DESIGN FOR THE ALLEVIATION OF TRANSPORTATION FATALITY RISK BY THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT

There is a tendency for each engineering community to think of safety only in the context of its own system. Rail engineers think of the saf ety of the existing rail system and road engineers of the existing roa d systems. The important safety, however, is that of the entire popula tion. And that safety is considerably higher on rails than on roads. T he research question then arises as to whether it is possible to corre ct an existing road safety problem by design of a rail system. Given t he human lives at stake, it is a question worth answering. A design is presented for correction of the highest death rate road in a particul ar urban area by installation of a light rail system. The road is a 2. 6-mile (4.2-km) stretch of urban arterial that has had 18 fatalities i n the past thirteen years. The light rail system is shown to be a poss ible solution to the problem, both from the standpoint of design and f rom that of economics. It is predicted that the new design should prev ent 1.25 fatalities per year.