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Railroad Crossing Violation Warning (RCVW) Application Demonstrations with Connected Vehicles: Topics
RCVW Project Overview
Welcome to the Railroad Crossing Vehicle Warning (RCVW) Application Demonstration learning center. The content on these pages will help you learn about this project and its role in finding ways to reduce injuries and fatalities at highway-rail grade crossings. The project is sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and implemented by Michigan Technological University's Rail Program and Battelle.This is the RCVW Overview learning module. The RCVW Technical learning module explains technical details and provides additional video content to explain the RCVW system in more detail. Additional information is posted on the FRA Research, Development and Technology pages [RCVW content at FRA was not yet published as of 20 May 2024].
About the RCVW Project
Highway-Rail Grade Crossing (HRGC) incidents continue to represent a significant safety concern for the transportation industry. Drivers often commit judgment errors and are susceptible to distraction. Connected vehicle (CV) technologies represent a potentially viable, widely applicable, and readily implementable approach to warning highway drivers of a predicted collision with an approaching train (Figure 1). The Rail Crossing Violation Warning (RCVW) system leverages CV technologies to realize safety improvements at highway-rail grade crossings. The Rail Crossing Violation Warning (RCVW) System flyerprovides basic information on the system.
Figure 1. Communication channels of connected vehicles (CV) near HRGCs
Contents and Learning Objectives
This course contains core information about the challenges at HRGCs and the reasoning for development of safety systems that take advantage of CV technologies, such as RCVW.Explore additional information about RCVW by following the links below or selecting the tabs at the top of this or any other of the tabbed pages. You can also advance through to the next or previous page by following the links at the bottom left and right of each page.
Learning objectives:
The Problem that RCVW Could Help Mitigate
Highway-rail grade crossings (HRGC) are places where road users such as passenger vehicles, trucks, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians are intended to safely cross railroads. The potential for conflict between trains and roadway users is inherent at HRGCs. The high mass of trains and the inherent design of railroads can lead to situations where trains cannot stop quickly enough to avoid road vehicles, so the burden of crash avoidance is placed on the roadway users. To help reduce crashes, roadway users are warned about the potential for train presence at an HRGC with passive signing and marking and with likely train presence at a crossing with active signals and barriers.
Figure 1: A passenger vehicle has struck a train at an HRGC with a lighted signal. Systems such as RCVW could help warn drivers about approaching or present trains at HRGCs. [Source: https://www.14news.com/2018/09/06/no-one-seriously-hurt-after-car-crashes-into-side-train-dubois-co/]
Why Technologies Like RCVW are Needed
An urgent need exists for additional protections for vehicle drivers traversing HRGCs beyond traditional active warning devices. While active warning devices such as flashing lights, bells, and gates are effective at decreasing risk, HRGCs equipped with these devices today account for more than 50% of all crashes in the USA (Table 6 below). The statistics also show that the top causes attributed to HRGC crashes are distracted drivers and driver judgement errors. These facts suggest that better information and guidance to drivers that encourages safe driving behaviors is warranted, which is a goal of RCVW.
https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/fra_net/18882/Updated%20Crash%20Taxonomy_rev.pdf
Opportunities to Improve Railroad and Road Safety
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is committed to the research and development of innovative technologies intended on making travel safer. Specifically, the connected vehicle (CV) initiative seeks to foster applications that rely on the exchange of safety critical information from vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and between vehicle and infrastructure (V2I) systems. Beginning in 2015, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and its subcontractors have been effective in producing a CV prototype called the Rail-Crossing Violation Warning (RCVW), which is designed to notify approaching drivers of an active rail crossing and warn them of a predicted violation of active safety devices. The early development of the system has been documented first in the Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Rail Crossing Violation Warning report and the latest development in the Rail Crossing Violation Warning Application - Phase II report.
This project continues the work from earlier phases, but concentrates on education and demonstration of the technology through various example scenarios and applications. The video below provides a general overview highlighting the problem and explaining the RCVW as a proof-of-concept solution.
Video caption: Railroad Crossing Violation Warning system testing in an outdoor, full-scale laboratory environment.
