Transit worker safety the focus of FTA plan updates – GWC Mag

Dive Brief:

• The Federal Transit Administration issued a final rule last week updating the agency’s safety plans for transit workers and passengers.
• The first major update to the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans regulation applies to more than 700 transit agencies on federally supported transit systems. It addresses requirements set out in the 2021 infrastructure law to improve safety management system procedures, increase transit worker involvement in developing safety plans and provide de-escalation training.
• The FTA also published an update to the National Public Transportation Safety Plan, which sets 22 performance measures to improve safety, address bus collisions and prevent assaults on transit workers. The plan applies to all transit providers subject to the PTASP regulation. 

Dive Insight:

An increasing concern among transit workers in recent years has been assaults on bus drivers and other customer-facing transit employees. The rate of assaults on transit workers nearly doubled from 2016 to 2019, before dipping slightly in 2020 and 2021, according to FTA data. 

“Transit workers experience the risks of the job daily, and have made it clear that their safety is a key concern that must be addressed,” said Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO‘s Transportation Trades Department, in a statement. “We welcome this federal action to continue addressing the ongoing epidemic of transit worker assault by requiring public transit agencies to implement safety committees, safety risk reduction programs, and safety performance targets.”

The updated PTASP regulation requires transit agencies serving areas over 200,000 population to establish safety committees with equal numbers of frontline transit worker and management representatives and includes requirements to allow frontline workers more input into safety decision-making. 

Regan applauded the rule that gives workers “a seat at the table in decisions about their workplace safety.”

For agencies serving populations under 200,000, the PTASP regulation requires the development of safety plans in cooperation with frontline worker representatives.

The National Safety Plan also looks to address the hundreds of bus-to-person collisions that occur every year. Over 7,000 injuries and 537 fatalities resulted from these collisions from 2008 to 2021, according to an FTA Safety Advisory published in September. Transit agencies in urbanized areas with over 200,000 population must include a program to reduce vehicle and pedestrian accidents involving buses.