Although accident frequencies at railway grade crossings have shown a decreasing trend over the last two decades (partly due to implemented safety improvements and technological advances), safety at grade crossings is still a major concern since crossing accidents are usually associated with devastating consequences. This paper investigates the effect of various site attributes on railway crossing safety outcomes using recent Canada wide data from a 6-year period (2008–2013). The new data sets allow adjusting previous accident models according to latest circumstances (e.g., vehicles’ improved safety features) affecting safety dynamics at crossings. Employing Bayesian hierarchical models including the non-conventional Poisson-Weibull model, different safety performance functions were separately developed for crossings with the following major warning systems: (1) flashing light and bell (FLB), (2) flashing light, bell, and gate (FLBG), (3) standard reflectorized crossing sign (SRCS), and (4) standard reflectorized crossing sign and stop sign (SRCS & STOP). Among other findings, the results indicated that traffic exposure (product of train and vehicle), number of lanes, whistle prohibition, train speed, and road speed were the most important factors affecting accident frequencies at Canadian railway crossings. It should be also noted that safety performance functions vary, in terms of independent variables and their associated coefficients, between the aforementioned warning devices.
Skip Nav Destination
2015 Joint Rail Conference
March 23–26, 2015
San Jose, California, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Rail Transportation Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-5645-1
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Developing Safety Performance Functions for Railway Grade Crossings: A Case Study of Canada
Shahram Heydari,
Shahram Heydari
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Liping Fu
Liping Fu
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Shahram Heydari
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Liping Fu
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Paper No:
JRC2015-5768, V001T06A017; 7 pages
Published Online:
June 10, 2015
Citation
Heydari, S, & Fu, L. "Developing Safety Performance Functions for Railway Grade Crossings: A Case Study of Canada." Proceedings of the 2015 Joint Rail Conference. 2015 Joint Rail Conference. San Jose, California, USA. March 23–26, 2015. V001T06A017. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2015-5768
Download citation file:
20
Views
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Articles
Right On Track
Mechanical Engineering (June,2007)
The Motor Truck and L.C.L. Freight
Trans. ASME (January,1928)
A Computationally Efficient Approach to Resolving Vehicle-Induced Turbulence for Near-Road Air Quality
J. Eng. Sustain. Bldgs. Cities (August,2022)
Related Chapters
Safety
Engineering the Everyday and the Extraordinary: Milestones in Innovation
Application of Probabilistic Methods for the Evaluation of Deterministic Deviations from Technical Specifications (PSAM-0277)
Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment & Management (PSAM)
Insights and Results of the Shutdown PSA for a German SWR 69 Type Reactor (PSAM-0028)
Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment & Management (PSAM)