Socio-technical analysis of railway level crossing design for pedestrian use

Contemporary research acknowledges the negative contributions of human factors in rail accident statistics. A subset of that relates to the safety of pedestrians at level crossings. Traditionally, the improvement of new or existing pedestrian level crossings has been done based on different design solutions and operational techniques, the subsequent performance of which has then been confirmed or otherwise in post installation commissioning or subsequent operations. However, the focus of the evaluation often lacks any human factors design/engineering focus. There are human factors design issues as well as pedestrian errors and violations which need to be assessed to identify their associated risks, predict their likely outcomes and determine possible prevention measures to minimise their potential for harm. In this thesis, the modification of existing safety management systems by means of an application of three common economic techniques (risk cost- benefit analysis, return on investment and return on prevention investment) for four types of pedestrian railway crossings with the introduction of one human behaviour factor are described. Based on the results obtained from the investigation process with the developed methodology, the discussion has been performed and recommendations stated.