Technical Reports
Highway-Rail Intersection Crash Taxonomy for Connected Vehicle Safety Research - Ten Year Trend
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) accident data from the 2008–2017 study period showed that annual combined highway-rail intersection (HRI) and rail infrastructure accident costs were between $20 million and $40 million dollars. An alternative method developed by the National Highway...
Law Enforcement Strategies for Mitigating Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Risk Factors
There has been heightened awareness of and re-commitment to highway-rail grade crossing safety. Both the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration have pledged to show a greater presence at grade crossings and to adopt a new, multi-faceted campaign aimed at...
Major Railroad Accidents Involving Hazardous Materials Release, Composite Summaries 1969-1978
This report presents composite summaries describing 75 major railroad accidents in which hazardous materials were released. The selected accidents occurred during the years 1969-1978. The data contained in the individual summaries were derived from various government and private agency reports and...Effect of Anti-Trespass Guard Panels on Pedestrian Behavior
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), under the direction of DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration Office of Research, Development and Technology, conducted a research study that evaluated the effectiveness of anti-...
Tank Car Vent and Burn Process Study: Phase I
The Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), under Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) Hazmat Transportation Safety Research and Development Strategic Plan, conducted a study of vent and bum as a method of hazardous materials incident mitigation. The purpose of the study was to develop...Tank Car Vent and Burn Process Study: Phase II
The Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), under the Federal Railroad Administration's Hazmat Transportation Safety Research and Development Strategic Plan, conducted a study of vent and burn as a method of hazardous materials incident mitigation. The purpose of the study was to develop...Demonstration of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Change Detection on Railway Images
This study, conducted jointly by ENSCO, Inc. and Harris Corporation, assessed the potential benefits of applying commercially available change detection software to railway machine vision images. Change detection involves registering “Before” and “After” images on a pixel-by-pixel basis to...
Analysis for NPRM : Strobe Lights on Locomotives
This regulatory analysis was prepared using the procedures developed in Railroad Safety'Economics: A Guidebook for the Analysis of Regulations (prepared by IOCS Inc., for the Federal Railroad Administration, February 1978). It includes an evaluation of the effectiveness of strobe lights, an...Effectiveness of LED-Enhanced Signs in Reducing Incidents of Vehicles Stopping on Tracks
The U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe National Transportation Systems Center conducted a study of the effectiveness of LED-enhanced R8-8 signs in reducing incidents of vehicles stopping on the tracks. The researchers captured video at the Brighton Street crossing in Belmont, MA before and...