Australian road and railway authorities have made a concerted effort to reduce the number of rail level
crossings, particularly the higher risk passive crossings that are protected by devices such as ‘give way’ or
‘stop’ signs. To improve this situation, passive level crossings are often upgraded with active controls
such as flashing red lights. Traffic signals may provide good safety outcomes at level crossings but remain
untested. The primary purpose of this research was to compare driver behaviour at two railway level
crossings with active controls, flashing red lights and traffic signals, to behaviour at the current standard
passive level crossing control, a stop sign. Participants drove the MUARC advanced driving simulator for
30 min. During the simulated drive, participants were exposed to three level crossing scenarios. Each
scenario consisted of one of three level crossing control types, and was associated with an oncoming
train. Mean vehicle speed on approach to the level crossings decreased more rapidly in response to
flashing lights than to traffic signals. While speed on approach was lowest for the stop-sign condition,
the number of non-compliant drivers (i.e., those who did not stop) at the crossing was highest for this
condition. While results indicate that traffic signals at rail level crossings do not appear to offer any safety
benefits over and above flashing red lights, further avenues of research are proposed to reach more
definitive conclusions. Compliance was lowest for the passive crossing control which provides further
support for the ongoing passive crossing upgrades in Australia.