Video Studies of Flexible Traffic Separators at Highway-

Railroad Grade Crossings

Florida Department of Transportation

Rail Office

Project Motivation To enhance highway-railroad grade

crossing safety by discouraging motorists from driving around gates to enter the crossing area

Project Tasks Install traffic separator devices at

three highway-railroad grade crossing sites in central Florida.

Perform a field evaluation of their operation

QWIK KURB ® Traffic SeparatorsA series of Type 3 object markers fastened to the roadway surface

CSX – Park Road (Hillsborough County

CSX-US 98 (Polk County)

CSX – Alt 17 (Polk County)

Study Methodology Time lapse video 24 hours per

tape 12V battery

power Tapes viewed by

observers to identify violations

Cabinet

Conduit

Telescoping Mast

Camera

Videotapes ObtainedSite Before After

Park Rd 41 days 20 daysUS 98 31 days 22 daysAlt 27 33 days 26 days

More than 4000 hours observed

Study Schedule DetailPark Road US 98 SR 17

Before After Before After Before After

Sampling Interval 2/07/023/20/02

4/16/025/08/02

5/15/026/16/02

6/28/027/21/02

5/14/026/17/02

6/27/027/21/02

Trains (weekday) 7.9 10.5 15.2 12.2 15.5 15.1

Trains (weekend) 19.4 21.1 12.9 13.3 12.5 14.0

Total vehicles 2562 1887 614 324 461 293

Gate activations 657 410 450 328 540 403

Total trains 649 410 450 327 482 383

QWICK KURB® installation

04/16/02 06/27/02 06/27/02

Results …

Drive-around ViolationsSite Before After

Park Rd (NB) 2 0US 98 6 1Alt 27 17 0Total 25 1

Anecdotal Observations:1. Truck InteractionsA truck pushed the gate into

the path of a train at nightA gate closed on top of a truckA truck blocked the crossing

forcing (slow) train to stop

Anecdotal Observations:2. Damage to Traffic Separator Several pieces of the separator

were removed by a vehicle (outside of camera view) at the US 98 site

This site has a roadway width < 11 feet

Anecdotal Observations:2. Damage to Traffic Separator

Anecdotal Observations:3. Bicycle/ Pedestrian Violations3 bicycle violations at Park

Road1 Pedestrian violation at US

98 and at Alt 17All were before separator

installation

Anecdotal Observations:4. Platoon Violation

Seven vehicles drove around the gate in one platoon at US 98

Anecdotal Observations:5. Pedestrian Trespass Fatality

A pedestrian was observed entering the track area and later reported killed.

Anecdotal Observations:6. Switching delays at Park RoadFrequent switching operations

caused long crossing closuresSlow trains occasionally

entered the crossing before the gates had fully descended

Anecdotal Observations:7. Gate violation after separators were installed

One vehicle drove around the separators and bypassed a queue of waiting vehicles The gates were down for 7 minutes before the train arrived

Anecdotal Observations:7. Gate violation after separators were installed

Conclusions …

Effectiveness of the SeparatorsThe reduction of drive-around violations from 25 to 1 suggests that the traffic separators were effective in discouraging motorists from driving around the gates

Overall Violation RatesOverall violation rates without separators at the study sites were lower than typically reported in the literature

Park Road Configuration The extremely low violation rates

were probably the result of a configuration that discouraged violations.

Since these same conditions would make violations more hazardous than normal, the separators could improve safety at this site even with a low violation rate.

Effect of Roadway Width Roadways narrower than 11 feet may

not be amenable to this treatment.

Future Implementation Each potential site should be

investigated using the general methodology of this study to determine whether or not separators are justified.

It should not normally be necessary to conduct follow up evaluation studies at future sites.