Assaults on transit workers tripled nationwide; income and distrust may be why

Serious assaults on bus and rail operators have tripled in the past 15 years, causing operators to fear violence on the job, seek transfers off the frontlines or just quit — adding to operator shortages, according to a new report examining incidents at transit agencies across the country.

A study by the Urban Institute released earlier this month found major assaults rose from 168 in 2008 to 492 in 2022. The data was culled from the Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database. It’s important to note that the FTA data only included major assaults in which an operator died or was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) reported one major assault in 2008 and nine in 2022, according to the study. In 2022, the Orange County Transportation Authority reported two and Riverside Transit Agency had one; neither reported any assaults in 2008, according to the study.

LA Metro’s major assault incidents are low when compared to New York City Transit, which had 237 assaults in 2022. In January 2021, a Metro rail operator was shot while in his train in East Los Angeles. A reward was posted seeking information about the suspect in the attempted murder.

“Because of the current requirements, data reporting (of bus and rail operator assaults) are missing a colossal amount of assaults,” said Lindiwe Rennert, senior research associate at the Urban Institute.

Even with under-reporting, the trends are notable. For instance, the study said bus assaults are rapidly rising but they are also spreading to more places. “In 2008, only 21 agencies reported any major assault events, which ballooned to 49 agencies in 2022,” the report stated.

This year, the FTA database will cast a wider net due to new reporting rules contained in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The database will include any assault on bus and rail operators, from pushing, punching and physical assault to spitting, incidents that often do not require transport to a medical facility, the study explained.

In the report, incidents that don’t necessarily meet the old requirement include stabbing, spitting, hitting, kicking and unwelcome sexual misconduct. “Operators have also reported being robbed, having things thrown at them, being doused with urine and hot beverages, being threatened at gunpoint, and shot at,” the report stated.

Metro reported that all manner of assaults on bus drivers reached 151 during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, and nine assaults were reported on rail operators. For the recent fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, assaults on bus operators reached 152, and nine assaults were reported on rail operators, reported Rick Jager, Metro spokesperson.

The number of assaults was up from Fiscal Year 2021, when 75 assaults were reported on bus operators and six assaults on rail operators. But that year included reduced transit services and ridership due to pandemic stay-at-home orders and severe operator shortages, Jager reported.

Jager said the last two years showed “a stabilization of those assaults” due to the addition of 48 Metro Transit Security Officers assigned to specific bus system routes in March 2023, as well as other efforts employed to reduce operator assaults, including de-escalation training for operators.

For Metro’s fleet of 2,035 buses, the L.A. County transit agency is working on a newly designed plexiglass barrier for bus operators that would add protection from the operator compartment door to the bus windshield. Another design being explored would extend the barrier to the ceiling of the bus, Jager explained.

While barriers may protect bus drivers, they don’t get at the reason why some people who board a bus or train resort to violence against the operator, said Rennert.

One of the most prominent correlations in the study was between civil unrest, such as protests and incidents of law enforcement’s inappropriate use of force, and operator assaults.

“Metropolitan areas with higher amounts of civil unrest also have higher assault rates,” said Rennert.

Rennert also found a connection between bus and train operator assaults, income inequality, and a general distrust of government institutions.

“It is the rider’s inability to pay that could be making people aggressive or violent in this moment,” she said, according to accounts of operator violence that were studied.

Some advocates she interviewed said one solution is to remove the responsibility from the bus operator of collecting the fares and enforcing non-payment. Train operators do not have those responsibilities and they face far fewer incidents of violence.

A stronger correlation connects a society divided politically and economically, labeled as social tension, with operator assaults.

“If we don’t trust our institutions and folks view transit as civic institutions, are we taking our feelings of dissatisfaction with government and projecting them onto the one person we have access to?” Rennert suggested.

In a follow-up study, Rennert will look more deeply at systemic causes. One way to reduce violence directed at transit operators is to increase trust in the system by adding more accountability. But most of the issues are society-wide, such as racism, inflation and income inequality.

“Transit agencies alone cannot solve this problem,” she said.