Citation

Metaxatos P, Sriraj P, Soot S, DiJohn J. J. Transp. Res. Forum 2004; 43(2): 101-116.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Transportation Research Forum)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A nationwide study by the Federal Railroad Administration found that rail crossings with whistle bans averaged 84% more collisions than crossings that permit whistle blowing. The one exception to this finding was a six-county region in northeastern Illinois, where results indicated that collisions were 16% less frequent at crossings with whistle bans. This paper, motivated by these findings, examines the effect of whistle-blowing bans on accidents at gated rail-highway public crossings in the Chicago metropolitan region. The statistical analysis shows that it is misleading to unconditionally associate whistle bans with accident incidence and higher collision frequencies at rail-highway crossings while ignoring other factors or combinations of factors that are probably more relevant to the operational characteristics of the crossings. Interaction effects may even negate the effects of individual factors. Additional research is needed to investigate the effects of collision-specific environmental and human factors on the number of collisions at rail-highway crossings.