Transit is Unsafe
Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit editor
One of transit’s biggest challenges is overcoming the stigma of who is riding its buses and trains and how it may not necessarily be the safest way for people to get from one place to another. Unfortunately, lately it seems that this myth about transit being unsafe is truer than we would want to believe.
Posting news everyday for the Mass Transit Web site, I see a lot of what is going on in transit across the country. There is a lot of news that we don’t post because, well, I could spend my entire day, every day, doing that. I try to put up stories that I feel that our audience wants to see. And from the number of hits on our news stories, we’re doing a pretty good job.
Of course, sometimes I feel like we only report on bad news. Transit has a lot going for it, but what makes the newspapers are the bad things. Take for example the story about the girls in Stamford attacking a conductor or the guy in Edmonton who attacked a bus driver.
Both of these are huge stories and will get a lot of attention, but both of them give the impression that transit isn’t safe. And reading them, I would be a little nervous the next time some unruly passenger gets on board my train or bus. Of course, I’m probably perfectly safe.
See, transit is unsafe — for the agency employees. It’s rare that you see stories about passengers getting attacked, but you see stories about bus drivers getting beat up on a regular basis. Rail workers seem to be a little safer, but don’t say that to the conductor in Stamford.
Frankly, as a passenger I would be worried about riding transit. And why not? If we can’t protect our own employees, how can we be expected to protect our passengers?
Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,
Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
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December 4th, 2009 at 11:40 am
The perception that it is unsafe to use public transportation is one of the main reasons choice riders have a negative opinion of transit. In mu opinion it is one of the most important “performance measures” agencies should measure. Too often safety is not in the top 10 measures. Because it is mostly perception I think it needs to be combated by establishing goals for safety, measuring it, improve it, and promote just how safe transit really is or can be. Negative press is a reality that always needs to be combated. I disagree qith so much emphasis and resources being put into advanced technology in order to attract choice riders when not enough goes to counteract negative perception of safety.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Yes, mass transit is NOT safe and that’s one of the reasons why “choice riders” refuse to use it instead of the private auto.
Here in San Francisco, frequent pick pocketing and outright snatching of personal items such as IPods and CD players is quite common on transit. Then there are lots of assaults such as the two stabbings by a street person on board as bus and a street car.
In fact, an inspection of the Central Control reports for our transit agency reveals there are a lot more assaults (about 5 every 24 hours) than actually reported in the news media.
As I’ve said before, as long as transit really caters to the low income riders and we’ll continue to get the exact same problems that plague low income housing projects -mainly rampant crime.
If riders want quality (such as having a lot more security), they must be willing to pay more.