Most of the rail-road crossings in Israel are at-grade. This results in vehicle delays, and presents a threat to both road and to railway safety. Owing to railway expansion and permanent of road traffic growth, the problem has become palpable lately. The known mean for the problem alleviation is a grade-separation for those crossings whose functioning causes the highest economic losses. When building the crossings' ranking from the standpoint of necessity in grade-separation, an economic estimation of their safety must be implemented. However, there were not sufficient data available for building a reliable accident prediction model. Therefore, an indirect mode for the evaluation of safety has been applied. This approach includes: (1) the analysis of crossing engineering characteristics; (2) checking crossings by using models accepted in other countries; and (3) the economic evaluation using accident statistics for the entire road network. It has been discovered that both the probability of crossing accidents and their cost in Israel are comparable with estimates derived from other countries. For the most problematic Israeli at-grade crossings, not the safety component, but the cost of vehicle delays prevails in the total sum of economic losses stipulated by their functioning.
Abstract