Video Studies of Flexible Traffic Separators at Highway-
Railroad Grade Crossings
Florida Department of Transportation
Rail Office
Project Motivation To enhance highway-railroad grade
crossing safety by discouraging motorists from driving around gates to enter the crossing area
Project Tasks Install traffic separator devices at
three highway-railroad grade crossing sites in central Florida.
Perform a field evaluation of their operation
QWIK KURB ® Traffic SeparatorsA series of Type 3 object markers fastened to the roadway surface
CSX – Park Road (Hillsborough County
CSX-US 98 (Polk County)
CSX – Alt 17 (Polk County)
Study Methodology Time lapse video 24 hours per
tape 12V battery
power Tapes viewed by
observers to identify violations
Cabinet
Conduit
Telescoping Mast
Camera
Videotapes ObtainedSite Before After
Park Rd 41 days 20 daysUS 98 31 days 22 daysAlt 27 33 days 26 days
More than 4000 hours observed
Study Schedule DetailPark Road US 98 SR 17
Before After Before After Before After
Sampling Interval 2/07/023/20/02
4/16/025/08/02
5/15/026/16/02
6/28/027/21/02
5/14/026/17/02
6/27/027/21/02
Trains (weekday) 7.9 10.5 15.2 12.2 15.5 15.1
Trains (weekend) 19.4 21.1 12.9 13.3 12.5 14.0
Total vehicles 2562 1887 614 324 461 293
Gate activations 657 410 450 328 540 403
Total trains 649 410 450 327 482 383
QWICK KURB® installation
04/16/02 06/27/02 06/27/02
Results …
Drive-around ViolationsSite Before After
Park Rd (NB) 2 0US 98 6 1Alt 27 17 0Total 25 1
Anecdotal Observations:1. Truck InteractionsA truck pushed the gate into
the path of a train at nightA gate closed on top of a truckA truck blocked the crossing
forcing (slow) train to stop
Anecdotal Observations:2. Damage to Traffic Separator Several pieces of the separator
were removed by a vehicle (outside of camera view) at the US 98 site
This site has a roadway width < 11 feet
Anecdotal Observations:2. Damage to Traffic Separator
Anecdotal Observations:3. Bicycle/ Pedestrian Violations3 bicycle violations at Park
Road1 Pedestrian violation at US
98 and at Alt 17All were before separator
installation
Anecdotal Observations:4. Platoon Violation
Seven vehicles drove around the gate in one platoon at US 98
Anecdotal Observations:5. Pedestrian Trespass Fatality
A pedestrian was observed entering the track area and later reported killed.
Anecdotal Observations:6. Switching delays at Park RoadFrequent switching operations
caused long crossing closuresSlow trains occasionally
entered the crossing before the gates had fully descended
Anecdotal Observations:7. Gate violation after separators were installed
One vehicle drove around the separators and bypassed a queue of waiting vehicles The gates were down for 7 minutes before the train arrived
Anecdotal Observations:7. Gate violation after separators were installed
Conclusions …
Effectiveness of the SeparatorsThe reduction of drive-around violations from 25 to 1 suggests that the traffic separators were effective in discouraging motorists from driving around the gates
Overall Violation RatesOverall violation rates without separators at the study sites were lower than typically reported in the literature
Park Road Configuration The extremely low violation rates
were probably the result of a configuration that discouraged violations.
Since these same conditions would make violations more hazardous than normal, the separators could improve safety at this site even with a low violation rate.
Effect of Roadway Width Roadways narrower than 11 feet may
not be amenable to this treatment.
Future Implementation Each potential site should be
investigated using the general methodology of this study to determine whether or not separators are justified.
It should not normally be necessary to conduct follow up evaluation studies at future sites.