Applying Ecological Interface Design principles to the design of rural highway-rail grade crossing infrastructure

摘要

Countries such as Australia and USA have many rail level crossings (a.k.a. highway-rail grade crossings)with limited protection (e.g., static signs only or flashing lights but no physical barriers). Lower cost designsolutions are required as upgrading crossings using current infrastructure treatments is cost-prohibitive.Here we applied Ecological Interface Design (EID) principles to develop a novel rail level crossing designfor high-speed rural roads, and then evaluated the design via two driving simulator studies. Experiment 1provided an initial concept evaluation of the crossing, then Experiment 2 evaluated the crossing in safetycriticalsituations, including when a distractor was present and when crossing infrastructure was damagedthrough vandalism. Driving performance, subjective workload, and usability were compared againstexisting rural crossing designs. Findings suggest the EID crossing provides a feasible alternative to existingdesigns, with the potential to encourage safer decision-making by road users and thus reduce collisions.