Rail

Grade Crossing/Traffic Signal Optimization Study

We, Guoyuan
Li, Irene
Zhang, Wei-Bin
Johnston, Scott
Li, Meng
Zhou, Kun
2010

The second phase of this project further investigates impacts to local traffic operations at intersections adjacent to signal preemption by SPRINTER commuter trains and comes up with countermeasures that not only minimize such impacts but also take into account the traffic signal coordination. An extended traffic signal optimization model has been developed to minimize overall traffic delays and the weighted width of “green band” along several coordinated traffic signals around the grade crossings. Based on the train’s movement detection at grade crossings and the waiting queue estimation...

Light Rail System Safety Improvements Using ITS Technologies

Chira-chavala, Ted
Coifman, Ben
Empey, Dan
Hansen, Mark
Lechner, Ed
Porter, Chris
1997

This report describes research which studied identifying and analyzing the effectiveness of countermeasures designed to reduce light rail crashes. Focus is in collisions with road vehicles at intersections. The light rail system for the Santa Clara County Transportation Agency in California served as the focus of the study.

Development of Deployment Strategy for an Integrated BRT System

Miller, Mark A.
Tan, Chin-Woo
Golub, Aaron
Hickman, Mark
Lau, Peter
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2006

BRT mixes the flexibility of traditional bus transit service with an array of higher performance rail transit features. One of its advantages over rail, however, is its possibility for incremental and flexible deployment. With this flexibility and incremental nature comes a deployment process for BRT that is highly complex because numerous elements can be incorporated in any number of distinct phases. In almost all BRT deployments, ITS and advanced bus technologies have been applied to BRT, however, in less than a fully integrated manner. This project explores how deployment decisions can...

Evaluation of Feasibility of UAV Technologies for Remote Surveying BART Rail Systems

2018

Routine inspection and monitoring of railway tracks and facilities is an important task to ensure operational safety. The existing standard manual and rail vehicle based investigation are substantially time consuming and inaccurate. UAV-based autonomous monitoring and inspection technology has shown great potential in many fields and industries but it has been rarely explored in railway transit systems. UC Berkeley California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technologies   (PATH) in partnership with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) investigated  the application...

Analysis Toward Mitigation of Congestion and Conflicts at Light Rail Grade Crossings and Intersections

Li, Meng
Wu, Guoyuan
Johnston, Scott
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2009

Although many different railroad grade crossing control products are available, the most challenging limitation to traditional grade crossing systems is their inability to deliver consistent warning times in response to varying train speeds and station stops (particularly nearside stops). As a result, rail-roadway crossings often generate conflicts and congestion for motorist traffic and sometimes delay trains.By conducting system level analysis, this project will investigate the interactions and conflicts between urban/suburban rail and cross traffic. The information that is obtained will...

Evaluation of Truck and Bus Automation Scenarios: Operations Cost Analysis

Botha, Jan
Day, Jennifer E.
Adibhatla, Nagabhargavi
2004

Automated bus and truck systems hold the potential to improve road safety by eliminating some human error, increase the vehicle throughput by allowing vehicle convoying to shorten headways, and reduce costs associated with infrastructure, user time, and drivers. In this study, an automated bus system (ABUS) was compared with more-conventional light rail and bus-on-dedicated-lane (BDL) alternatives. A cost comparison (excluding accident costs) was also made among an automated freight trucking system (AHS-Truck), a no-build base condition, and configurations involving the addition of a...

Smart Parking Management Field Test: A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District Parking Demonstration

Shaheen, Susan A., PhD
Rodier, Caroline, PhD
2006

Smart parking management technologies may provide a cost-effective tool to address near-term parking constraints at transit stations. Smart parking management systems have been implemented in numerous European, British, and Japanese cities to more efficiently use parking capacity at transit stations by providing real-time information via changeable message signs to motorists about available parking spaces in park-and-ride lots. This working paper describes the interim results of a smart parking field operational test, which operated at a San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District...

Relieve Congestion and Conflicts Between Railroad and Light Rail Grade-Crossing Intersections

Zhang, Wei-Bin
Li, Meng
Wu, Guoyuan
Zhou, Kun
Bu, Fanping
2010

This report specifically summarizes the work that the PATH team has performed at this stage of Task Order 6407 in continuation of previous Task Order 5407. We have conducted an in-depth study of problems associated with grade crossingsfor this project.We started from the system design based on the proposed adaptive trolley signal priority (ATSP) system. The system is designed for large-scale field implementation of the ATSP system. It consists of three sub-systems: onboard sub-system, roadside control sub-system and central control sub-system. The system input and output diagram is based...

Smart Parking Pilot on the Coaster Commuter Rail Line in San Diego, California

Rodier, Caroline
Shaheen, Susan A.
Blake, Tagan
2010

Public transit authorities increasingly are harnessing advances in sensor, payment, and enforcement technologies to operate parking facilities more efficiently. In the short term, these innovations promise to enhance customer parking experiences, increase the effective supply of existing parking with minimal investment, and increase ridership and overall revenue. Over the longer term, these systems could further expand ridership by generating revenue to add parking capacity and improve access. This report describes the Smart Parking Pilot Project on the COASTER commuter rail line in San...

Median Light Rail Crossing: Accident Causation And Countermeasures

Coifman, Benjamin
Bertini, Robert L.
1997

This paper focuses on accident causation and countermeasures at arterial median light rail grade crossings. It synthesizes accident causation and prevention literature from several fields, including traffic engineering, human factors and cognitive psychology, as it relates to the complex LRT grade crossing.