Methods and apparatus to facilitate mitigation of vehicle trapping on railroad crossings

A method comprising:

• determining, with a processor, whether a vehicle is stranded on a railroad crossing using location information provided by a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and vehicle information generated by sensors;
• wherein based on determining that the vehicle is stranded, the method further comprises:
• determining a safe crossing time using the location information and the vehicle information, wherein the safe crossing time comprises a sum of a base crossing time and a crossing time safety margin;
• generating, with the processor, a help request based on the safe crossing time;
• and
• transmitting, with the processor, the help request to neighboring vehicles via a transceiver.

A system comprising:

• a central facility having a train schedule database;
• a dedicated short range communication (DSRC) transceiver disposed in a vehicle and in communication with one or more of the train schedule database, neighboring vehicles, a police vehicle, and a train;
• sensors disposed in the vehicle to generate vehicle information;
• a global positioning system (GPS) receiver disposed in the vehicle to generate location information of the vehicle;
• and
• a processor in communication with the DSRC transceiver, the sensors, and the GPS receiver and configured to:
• determine whether the vehicle is stranded on an at-grade railroad crossing along a path of the train using the location information and the vehicle information;
• wherein based on determining that the vehicle is stranded, the processor is further configured to:
• determine a safe crossing time using the location information and the vehicle information, wherein the safe crossing time comprises a sum of a base crossing time and a crossing time safety margin;
• generate a help request based on the safe crossing time;
• and
• transmit the help request to neighboring vehicles.