The U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has proposed new safety requirements under the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in order to protect transit workers and riders.
The proposed update to the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP) rule, FTA will codify communication between transit workers and management, an important measure in addressing assault on transit workers.
Some requirements will only apply to transit agencies serving areas with a population of 200,000 or more that largely coincide with the biggest increases in reported transit worker assaults. According to reported data in the National Transit Database, there is a 121% increase in transit worker assaults.
Required changes to the PTASP rule would include:
- Establishing safety committees with equal numbers of frontline transit worker and management representatives to address concerns from workers and riders. The proposed rule provides new guidance on safety committee membership, procedures, and responsibilities.
- Creating risk reduction programs to reduce accidents, injuries, and assaults on transit workers, and establishing annual targets based on measures FTA will establish in the National Public Transportation Safety Plan. Risk reduction programs to be undertaken by transit agencies would include:
- evaluating assaults on transit workers and vehicular/pedestrian safety risks and considering corrective strategies, such as installing bus driver shields or barriers.
- deploying certain assault mitigation measures when a risk analysis performed by the safety committee determines such measures would reduce assaults on transit workers.
"No one should go to work or ride transit worried that they won't come home safely, and FTA is committed to making that ideal a reality," said FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez. "This proposed rule prioritizes worker safety and gives transit workers a greater voice in protecting themselves during the workday. Updating this rule reflects the feedback FTA has received from the transit workforce across the country. Safer workers will mean a safer transit system and a safer ride for passengers."
The PTASP rule requires certain federally supported public transportation systems to develop plans that include and implement the Safety Management System approach, a comprehensive, collaborative, and systematic set of strategies to manage safety risk. The proposed rule also incorporates the statutory requirement that transit agencies serving small urbanized areas develop their agency safety plans in cooperation with frontline transit worker representatives. All applicable transit agencies would also be required to incorporate de-escalation training for frontline workers into their comprehensive safety training programs.
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Source: FTA
