01479217

Component

Along with the expansion and addition of guideway transit systems, such as light rail and subway, there came the need to compare the safety performance of each mode. The comparison of safety performance by different modes is difficult due to lack of data, short operating history, or smaller operating scales besides the complexity of various technologies, operating characteristics, and diversified environments. In order to evaluate the potential for intermodal comparison of safety performance measures, the authors have focused on the subway and light rail transit (LRT) modes at the national aggregations. Starting with clear definitions of each safety category, the authors analyzed the safety data from the National Transit Database in recent years to estimate the impact and implications of various safety performance measures. A series of comparisons between LRT and subway in various fatality, injury and property damage categories demonstrated that accident rates may be unstable and easily distorted when the operational base is small. With increased operations, the accident rate may become more predictable even if the simple numbers of accidents/incidents may still appear random.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP065 Rail Transit Systems.

01470560

13-3560

English

16p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References

Crash rates; Fatalities; Injuries; Light rail transit; Subways; Transit crashes; Transit safety

Property damage

Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; I81: Accident Statistics

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-3560

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:42PM