Highway railroad crossing vehicle detection methods and systems

A method for collecting railroad crossing data, comprising:

• detecting a presence of at least one of pedestrians and vehicles within a boundary of the railroad crossing;
• storing a count of the detections of the at least one of pedestrians and vehicles within the boundary;
• transmitting the count to a mobile telephone switching office using a cellular control channel;
• transferring the count from the mobile telephone switching office to a gateway;
• transferring the count from the gateway to a server;
• and
• accessing the server.

A railroad crossing system, comprising:

• at least one micropower impulse radar (MIR) unit configured to detect a presence of at least one of pedestrians and vehicles within a boundary of a railroad crossing;
• a remote terminal unit (RTU) coupled to said MIR, said RTU configured to store a count of the detections of the at least one of pedestrians and vehicles within the boundary by said MIR unit and further configured to communicate the counts, said RTU comprising at least one of a standby battery capability and a solar power feature;
• and
• a computer system configured to receive the counts communicated by said RTU.

A method for monitoring a plurality of railroad crossings comprising:

• collecting railroad crossing data for each railroad crossing;
• storing the railroad crossing data;
• selecting a sorting criteria;
• and
• sorting the railroad crossing data using the selected sorting criteria, wherein collecting railroad crossing data comprises determining at least one of a number of the pedestrians that have crossed the railroad crossing when the crossing was active, a number of the pedestrians that have crossed the railroad crossing when the crossing was inactive, a number of the vehicles that have crossed the railroad crossing when the crossing was active, and a number of the vehicles that have crossed the railroad crossing when the crossing was inactive.

A railroad crossing system comprising:

• at least one crossing gate arm;
• a number of impedance loops buried under the railroad crossing;
• a gate control mechanism connected to said impedance loops and configured to raise said crossing gate arms upon detection of one or more vehicles within a boundary by said impedance loops;
• at least one micropower impulse radar (MIR) unit, said MIR units configured to detect a presence of the one or more vehicles within the boundary;
• and
• at least one remote terminal unit (RTU) connected to said MIR units, said RTUs configured to communicate with said gate control mechanism, said at least one MIR unit and said at least one RTU providing a backup system to said impedance loops and said gate control mechanism for control of said gate control mechanism.

A method for detecting trapped vehicles within a boundary of a railroad crossing, the railroad crossing including impedance loops buried under the crossing, within the boundary, and connected to a gate arm control mechanism, which is further connected to one or more gate arms, the railroad crossing further including at least one micropower impulse radar (MIR) unit configured to detect the vehicles trapped within the boundary and at least one remote terminal unit (RTU) connected to the MIR units and further configured to communicate with the gate arm control mechanism, said method comprising:

• (1) lowering the gate arms upon approach of a train, thereby defining the boundary of the railroad crossing;
• (2) checking for vehicles trapped within the boundary using the impedance loops and gate control mechanism and separately with the MIR units and the RTU;
• (3) raising the gate arms if one or more of the trapped vehicles are detected;
• (4) repeating step (2) until none of the trapped vehicles are detected;
• and
• (5) lowering the gate arms.