This paper was presented to the 14th Annual Conference of the Ergonomics Society of Australia and New Zealand, Adelaide, 1977. The behaviour of road traffic was studied at an "open" road-rail crossing, i.e. a crossing protected by a static array of signs and with no automatic device warning of an approaching train. The approach road was sealed, derestricted, and had a major restriction on visibility on the south-eastern quadrant of vision. For cars and car derivatives, mean speeds at the cross-bucks were essentially similar on days with trains compared with days without trains. The speed reduction in the final 150 metres before the crossing ranged from 7-8 km/h for west-bound traffic compared with 2-3 km/h for east-bound traffic. About one-third of drivers looked left and right to see if a train was coming; a similar proportion looked only to the right, and the remaining one-third did not look at all. This pattern was observed in east-bound and west-bound traffic. Those who looked left and right had lower speeds at the crossing (78 km/h west-bound, and 90 km/h east-bound). The pattern for commercial vehicles differed in that east-bound traffic travelled more slowly than west-bound, attributable to the gradient of the highway. Approach speeds were 77-78 km/h west bound and 71-73 km/h east bound. (Author/publisher).
Abstract