The Quiet Zone Calculator is a web-based tool created by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to allow local jurisdictions to research the feasibility of creating a quiet zone in their community that complies with FRA’s Horn Rule. City planners, traffic engineers and other transportation professionals are the anticipated users of the calculator.

The Quiet Zone Calculator allows users to access the FRA maintained National Grade Crossing Inventory and FRA Highway-Rail grade crossing accident records, select a series of crossings, test proposed safety implementation plans that are in compliance with the Horn Rule, and generate summary reports. The user will be able to create multiple scenarios for new quiet zones as well as for zones that already have a whistle ban.

The calculator will determine the risk level for the proposed quiet zone corridor. The risk level will then be evaluated to determine whether quiet zone criteria have been met. If not, supplemental safety measures can be applied to reduce the risk until the criteria have been met.

Every effort has been made to make the calculator easy to use. It should be understood that the Horn Rule is by design very flexible giving communities many different options to consider when designing a quiet zone. This flexibility is contained in the Quiet Zone Calculator which gives the user many options to use in the planning process. It is highly recommended that the new user take time to read the help information on the Calculator’s home page prior to using it.

Quiet Zone Calculator