The number of accidents at railroad crossings is particularly high at places where streets run parallel to the railroad tracks. Existing grade crossings were investigated for potential problems and studied for design solutions. The present study reports progress of the first phase of a NJ DOT sponsored project. A laboratory experiment was designed for evaluating various design ideas before they are implemented in the second phase field study. The laboratory study used images taken from actual scenes of railroad crossings in New Jersey, instead of graphical drawings commonly used in driving simulations. Possible design ideas were edited using image processing software. Those design ideas were saved in different layers for generating design combinations which were superimposed on the background images to create virtual railroad crossing scenes. Night-time images were also made possible by retouching the digital daytime images. Preliminary results of the in-lab experiment were presented. The experience learned from the current project indicates that use of actual images with superimposed design ideas is a cost-effective approach of evaluating and redesigning display layouts.
Samenvatting