Street-running rail transit systems were much more common in the early 20th century, but modern light rail and streetcar systems have reintroduced the challenge of inserting rail vehicles into the urban environment along with cars, buses, trucks, and pedestrians. How can all of the issues be mitigated? Houston METRORail has tried various engineering and operations changes to help reduce near misses and accidents: defensive driving training for operators; backplates, in-pavement lighting, and other traffic changes at intersections; working with the City Department of Public Works and Engineering on signage, striping, and traffic patterns; and partnering with stakeholders in creating safer environments for rubber-tired vehicles and pedestrians. Consideration must also be given for construction sites, special events, and track worker safety while workers are performing maintenance in a public right-of-way. Some changes were even implemented and removed before revenue service when they did not have the expected effect. Interurbans and streetcars of yesteryear had to deal with mixed-use environments operating in city streets and with the growth of the communities they served. In many cases, this problem along with declining ridership caused by competition from bus lines was the impetus for closing several of these rail systems. Some of the first modern light rail systems built in the early 1980s and1990s—such as in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Dallas, Texas— were designed to use former railroad rights-of-way or parallel existing railroads along with street running in the downtown area that made them look similar to an interurban of the early 20th century. In the past decade, many more street-running systems have come online and have had to deal with urban traffic and growth rather than corridors governed by the Federal Railroad Administration. This has led to a new set of hazards that an urban rail system must deal with— specifically, how to mitigate closer interactions with rubber-tired vehicles. Trying to install a rail system in an urban environment today requires an understanding of not only rail operations but also highway construction, the standards of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) (1), and a working relationship with city public works or roads departments to institute improvements.
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