PeriLight – flashing light directs attention at level crossings

PeriLight is a system developed by the DLR to enhance safety by increasing road user attention at passive level crossings (= level crossings without automatic protection systems such as barriers or light signals). Accidents at level crossings usually entail serious consequences. Approximately every fourth accident ends in a death. The risk of accidents is particularly high at crossings without barriers.

Around 95% of all accidents at level crossings can be traced back to maladaptive road user behaviour. Lack of awareness, inattention and carelessness are the main reasons for collisions at passive crossings. Results of research conducted by the DLR have shown that the majority of car drivers do not look to the left and right for approaching trains at these crossings. With PeriLight – a system designed to direct drivers’ visual attention – DLR has developed a technical addition to existing safety measures at passive level crossings. PeriLight is designed to make road users look left and right before the level crossing, enabling them to notice an approaching train in time and react by decelerating or stopping if necessary.

VIDEO: PeriLight demo movie with English subtitles

 

PeriLight directs attention with flashing lights at level crossings

The key elements of PeriLight are two flashing LED light sources located next to the rails at approximately 50 m to the left and right of the level crossing. PeriLight is automatically triggered as soon as a driver passes a road side sensor at 80 m in front of the level crossing. The lights flash in rapid pulses of white and pink for 10 repetitions, alternating between the left and right periphery of the visual field. The flickering attracts the attention of the road user. PeriLight takes advantage of automatic processes in human visual information processing. The pulsing light in the peripheral field of vision attracts road users’ attention towards the areas where approaching trains would be. The correct and necessary behaviour at passive level crossings – looking left and right – is thus triggered instinctively.

Conventional upgrades to increase level crossing safety – e.g. installing automatic barriers or light signals – are generally very costly, which is in part due to the need to incorporate these solutions into existing railway management and safety engineering systems. PeriLight functions completely independently of railway infrastructure, as it is not triggered by the train, but by the road user. Passive level crossings are by definition "protected" by signage and ensuring unobstructed vision on the railway track. PeriLight is independent of railway management and safety engineering, making it an add-on system suitable to be an extremely cost-effective way of enhancing existing safety systems at critical passive level crossings.