Los Angeles Metro Blue Line Control Room

• Photo enforcement
• Full closure/four quadrant gates
• Pedestrian gates
• Wayside horn
• Train-activated “second train” warning signs
• Communications-based warning device activation systems.

Photo enforcement at a Los Angeles County At-grade Crossing.

This article focuses on the several projects that involve the investigation and application of new technologies that have not been used to date at LRT grade crossings in North America.

As a member in the Engineering Management Consulting team (EMC) that serves as Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (LACMTA’s) general engineering consultant, PB is responsible for planning and designing the safety improvement projects, conducting tests and demonstration projects, and collecting data to evaluate test and demonstration results. The Board of Directors of LACMTA authorized funding for the Metro Blue Line Grade Crossing Safety Improvement Program in mid-1993.

Photo Enforcement Equipment

Starting in late 1992, the LACMTA project team carried out five demonstration projects involving photo enforcement equipment. Citations issued as part of three such projects showed large reductions in the number of grade crossing violations after photo enforcement equipment was installed. For example, at the Compton Boulevard crossing, the rate of violations dropped from approximately one violation every hour to one violation every 12 hours.

Based on the positive demonstration results, LACMTA elected to install photo enforcement equipment at 17 crossings. LACMTA also initiated modifications to the California Vehicle Code under State Senate Bill 1802, which makes citations for violations recorded by photo enforcement equipment subject to the same procedures as citations for other moving violations.

Photo enforcement cameras are currently operational at nine of the 17 crossings. In the first 12 months of operation, nearly 1,600 citations were issued for grade crossing violations. Plans call for cameras to be up and running at the remaining eight crossings by early 1997.

LACMTA’s project represents the first use of photo enforcement cameras at LRT grade crossings in North America. When camera equipment becomes operational at all 17 crossings, LACMTA’s photo enforcement system will become the largest in North America.

Photo enforcement has been used elsewhere in North America on a limited basis. For example:

• Jonesboro, Arkansas. In the early 1990s, the Burlington Northern Railroad installed video cameras for photo enforcement at a crossing.
• New York, New York. Currently the largest photo enforcement system in North America with cameras recording red light running violations at 15 intersections.

Full Closure or Four-Quadrant Crossing Gate System

This system, to be installed at the 124th Street crossing for a one-year trial beginning around mid-1997, incorporates:

• Exit gates that fail safe in the up position
• A track-area vehicle-detection system designed to hold the exit gates in the up position if a motorist is detected on the tracks as the crossing gates are descending.

Four-quadrant crossing gates are currently operational at six crossings in North America. LACMTA’s is the first such installation to incorporate a vehicle detection system and employ exit gates that fail safe in the up position.

We are developing an exit gate control system that detects vehicles in the crossing area and, by interrupting the gate down control circuit, causes the exit gates to be either held up so that vehicles are not trapped in the track area or returned to the up position if they have already started down.

The system is being implemented on an open architecture VME bus-based advanced transportation controller. A series of loop detectors will be installed in the track area to detect vehicle presence. The exit gates will be standard railroad equipment, modified to fail safe in the up position. The exit gates will be controlled by relay logic using standard railroad circuits.

The vehicle detection system will incorporate a unique design for the detection loops. A one-turn loop will be stacked on top of each vehicle detection loop in the same 13 cm- (5-inch-) deep saw cut to provide for periodic loop testing. When the circuit that includes the one-turn loop is closed, the inductance of the vehicle detection loop will drop so that a vehicle presence is recorded by the sensor unit, verifying that the loop circuit and sensor unit are functional.

Summer '89 - Transit System, Facilities and Railroads

Video Imaging Vehicle Detection System

This system is being tested at the 124th Street crossing, in conjunction with the trial installation of four quadrant crossing gates. The testing will evaluate the possible use of a vehicle detection system based on video image processing in place of inductive loops for track area vehicle detection. This project is being funded, in part, by the USDOT Highway-Rail Crossing Safety Action Plan.

Pedestrian Crossing Gates

Both railroad-style and self-closing swing gates are being installed at selected crossings. This project does not involve new technology, but in the western U.S. pedestrian crossing gates are in place at fewer than one dozen crossings.

Swing gates, which need to be pulled open to enter the track area and pushed open to exit from the track area, and which are self-closing by gravity, were installed in March 1995 on the east and west pedestrian crossings at the Imperial Station. To evaluate the effectiveness of the gates, before and after counts of risky crossings by pedestrians were made and 255 pedestrians who used the gates were surveyed. The survey results were highly positive. Nearly all of the respondents felt that the gates were easy to operate, made the crossing safer, were effective in keeping pedestrians from entering the tracks when trains were approaching, should be effective in cutting down accidents, and should be installed at all Metro Blue Line stations where pedestrians cross the tracks.

Wayside Horns

Tests have been completed on the use of a wayside or crossing horn as an alternative to sounding the train-mounted horns at crossings in residential areas. Extensive sound level measurements and community focus group evaluations were conducted at one of the Metro Blue Line crossings in March 1995. As part of this project, we also tested a train-to-wayside communications system that allows a train operator to activate the horn at a crossing by pressing the train horn button on the train console. Results confirmed the feasibility of the wayside horn concept and verified its potential for reducing community noise levels without affecting the warning provided by the train horn to motorists and pedestrians.

Train-Activated “Second Train” Warning Signs

The use of “Second Train” signs for both pedestrian and motorist traffic are being evaluated. A contributing factor for many, perhaps most, of the train/vehicle and train/ pedestrian accidents on the Metro Blue Line is the presence of a second train. This could be either a Southern Pacific freight train running on its track next to the LRT tracks or a second LRT train. The project is being funded by a Federal Transit Administration demonstration project grant.

Communications-Based Warning Device Activation Systems

Field tests of a wayside-mounted radar system and of an on-train global positioning system-based system interfaced with a wayside-mounted spread spectrum radio network will be done on the Metro Blue Line over the next two years. The systems being tested will provide advance train location data that can be used for improved grade crossing warning and protection systems. This project is funded, in part, under USDOT’s Highway-Rail Crossing Safety Action Plan.
New technologies are being increasingly applied in our transportation systems. The LACMTA has taken a leadership role in applying these technologies to improve public safety at highway-railroad grade crossings.