United States Department of Transportation
i
Safety Enhancements at Short-Storage-Space Railroad Crossings
-
2023-01-01
-
[PDF-1.81 MB]
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Edition:Final Report, 1/1/2020 – 12/31/2022
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:A short storage space railroad crossing has insufficient distance between the crossing and the highway intersection stop line to safely store a design vehicle. The current Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) project (OR 19-032), led by Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), aimed to provide guidance on these crossing types. This study examined the crash data, surroundings of the crossing, and driver behavioral patterns using naturalistic driving and simulation data to identify suitable countermeasures and build communication between MDOT Traffic & Safety and Office of Rail to refine the guidelines. This project conducted four major tasks: 1) a comprehensive review on short-storage crossing related studies, 2) data preparation and development of safety indices for short-storage crossing locations, 3) development of driver behavior related safety scoring for different passive treatments using data from SHRP-2 naturalistic driving study (NDS) and simulation, and 4) development of a guidance document and final report on short-storage crossings in Michigan. The findings of literature review show that little research has been conducted to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of different treatments for grade crossings with short storage, outside of traffic signal preemption strategies. The results also revealed that the highest number of crashes occurred in southeast Michigan (Detroit area), and the lowest number occurred in the sparsely populated northern part of the state. The findings also show that short storage locations are mostly on local undivided roadways. Both NDS and simulation study results indicate that drivers face difficulties in following signs and markings near the short storage locations. This study can help authorities in identifying the issues of driver-related distraction and sign following patterns and can aid in improving short storage crossing safety. In addition, this project provided recommendations for modifications to the language in six relevant MDOT publications.
-
Format:
-
Funding:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
