Evaluating the impact of grade crossing safety factors through signal detection theory

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting, October 22-26, 2012, Boston, MA
• Creators:
  Yeh, Michelle ; Raslear, Thomas ; Multer, Jordan
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration ; John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Railroad grade crossings
  • Safety factors
  • Warning devices
  • Locomotives
  • Driver errors
  • Decision making
  • Human factors Signal detection theory
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
• Abstract:
  The purpose of this effort was to apply signal detection theory to descriptively model the impact ; of five grade crossing safety factors to understand their effect on driver decision making. The ; safety factors consisted of: improving commercial motor vehicle driver safety through federal ; regulations, increasing locomotive conspicuity with alerting lights, increasing locomotive ; conspicuity with reflectors, increasing sight lines, and improving warning device reliability. We ; estimated d' and β for eight warning devices associated with each safety factor using data from the ; Federal Railroad Administration’s Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Accident/Incident database and ; Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory. We also calculated ω2 for each safety factor and device type to ; examine the reliability of each independent variable on grade crossing safety. The analysis ; indicated that the first four safety factors listed above were generally equally effective in ; improving grade crossing safety. Warning device reliability (which pertained to active warning ; devices only) still contributed to improvements in grade crossing safety, but the effects were more ; muted. Grade crossing devices (and particularly active warning devices) are an important safety ; tool because they increase drivers’ inclinations to stop, and this bias to stop has a greater impact ; than improving the driver’s ability to detect the train.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9690/dot_9690_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 647.50 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center ; Federal Railroad Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:42e1477317d5570fabec3d390a0e107a6b7b1210bbc0ccfa343c526ff4523d7e48d9d9d15d8c5df6e3c14c0df3c509cda731be3f73b9fb1ac1e57b25334fda63