As part of a large-scale project to improve the safety at railway level crossings in the Netherlands, a number of safety-improving measures has been implemented. Under commission of Railinfrabeheer B.V. a study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of these measures with respect to expected behaviour of road users. At 16 railway level crossings behavioural observations were conducted based on video-recordings on the spot in a before-and-after study. The video-recordings were analysed quantitatively by determining the speed of free-driving passenger cars and by conducting a time analysis of non-stopping/stopping behaviour of pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. The behavioural analyses also included the rating of conflicts between road users.The results show that the extension of a barrier at foot and/or bicycle paths improves the behaviour of pedestrians and bicyclist, but does not prevent the crossing of pedestrians that ignore the red light on purpose. Conspicuous marking of the cross section area reduces somewhat the chance on a queue at the railway level crossing, but much more effective is an active queue-warning system. Rumble strips don't give a speed-reducing effect, neither in built-up nor in rural areas. Speed humps reduce the speed of free-driving motorists drastically by about 9 to 15 km/h, but do not influence the number of red-runners. Within built-up areas (speed-limit 50 km/h), a solid white centre line to separate two-way traffic at the railway level crossing reduces the speed with about 2.5 km/h but does not prevent slalom manoeuvres or centre-line crossings. A physical median reduces the speed with about 2.5 km/h, and reduces the number of line crossings as well as the severity of bicycle-car overtaking conflicts. Removing slow traffic from the carriageway increases the speed of free-driving motorists with about 3 km/h. A barrier with a clearance area of 2 or 1.5 m at a flashing light railway level crossing improves the behaviour of road users during red. There is a slight preference for the short barrier with a clearance area of 2 m. The conclusion is that most measures implemented at railway level crossings improve the behaviour of road users. For some measures further improvements are recommended. Rumble strips nor solid white centre lines are effective in improving road users' behaviour and are therefore not recommended. The separation of slow and fast traffic is counterproductive for speed reduction at the railway level crossing. (A)
Abstract