Author: Ardeshir Faghri, Sriram Panchanathan

Date of Publication:  1999

Sponsoring Agency:  U.S. Transportation Research Board, Committee on Railroad/Highway Grade Crossings

Report No:

Abstract:

The application of geographic information systems (GIS) is especially relevant to transportation-related fields because of the spatially distributed nature of transportation-related data. The application of GIS to the management of transportation data can result in reduced costs and time savings. The development of a GIS application for management of safety-related data for public at-grade rail-highway crossings in the state of Delaware is discussed. The objective was to develop a GIS application that would enable better management of safety-related data for rail-highway grade crossings by integrating data from various sources and referencing data to their actual spatial location on the base map. The GIS application enables analysis and interpretation capabilities such as visual access and display, spatial analysis, query, thematic mapping and classification, and statistical and network-level analysis. The work was a continuation of an ongoing project that resulted in the integration of rail-highway grade crossing safety data from various sources, such as the Federal Railroad Administration and the Delaware Department of Transportation into a data base management system and the selection and implementation of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) accident prediction model into the system. The development of the rail-highway grade crossing safety GIS application is described and the creation of the spatial base map; conversion of existing rail-highway crossings attribute data into a GIS acceptable format; the interface with the USDOT model; and the prioritization, query, manipulation, analysis and editing features of the GIS application are presented.
 

No. of Pages:  10