Independence, MO

Sterling Ave crosses the UP line: 15,000 vehicles and 18 trains a day.

Data only

Summary

Metro	Kansas City
Railroads	Union Pacific
Open at-grade crossings	54
Vehicles a day crossing tracks at grade	99,901
Busiest crossing in the model	Sterling Ave (441933V): 15,058 vehicles/day, 18 trains/day
Data source	FRA Crossing Inventory, retrieved Oct 2, 2026. Several UP crossings list 0 trains with traffic counts from the 1980s, so they are excluded.

Time

$98K

4,617 person-hours a year

Trade

truck-hours a year, worth $2,184 in driver time

Pollution

7.2 t

CO₂ from 798 gallons idled, like 1.6 cars for a year

Example scenario. No blockage reports have been compiled for this city yet.

Each blockage lasts 15 min

Blockages per crossing per week 3 times

Blockages modeled per crossing per year	156
Vehicles stopped by one blockage	157
Trucks stopped by one blockage	3
Person-hours lost per year	4,617
Value of lost time per year	$98K
Truck-hours idled per year	61
Gallons of fuel idled per year	798
CO₂ per year (metric tons)	7.2

Screening estimate. Each selected crossing is blocked for the set time; drivers wait half of it on average. Method and sources

Crossing	USDOT ID	Vehicles/day	Count year	Trains/day	Trucks
Sterling Ave	441933V	15,058	1994	18	2%

Uncheck a crossing to remove it from the scenario. "~" truck shares use the city's traffic-weighted average where the inventory reports none.

The Kansas City metro had 2,270,682 people in 2025, up 8.2% since 2015 (vs. 6.2% nationally), and is served by four Class I railroads.
KC Area Development Council · Sep 2026 ↗