Traffic Violations at Gated Highway-Railroad Grade Crossings (7-2987-1)

Senate Bill 1512, which was passed into law by the 74th State Legislature in 1995, required the Texas Department of Transportation to install and operate automated highway-railroad grade crossing enforcement systems as a demonstration project. Three sites with gate arms, relatively high traffic and train volumes, and a minimum number of accidents, were selected for the demonstration study. Additionally, a violation study was conducted at 16 additional gated crossings. The purpose of the violation study was to identify roadway geometric and operational characteristics that influence violations at gated highway-railroad grade crossings. The demonstration project resulted in no statistical differences between the violations during the before period compared to the after period. However, because the project was a short term demonstration project, public education of the automated enforcement systems and a fine for the violation were not included and, therefore, were not factors. The violation study revealed that on average, one violation occurs for each gate activation at a gated crossing, and one typically enforced violation occurs for every two gate activations. A typically enforced violation was defined as a violation occurring after the gate arms had been in motion for two seconds or when the arms were in the horizontal position and prior to the train arrival. Several models were developed to predict the expected number of violations at a gated highway-railroad grade crossing.