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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Effect of Photo Enforcement-Based Education on Vehicle Driver Behavior at a Highway-Rail Grade Crossing

Document Series:
Technical Reports
Author:
  • Federal Railroad Administration
Report Number
DOT/FRA/ORD-19/17
Office
RDI-23
Subject:
Grade Crossing and Trespass Outreach/EducationHighway-Rail Grade Crossings
Keywords:
FRA, highway railroad grade crossing, railroads, photo enforcement, rail education

The Volpe Center was tasked by FRA’s Office of Research, Development and Technology with evaluating the effectiveness of the use of photo enforcement for driver education at the East Princeton Street grade crossing in Orlando, FL (Crossing ID 622173H). The goal of the photo enforcement-based driver education program is to reduce the number of vehicles that commit grade crossing warning devices violations, thus reducing the possibility of getting struck by an oncoming train. A before-and-after design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the photo enforcement program on drivers’ compliance of the grade crossing warning devices. Grade crossing warning device violations were collected for 14 continuous days before the implementation of the photo enforcement program from April 14, 2016 to April 27, 2016. The signage and photo enforcement system were installed on August 8, 2016, and the city of Orlando started issuing violation notices on August 11, 2016. Eight months after the implementation of the photo enforcement system, grade crossing warning device violations were then again collected for 14 continuous days from April 13, 2017 to April 26, 2017. The average hourly rate of violations per activation decreased from 6.0296 before to 5.1004, resulting in a 15.4 percent reduction, after the photo enforcement program was implemented.


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Last updated: Tuesday, June 11, 2019