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The use of light emitting diode (LED) warning signals in the railroad industry has increased due to recent technological improvements. LED signals have many potential benefits over traditional incandescent signals, including longer life, increased durability, and lower power consumption. Safety...
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, under the direction of the Federal Railroad Administration, conducted a 3-year demonstration of an automated prototype railroad infrastructure security system on a railroad bridge. Specifically, this commercial...
This document provides guidance recommendations and supporting material to assist designers and implementer s of intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications related to highway-rail intersections (HRI). The guidance focuses specifically on roadway user human factors requirements...
This report provides an update on the state-of-the-art technologies with intrusion and obstacle detection capabilities for rail rights of way (ROW) and crossings. A workshop entitled Intruder and Obstacle Detection Systems (IODS) for Railroads Requirements was held in 1998, and the Volpe...
This technical report documents the development of a set of human factors guidelines to aid designers and implementers of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) at highway-rail intersections (HRIs). The focus was specifically on roadway user human factors issues. In addition to providing...
Under sponsorship from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Research and Development, the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center performed an evaluation of the four-quadrant gate/obstruction detection system at the School Street crossing...
The Federal Railroad Administration is interested in understanding the effect of warning reliability on motorist compliance to warnings at active grade crossings. The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center conducted two studies to examine motorist behavior as a consequence of...
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...
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...
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...