Benefit-cost Methodology for Highway-railway Grade Crossing Safety Protocols as Applied to Transportation Infrastructure Project Prioritization Processes

Rezvani, Ali Z; Peach, Matthew; Thomas, Andrew; Cruz, Ricardo; Kemmsies, Walter

doi:10.1016/j.trpro.2015.06.045

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…For example, Volmer et al (2006) applied benefit-cost ratio for project selection to improve the safety of grade crossings in Iowa. Similarly, Rezvani et al (2015) employed a benefit-cost approach to determine if a proposed treatment option is justifiable for the safety improvement of a given grade crossing considering all public grade crossings across North Carolina. A similar approach was considered by Cooper et al (2007) for safety improvement of grade crossings in California.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, one needs to assess both the safety effect and the costs while selecting a countermeasure. At an individual project level, a simple cost-benefit analysis could be helpful to select the appropriate treatment option (Volmer et al 2006;Cooper et al 2007;Rezvani et al 2015;Fu et al 2016). However, when it comes to allocating resources by a federal government at its regional network level, a holistic approach considering the overall benefits is required.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A resource optimization framework for improving railway-highway grade crossing safety in Canada

Thakali

Heydari

2021

Can. J. Civ. Eng.

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This paper presents a new approach to address the problem of allocating federal resources and identifying upgrading projects for improving the safety of at-grade crossings in Canada. The proposed approach is unique in two key aspects. First, a risk-based network screening process is adopted to identify the priority sites for providing a justifiable basis for distributing the total budget at a regional level as well as narrowing the search space in the subject optimization step. Secondly, a mathematical programming approach is applied to formalize the resource allocation process with explicit consideration of the expected benefits - risk reduction and the costs of implementing the projects. This approach is expected to improve the process of identifying the optimal set of upgrading projects within each region, thus maximizing the return of investment. A full-scale case study from the Canadian crossing network is conducted to demonstrate the application of the proposed approach.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A resource optimization framework for improving railway-highway grade crossing safety in Canada

Thakali

Heydari

2021

Can. J. Civ. Eng.

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“…The computational experiments demonstrated that the proposed mathematical modeling approach was more accurate than the developed sorting heuristics. Rezvani et al [38] proposed a benefit-cost methodology for highway-rail grade crossing safety protocols to be utilized for prioritization of safety improvement projects. The proposed methodology included five major steps: (1) measuring the accident cost; (2) cost-based screening; (3) benefit-cost analysis; (4) project prioritization; and (5) funding.…”

Section: Resource Allocation Studies For Highway-rail Grade Crossingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Algorithms for Effective Resource Allocation among Highway–Rail Grade Crossings: A Case Study for the State of Florida

et al. 2020

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Smart cities directly rely on a variety of elements, including water, gas, electricity, buildings, services, transportation networks, and others. Lack of properly designed transportation networks may cause different economic and safety concerns. Highway-rail grade crossings are known to be a hazardous point in the transportation network, considering a remarkable number of accidents recorded annually between highway users and trains, and even solely between highway users at highway-rail grade crossings. Hence, safety improvement at highway-rail grade crossings is a challenging issue for smart city authorities, given limitations in monetary resources. In this study, two optimization models are developed for resource allocation among highway-rail grade crossings to minimize the overall hazard and the overall hazard severity, taking into account the available budget limitations. The optimization models are solved by CPLEX to the global optimality. Moreover, some heuristic algorithms are proposed as well. A case study focusing on the public highway-rail grade crossings in the State of Florida is performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed optimization models and the solution methodologies. In terms of the computational time, all the solution approaches are found to be effective decision support tools from the practical standpoint. Moreover, the results demonstrate that some of the developed heuristic algorithms can provide near-optimal solutions. Therefore, the smart city authorities can utilize the proposed heuristics as decision support tools for effective resource allocation among highway-rail grade crossings.

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“…Light rail systems can be integrated into a variety of land use environments, ranging from suburban to high-density central business district (CBD) areas, and can run on a variety of right-of-way styles [9][10][11]. Policymakers should justify the costs and benefits of a crossing safety improvement project to compile information for communicating with the public and government agencies [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Priority given to LRV will also cause additional delays and if delays are unacceptable, transport and traffic management strategies are required to improve the traffic situation and pedestrian crossings with an acceptable threshold [13][14][15]. Policymakers should justify the costs and benefits of a crossing safety improvement project to compile information for communicating with the public and government agencies [12]. e disparity between the minimum travel time and the real travel time, or the difference between the planned and actual travel time, is the basic definition of delay.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microscopic Traffic Characterization of Light Rail Transit Systems at Level Crossings

Desta

Tesfaye

Tóth

2021

Advances in Civil Engineering

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The movement of the light rail vehicles (LRVs) is highly interrupted at level crossings during peak hour times, especially when the intersections are not regulated by a coordinated signal system. Traffic modelling ensures better understanding and interpretation of complex traffic interactions. This study is aimed at modelling light rail transit (LRT) system operational characteristics at level crossings in Addis Ababa City using VISSIM software. The studied scenarios at Sebategna (All Way Stop Controlled, AWSC) and CMC (Roundabout) level crossings are the baseline without LRT scenario, the actual scenario with collected LRV headways, twice arrival frequency scenario, signalized actual LRV arrival, and signalized twice actual LRV arrival. The relative comparisons among the tested scenarios depicted that significant travel time savings can be achieved in some approaches if more green time is offered to nonconflicting phases during a light rail crossing. Overall, the average additional delays at level crossings increase from the base scenario with increasing light rail crossing frequencies, and delay at the level crossing is the second important variable that contributes to the variability of train travel time at peak hours. If it is a must for an intersection to have a rail road to pass through the median, different options should be verified based on the trade-off between the operational cost of the level crossing and the cost incurred if it is grade separated.

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Benefit-cost Methodology for Highway-railway Grade Crossing Safety Protocols as Applied to Transportation Infrastructure Project Prioritization Processes

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

A resource optimization framework for improving railway-highway grade crossing safety in Canada

A resource optimization framework for improving railway-highway grade crossing safety in Canada

Development of Algorithms for Effective Resource Allocation among Highway–Rail Grade Crossings: A Case Study for the State of Florida

Microscopic Traffic Characterization of Light Rail Transit Systems at Level Crossings

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