TRB Offering Rail Crossing Safety Webinar
Next week's presentation (Sept. 16 at 2 p.m. Eastern) is free to Transportation Research Board sponsors.
A 90-minute webinar beginning at 2 p.m. EDT on Sept. 16 will help local planning officials acquaint themselves with best practices for increasing safety at highway-rail grade crossings. "Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety 101: A Primer on Grade Crossing Safety," will be moderated by Aemal Khattak, an associate professor of transportation engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Many local planners need information on this subject, according to the Transportation Research Board, which is presenting the webinar. Panelists are Jason Field of Moffatt & Nichol; Terry Byrne of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin; and Steve Laffey of the Illinois Commerce Commission. Cook County, Ill., the state's most populous because it includes Chicago, has 2,915 highway-rail crossings in all, which is 18 percent of all such crossings in the state. But from 2004 through 2009, 275 collisions between trains and motorists/pedestrians occurred at Cook County crossings, representing 29.1 percent of such collisions statewide, according to online ICC statistics.
Webinar participants must register at least 24 hours in advance. There is no fee for current chairs of TRB Standing Committees, Sections, or Groups, and the event also is free to employees of TRB sponsors. The cost is $99 per site for others. For more information, contact Reggie Gillum at [email protected] or 202-334-238.