U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh St., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590

May 25, 2005
Refer to: HOTO- I

Mr. Lance Johnson
Traffic and Highway Safety Engineer
Idaho Transportation Department
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707-1129

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Thank you for your February 15 letter requesting approval to experiment with Red In-Roadway Warning Lights ("Bodan crossing system") at the Idaho Northern and Pacific Railroad grade crossing at Milwaukee Street in Boise, Idaho. We have reviewed your request and hereby approve your request to conduct the proposed experimentation through the end of June 2007.

With our approval, we would like to suggest a few revisions to your evaluation plan. We recommend that the following data be collected, for both "before" and "after" conditions:

  1. The number and percentage of vehicles stopping at the stop line;
  2. The number and percentage of vehicles stopping between the stop line and the tracks;
  3. The number and percentage of vehicles continuing across the tracks;
  4. If evident, the number and percentage of vehicles that back up after stopping beyond the stop line or on the tracks.

We appreciate your interest in improving traffic operations and safety at highway-rail grade crossings, and look forward to receiving your semiannual reports and final evaluation results for the experimentation. The results will help us to determine whether to include the application of in-roadway warning lights at highway-rail grade crossings in a future edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

For future reference purposes, we have assigned the following official experimentation number and title to your request: "4-289(E) - "Red In-Roadway Warning Lights at RR Crossing - IDOT." Please refer to this number in future correspondence. If you have any questions about this response or during the course of your experimentation, please contact Ms. Guan Xu at 202-366-5892; guan.xu@fhwa.dot.gov

Sincerely yours,

Regina S. McElroy
Director, Office of Transportation
Operations