United States Department of Transportation
i
Evaluating the impact of grade crossing safety factors through signal detection theory
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2012-10-22
[PDF-647.50 KB]
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Alternative Title:Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting, October 22-26, 2012, Boston, MA
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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.
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