What Can Be Done In-Vehicle
Traffic safety data show increasing deaths and injuries related to distractions. In-vehicle warnings may be more effective than external warnings because they can be more familiar to the driver, more situationally relevant, and customizable. There is a growing body or research that has investigated the effectiveness of such systems. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA) has also stated that Driver assistance technologies hold the potential to reduce traffic crashes and save thousands of lives each year.
Video below provides a brief example of the RCVW in operation as part of one of the field demonstrations in the project.
Video caption: A researcher explains the RCVW interface and prompts on a closed course demonstration.
Differences Between Current and RCVW Crossings
Highway Rail Grade Crossings (HRGC) are locations where a highway intersects with a railroad at-grade. They are also called level crossings in other countries such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Grade crossing warnings systems help warn drivers about the presence of a crossing and potential for a train/roadway vehicle conflict. Crossing warnings systems are of two general types, active and passive. Active crossing warning systems use devices such as bells, lights, and gates to warn drivers about a potential conflict with a train by interacting with railroad signaling systems. Passive crossings are only marked with static signs, pavement markings, and other features that warn about the presence of a grade crossing.
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| The traditional active highway-rail grade crossing warning system with flashing lights and a gate blocking road is shown on the left. The warning system is outside the vehicle and only reacts to the messages from electric track circuits that sense the presence of trains approaching the crossing. The driver must recognize the warning by seeing and hearing the external visual and audible signals. | The RCVW utilizes driver visual interface (DVI) to provide warnings to the driver inside the vehicle. The RCVW system is activated by the traditional warning system that normally activates external signals such as gates and lights, and the RCVW system generates a message displayed on the in-vehicle display to warn of a potential conflict if the vehicle is on a converging path with the active crossing. The driver is alerted with audible and visual signals in the vehicle's cab. |
Roles CV Technology Can Play
CV technologies can serve many other purposes for traffic safety, congestion management, road condition reporting, and other purposes for overall transportation safety and performance improvements. More information on USDOT work related to connected vehicles can be found at "How Connected Vehicles Work" and USDOT Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program web sites. An overview video by the USDOT to connected vehicles is provided below.
RCVW is just one example of what can be done with CV technology to improve safety at active crossings by connecting in-vehicle warning systems to active warning systems at grade crossings.
RCVW as Connected Vehicle Demonstration
RCVW is intended to help provide a better understanding of how CV technologies can be used in the railroad/roadway interface. It is not intended to control railroad traffic or warn railroad operators about roadway or road-user conditions. RCVW can only communicate between equipped vehicles and equipped active warning devices at the grade crossing. RCVW does not currently communicate directly with trains.
 Figure 1: Schematic describing how RCVW is activated by an approaching train. | RCVW uses off-the-shelf equipment and open-source software to monitor crossing warning signal status and transmit information to an in-vehicle receiver via radio communications. This additional hardware can be configured for use at many types of active crossings and installed in typical passenger vehicles with no modifications to the crossing or vehicle. Future prototyping or testing could be more fully integrated into vehicle or crossing systems. |
Because the system depends on crossing warnings activated by existing railroad signaling, it is currently non-operable at HRGCs with passive warnings only. The RCVW receives no information about a train’s position, but rather senses, if the warning devices at the crossing are activated or not and uses vehicle location and trajectory to provide appropriate alerts/warnings, as necessary. Theoretically, this warning mechanism could be replaced in the future with direct train/vehicle communication. However, communication reliability of CV radios, over the distances required for vehicle-train collision warning, has been shown to be questionable.
Advantages of RCVW
Connected vehicle systems that provide drivers with dashboard visual and in-vehicle audible warnings and advisories can contribute to improved situational awareness. These systems are effective because they may overcome other distractions and provide relevant information when needed and customize the messages to a changing situation. For example, the RCVW provides different messages depending on the roadway user’s location, direction, and speed relative to active crossing warnings as well as providing specific warnings when a vehicle is stopped on the tracks.By providing warnings and advisories only when the vehicle is likely to conflict with trains reduces information overload and desensitizing to repeated irrelevant warnings. Screen Captures below show some of the various messages provided by the RCVW.
Figure 1: Display showing active RCVW system with no warning
Figure 2: Display showing active RCVW warning on approach
Figure 3: Display showing active RCVW warning to leave tracks