing in the following order: passive crossings, flashing lights, flashing lights + half barriers. Site surveys were made at 14 railway crossings where by means of video recordings maneuvers were evaluated with a special focus on pedestrians and bicycles. Four types of maneuvers were differentiated and counted; based on the results some general conclusions were drawn.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB60 Standing Committee on Highway/Rail Grade Crossings.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Borsos, Attila
  • Gabor, Miklos
  • Koren, Csaba
  • Miletics, Daniel
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Annual average daily traffic; At grade intersections; Crash data; Highway safety; Railroad safety; Safety equipment; Speed; Vulnerable road users
• Geographic Terms: Hungary
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01625672
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-04285
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 9 2017 11:11AM