Railway highway grade crossing safety has always been a concern in the United States. This report presents an overview of drivers’ behavior at different active and passive warning sign systems present at railroad-highway grade crossings. The report summarizes past studies on controversies over use of STOP sign at grade crossings, a history of guidelines over the years in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and problems associated with passive signs, including the STOP sign and YIELD sign at grade crossings. A field study is conducted on nine grade crossings with selected warning devices to determine driver stopping behavior with various warning devices at passive grade crossings during day and night. Statistical analysis and comparisons are done for stopping of school buses, heavy trucks and other vehicles, poor sight distance vs good sight distance approaches at grade crossings, and grade crossings with parallel highway vs grade crossings without parallel highway. After conducting the field study it was found that the majority of drivers did not stop at the STOP signs at the grade crossings. Results from the comparison between stopping behavior of school bus, heavy truck and other vehicles showed that heavy trucks had a poorer compliance percentage than all other vehicles (not including school buses). The number of school buses was too small to make any statistically reliable conclusion. Results from comparison between poor sight distance vs good sight distance approaches showed that a higher percentage of drivers actually stopped at poor sight distance approaches than good sight distance approaches. Comparison between grade crossings with parallel highway vs grade crossings without parallel highway showed that a higher percentage of drivers stopped at the grade crossings with no parallel highway than the grade crossings with parallel highway. Based on this limited study and review of previous studies the authors recommended that a STOP sign should not be used at grade crossings without a valid engineering study. (Author/publisher)
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