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Accidents at grade crossings continue to be the leading cause of fatalities in the railroad industry. A large proportion of these accidents are the result of driver error. The purpose of this report is to review research that addresses driver behavior at grade crossings to better understand the...
We used signal detection theory to examine if grade crossing warning devices were effective because they increased drivers’ sensitivity to a train’s approach or because they encouraged drivers to stop. We estimated d' and β for eight warning devices using 2006 data from the Federal Railroad...
Researchers examined how the reliability of warning devices affected driver compliance with flashing lights and gates at grade crossings.
Between the years 1994 and 2003, incidents at highway-rail grade crossings declined by 41.2 percent. The reasons for this decline were unknown. The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center was tasked by the Federal Railroad Administration to identify the salient success factors in...
The purposes of the workshop were to provide up-to-date information and research reports from selected organizations, analyze a number of safety research topics by a selected group of delegates from all areas of technology and government organizations associated with the rail industry, and...
The purposes of the workshop were to provide up-to-date information and research reports from selected organizations, analyze a number of safety research topics by a selected group of delegates from all areas of technology and government organizations associated with the rail industry, and...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) tasked the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) to conduct a reliability analysis of the four-quadrant gate/vehicle detection equipment installed on the future high-speed rail (HSR) corridor between Chicago and St Louis. A...
This report assesses Phase IV of North Carolina's Sealed Corridor program, which closed or added warning devices to 44 private crossings from 1990 to 2008.
On July 14-16, 2009 the Volpe Center hosted the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Third Research Needs Workshop on Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety and Trespass Prevention (workshop). The primary purpose of this workshop was to bring...
This report provides a summary of the private highway-rail grade crossing safety inquiry conducted by the United States Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration and the Volpe Center. The safety inquiry consisted of a series of public meetings to solicit oral commentary on the...