Railroad Grade Crossing Passive Signing Study

Koziol, J. S.; Mengert, Peter · 1977 · ROSA P / United States. Federal Highway Administration

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This interim report details Phase I of a study evaluating the effectiveness of seven new passive signing configurations at railroad grade crossings compared to existing base signs. Researchers conducted field experiments at five sites in Ohio and one site in Maine, collecting data on driver head movement, speed profiles, and other behavioral metrics using manual observation and electronic sensors. The primary finding was that the new signs in Ohio resulted in a statistically significant 19 percent increase in driver head movement, indicating improved attention to potential hazards. However, no significant differences were observed in vehicle speed profiles among the sign configurations, and data from the Maine site were confounded by seasonal and weather effects. The study concluded that certain driver groups, such as females and those with passengers, exhibited safer behaviors, and recommended proceeding to Phase II to test the most promising signs nationally.

Key finding

New passive signing configurations in Ohio produced a statistically significant 19 percent increase in driver head movement compared to base signs, though they did not significantly alter vehicle speed profiles.

Methodology

field_study

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (7 acquisition events logged).

StageOutcomeToolModelPromptAttemptsCompleted
discover success rosap 2 2026-05-23
archive success 1 2026-05-23
extract skipped empty 4 2026-06-10
clean success 1 2026-06-01
chunk success 1 2026-06-01
embed success 1 2026-06-02
enrich success 1 2026-05-23
promote success 1 2026-05-23
summarize success llm qwen3.6-27b 3 2026-06-01
tag success vector_similarity 19 2026-06-11
verify success 1 2026-06-03

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-01; verification: verified.

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