Citation

Russell ER. Transp. Res. Rec. 1981; 802: 80-85.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There are approximately 400,000 at-grade railroad-highway crossings in the United States; 219,000 are public at-grade crossings and roughly 166,440 of these have only crossbucks as warning devices. A conservative estimate is that it would cost more than $6 billion to install automatic warning devices at all these crossings, and the money is not available. Low-cost alternative solutions must be found to reduce the potential for death and destruction at these sites. A study now in progress is described that includes library and field research to determine and document the pros and cons of considering the closing of a railroad-highway grade crossing as a viable alternative when crossings and community needs are assessed. The main objective is a set of guidelines so that community impacts (benefits and disbenefits) can be assessed and form the basis on which community leaders, local highway authorities, and railroad personnel can negotiate. The benefits of closure are not one-sided: i.e., they are not all railroad-related. There can be many community benefits, which are enumerated and fully discussed.