Highway and Railroad Operating Environments for Hazardous Shipments in the United States–Safer in the '90s?

Saricks, Christopher L.; Tompkins, Melanie M.

doi:10.21949/1501501

i

Highway and Railroad Operating Environments for Hazardous Shipments in the United States–Safer in the '90s?

2000-04-01
By Saricks, Christopher L. ; Tompkins, Melanie M.
Series Journal of Transportation and Statistics

File Language:

English

Details

Creators:

Saricks, Christopher L. ; Tompkins, Melanie M.
Subject/TRT Terms:
Series:

Journal of Transportation and Statistics
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21949/1501501
Resource Type:

Journal Article
Geographical Coverage:

United States
Corporate Publisher:

United States. Department of Transportation. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Abstract:

This paper seeks to illuminate the status of transportation safety and risk for large-quantity shipments of spent commercial reactor fuel and mixed and hazardous wastes by examining road and rail accident and vehicular travel data from the mid-1990s. Of special interest are the effect of speed limit changes on controlled access expressways (chiefly the Interstate Highway System) and the possible effect of season-to-season climatic variation on road transport. We found that improvements in railroad technology and infrastructure have created a safer overall operating environment for railroad freight shipments. We also found recent evidence of an increase in accident rates of heavy combination trucks in states that have raised highway speed limits. Finally, cold weather increases road transport risk, while conditions associated with higher ambient temperatures do not. This last finding is in contrast to rail transport, for which the literature associates both hot and cold temperature extremes with higher accident rates.
Format:

PDF
Download URL:

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/4684/dot_4684_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 165.84 KB]
Collection(s):

BTS Products
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:bc0575fd44d1d23a27633d25d97aba9fafdf9009f5ee12822cd2c1bd8fea01021d59b883530daee5800c3aa3cd0ea4efb0d25c071fd5cff6a5b92f64ac5ea029

File Language:

English

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