Understanding why motorists do not comply with signals at active grade crossings will aid the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to develop safety improvements at highway-rail grade crossings. This research is focused on willful noncompliancewhen a motorist consciously and deliberately ignores activated warning signals and drives around the lowered gates. Previous research suggests that willful noncompliance is caused by the perception that the warning signal is unreliable. This perception may be the consequence of two different types of failures: a false activation, when a warning signal is activated but no train is at the crossing; or a miss, which is a failure of the warning signal to activate when a train approaches. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether motorists were able to detect changes in warning device reliability, and if so, what was the effect on their subsequent decisions. Signal detection theory was applied to describe the decisions made.


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    Title :

    Effects of Active Warning Reliability on Motorist Compliance at Highway-Railroad Grade Crossings. Research Results


    Publication date :

    2009


    Size :

    4 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





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