Transit safety became a major issue at LA Metro’s April 25th board meeting after a passenger was fatally stabbed on a metro train. Agency staff had originally sought an emergency declaration to accelerate procurement of barriers to protect bus operators, but board members expanded the discussion to include passenger safety as well.
Reports of increased transit violence are not unique to LA Metro: reports of crime on California transit systems extend from San Diegoto multiple Bay Area counties. Like LA, SamTrans in San Mateo County is also planning to install barriers to protect bus operators.
While unions representing bus drivers are well positioned to secure protections for their members, passengers lack comparable advocacy. And, since ridership revenue accounts for a small and declining share of transit agency revenues, passengers have little ability to influence agencies by “voting with their dollars.”
Transit advocates often contend that mass transit is far safer than driving. This seems plausible because fatal car accidents are so frequent in the United States. But since driving is also so much more common than mass transit use, it is less clear that transit is safer on a unit basis.
Here’s some math: there were 42,514 road fatalities in 2022, versus just 223 related to rail transit and 116 related to bus transit. But total vehicle miles travelled on roads in 2022 were 3.17 trillion compared to just 4.16 billion miles travelled by all categories of transit vehicles. So personal vehicle mileage exceeded transit mileage by a factor of over 700.