Safety measures at railway level crossings and road user behaviour

To improve the safety at railway level crossings in the Netherlands, a number of safety-improving measures has been implemented by ProRail. Among other things, the measures included the extension or addition of barriers at foot/bicycle paths, rumble strips or speed humps, overhead signals, active queue warning systems, the physical separation of two-way traffic, and separation of slow and fast road traffic at the railway level crossing. TNO Human Factors conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of these measures with respect to road users’ behaviour. At several railway level crossings video-observations were conducted in a before-and-after study design. Quantitative video-analyses included determining the speed of passenger cars, a time analysis of non-stopping/stopping behaviour of pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists, and rating of conflicts between road users.
Most measures as implemented at railway level crossings improve road user behaviour. For some measures further improvements are recommended. Rumble strips nor solid white centre lines are effective in improving road users’ behaviour and are therefore not recommended. Removing slow traffic from the carriageway increases the speed of free-driving motorists (a speed hump can counteract this effect) but decreases the number and severity of car-bicyclist conflicts and seems to be safety-effective. Speed humps are effective and should be placed at a distance of about 20m from the stop-line. Nearby road intersections need a minimum separation from railway level crossings (>12 m).