Railroad-Highway Grade Crossings A Look Forward
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چکیده
The Committee on Railroad-Highway Grade Crossings is concerned with the safety and other affected characteristics (including economic considerations, traffic flow and delay, and countermeasures) of both highway and rail traffic at points where they intersect at grade, including the proximate surrounding environment and rail transit facilities. This is a white paper on the state of the art and the state of the practice on railroadhighway grade crossings with a look to the future. In order to look to the future and understand where we are today, it is important to recognize that grade crossing safety is and has been an evolutionary development of operating practices, laws, and institutional responsibilities. Then and now, their purpose is to make the interaction between trains and vehicles at grade crossings as safe as possible while acknowledging and minimizing adverse impacts to other characteristics. Engineering and operating practices from the highway and rail modes alone cannot achieve the level of safety desired. Education of the public and enforcement of laws to encourage desirable driver behavior are also major factors. Therefore, organizations such as Operation Lifesaver and law enforcement agencies have key roles today and in the foreseeable future. Because of length limitations, this white paper will not address pending federal or state legislation as it applies to this discussion. Passive traffic control devices provide static messages of warning, guidance, and in some instances, mandatory action for the driver. Active traffic control devices are those that give warning of the approach or presence of a train. They are activated by the passage of a train over a detection circuit in the track. Active control devices are supplemented with the same signs and pavement markings that are used for passive control.
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An Evaluation of Traffic Control Devices and Driver Distraction on Driver Behavior at Railway-highway Grade Crossings
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