Trade-offs in transit public safety interventions: Balancing enforcement and service quality improvements
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2025
Subject Area
place - north america, place - urban, ridership - perceptions, planning - personal safety/crime, planning - service improvement, planning - service quality
Keywords
Public transit, ridership, safety
Abstract
The slow rebound of public transit ridership since the pandemic and major upcoming budget shortfalls have created a perfect storm in which American cities and transit agencies must make difficult decisions regarding operations and service design. Among the many challenges, perceived rider safety has emerged as a key concern. However, implementing effective safety interventions is complicated by the mixed rider experiences with, and perceptions of, crime and law enforcement. Transit agencies can design more effective policy interventions if they understand what shapes riders’ reactions to different safety strategies, and how those strategies can promote rider satisfaction. Using a 2023 survey of 2292 transit riders in the Chicago region, we estimate a Bayesian Structural Equation Model to investigate the connections between rider experiences and demographics, receptiveness to safety measures, and overall satisfaction. We find that enforcement-related strategies are most strongly associated with higher overall rider satisfaction, but they also come with the notable downside of 10%–20% of riders feeling less safe. On the other hand, improvements to various facets of service quality are less strongly related to satisfaction, but they come with little to no downside in terms of negative rider perceptions. Rider experience also plays a role, with more severe crime and nuisance experience directly impacting satisfaction. In contrast, indirect knowledge of transit safety issues obtained from media and hearsay primarily affects riders’ support for safety interventions rather than their overall satisfaction.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Aeschliman, S., & Stathopoulos, A. (2025). Trade-offs in transit public safety interventions: Balancing enforcement and service quality improvements. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 199, 104584.
Comments
Transportation Research Part A Home Page:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564