Study on Safety of Railway/Highway Grade Crossings in the Philippines

Abstract

This study aims to determine the crossing characteristics that contribute to accidents and propose mitigating procedures. Each railway/highway grade crossing was evaluated based on their existing characteristics namely: type of crossing, type of barrier, warning device, and the volume of traffic using the highway. Using hazard indices, each characteristic was evaluated individually. Two-way crossing has higher hazard index compared to one-way crossing, half barriers also exhibited higher hazard compared to full barriers. In the case of warning device, crossings with two different sets of warning device on each direction have exhibited the highest hazard index and 30-40 thousand for the vehicle traffic volume. Using chi-squared test, two combinations of characteristics passed the test, namely: the daily traffic volume versus barrier type and alarm device type versus crossing type. An assessment of all the characteristics for specific crossings was also made to evaluate the hazard index of a specific level crossing.