A trial with rumble strips as a means of alerting drivers to hazards at approaches to passively protected railway level crossings on high speed Western Australian rural roads.

A trial with rumble strips was conducted at 14 railway level crossings protected by passive signs, of which 11 crossings had give way signs and 3 crossings had stop signs. The crossings were located on high speed rural roads in regional Western Australia. One group of strips was installed at the crossings protected by give way signs and four groups of rumble strips were installed at the crossings protected by stop signs and changes in vehicle speeds were used to measure driver alertness. Two speed surveys were conducted, before and after the installation of the rumble strips. The study indicated that the strips had a significant effect on driver speed behaviours at the crossings with stop signs, while the effect was negligible at the crossings with give way signs. The effect was strongly associated with the number of groups of rumble strips installed on the pavement at the approach to the crossing. An increased number of rumble strips groups is recommended for the give way protected crossings similar to the stop sign protected crossings. The increase in the number of rumble strips groups is not expected to significantly reduce the vehicle travel speeds. The increase in driver alertness is expected to minimize possible hazards of conflicts between vehicles and trains at the crossings characterized by extremely low traffic and train volumes. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214057. Printed volume contains peer-reviewed papers. CD-ROM contains submitted papers.