Safety improvements at highway-railroad crossing for pedestrians and bicyclists and the assessment of long-term effects of centerline curbing.

Details

• Creators:
  Khattak, Aemal ; Luo, Zheng
• Corporate Creators:
  Nebraska Transportation Center
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Center lines
  • Pedestrians
  • Cyclists
  • Railroad grade crossings
  • Median barriers
  • Gates
  • Grade crossing protection systems Highway-railroad grade crossings--Safety measures
  • Median strips
  • Lane lines (Roads)
  • Pedestrians
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  SPR-P1(09) P323
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Nebraska
• Edition:
  Final report.
• Corporate Publisher:
  Nebraska. Dept. of Roads
• Abstract:
  The focus of the research reported herein was on assessing the long-term effectiveness of median barriers at highway-rail ; grade crossings (HRGCs), the impacts of barrier maintenance in resurrecting safety, and on exploring and assessing ways ; to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety at HRGCs. Nebraska has about 7,000 HRGCs and each one represents a ; potential conflict point among trains and highway users, i.e., motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Safety at HRGCs is ; compromised when highway users resort to unsafe maneuvers, such as passing around closed gates when trains are ; approaching. Gate-related violations by motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists were studied at three selected HRGCs in ; Waverly, Fremont, and Lincoln, all cities located in Nebraska. The barrier at the Waverly HRGC was removed after being ; in place for a long time while the dilapidated barrier at the Fremont HRGC was revived through maintenance. An ; educational activity focused on pedestrians and bicyclists at the Fremont HRGC was evaluated for reducing gate violations. ; Removal of the barrier in Waverly contributed to greater frequency of unsafe maneuvers by motorists. Specifically, the ; frequencies of aggregate unsafe maneuvers (i.e., the sum of motorist gate rush, U-turn and backup), as well as gate rush ; and U-turn, increased after barrier removal. Safety deteriorated over the long-term at the Fremont HRGC while ; maintenance resurrected safety by reducing the frequency of passing around fully lowered gates by 30-50%. Regarding the ; effects of the educational campaign focused on pedestrians and bicyclists at the Fremont HRGC, the drive successfully ; reduced passing around fully lowered gates by about 39%. The recommendations from this research include emphasis on ; maintenance of barriers in top condition after installation and educational campaigns focused on pedestrians and bicyclists ; for safety improvements at HRGCs.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/25407/dot_25407_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.32 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b7687d0311edacfb6025d53355b573a55d55a4d121e4295586e03f9f2efc9fc38feafc427a90f4d82938c7d6246fabeaa892c683765bc9daaec95caf732b4000