The objective was to develop a comprehensive methodology to assist in setting priorities for improvements to rail-highway grade crossings (rhgcs). The objectives of the methodology were as follows: tocompute all existing costs at a rhgc, changes in costs that would result from each of a number of improvements for that crossing, and costs of implementing those improvements; to select the set of projects that would maximize expected net benefits, subject to a budget constraint; and to be of practical instead of theoretical use to decision makers. The methodology developed and presented fulfills these objectives, subject to the constraints of existing data bases. Accident costs, delay costs, diversion costs, and costs of delay to emergency vehicles are considered, and up to five improvement projects percrossing are evaluated. The benefit and cost computations are made in a fortran computer program developed in the research. The methodology was applied succesfully to 1985 conditions at all rhgcs in a particular jurisdiction. The results of the application indicate that, for the same total budget, expected net benefits could have been approximately $7 million higher if the methodology's projects had beenimplemented. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1327, Visibility, rail-highway grade crossings, and highway improvement evaluation 1991
Abstract