| Title | Recognition of rail car retroreflective patterns for improving nighttime conspicuity |
|---|---|
| Record ID | 13017 |
| Personal Name Creator |
Multer, Jordan |
| Source | Safety of Highway-Railroad Grade Crossings series; Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Research series; 46p. in various pagings |
| Corporate Contributor |
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.) |
| Publisher | United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration |
| Publication Date | 20010700 |
| Language | English |
| Abstract | Every year in the United States, accidents at highway-railroad grade crossings take place where the motorist hits the side of the train at night. In a portion of these nighttime accidents, the motorist fails to see the train in the grade crossing. One proposed solution to prevent such accidents is to mount retroreflective material on the sides of rail cars to make them more conspicuous. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of several train-mounted reflector patterns to improve recognition of the train. Four patterns were evaluated in two experiments, using a human-in-the-loop driving simulator. In the first experiment, participants, located at a fixed position from a highway-railroad grade crossing and parallel roadway, viewed over a thousand scenes showing one of three items: a moving train, a moving motor vehicle, or nothing. The participants' recognition of different reflector patterns was recorded and analyzed using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) based on Signal Detection Theory (SDT). In the second experiment, participants drove the simulator and reported all objects on the roadway, some of which were trains. The recognition distance from the participants' position to the train was recorded and analyzed. |
| Rosap ID | dot:8443 |
| Rosap URL | https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/8443 |
| TRT Terms | Railroad safety; Railroad grade crossings; Railroads; Reflectorized materials; Freight cars; Visibility; Warning devices; Human factors; Night visibility |
| General Subjects | Conspicuity; Highway-railroad grade crossings |
| Classification | NTL - RAIL TRANSPORTATION - RAIL TRANSPORTATION; NTL - RAIL TRANSPORTATION - Rail Safety; NTL - RAIL TRANSPORTATION - Railroad Highway Grade Crossings; NTL - SAFETY AND SECURITY - Human Factors |
| Geographical Coverage |
United States |
| OCLC | 49048792 |
| TRIS Online Accession No |
962195 |
| Contract Number | R0068/RR097; R0107/RR004 |
| Report Number | DOT/FRA/ORD-00/07; DOT-VNTSC-FRA-99-5 |
| Availability | Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference Center |
| Resource type | Research Paper |
| URL | https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/13000/13000/13017/ord0007.pdf |
| Alternative URL | https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/33000/33600/33674/33674.pdf; https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/18000/18300/18312/PB2001107909.pdf; https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/33000/33600/33675/33675.pdf |
| Format | |
| Database | NTL Digital Repository |