FTA to Fund Transit Worker, Rider Safety Research

(Image Courtesy of FTA, via Twitter)

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is seeking applicants for a research project to help transit agencies address operator and rider assaults.

“According to the National Transit Database (NTD), the number of transit worker and rider assault incidents have been trending upward,” FTA reported in the Dec. 15 edition of the Federal Register (download below). “The data shows a roughly five-fold increase in transit assault incidents reported from 2009 (319 reported incidents) to 2019 (1539 reported incidents).”

To address this issue and help reduce assaults on transit systems across the nation, FTA said that it would competitively award up to $500,000 in Public Transportation Innovation Program funds (49 U.S.C. 5312) for a research cooperative agreement to improve the safety of transit vehicle operators and riders.

According to the FTA, the Transit Worker and Rider Safety Best Practices Research Project will be carried out in two phases:

1. Phase I: Transit Worker and Rider Safety Best Practices Report.
2. Phase II: Transit Worker and Rider Safety Pilot Demonstration Project.

FTA said its Notice of Funding Opportunity for the project covers only Phase 1, in which the selected applicant will conduct research in the following areas:

• Identifying key issues and trends in operator and rider assaults by evaluating available data on operator and rider assaults from various sources, including the NTD.
• Assessing assault data quality and accuracy reported to the NTD.
• Documenting and assessing mitigation strategies and solutions for the issues and trends identified.
• Developing outreach materials and tools that can be used by the industry to effectively implement the identified mitigation measures.
• Proposing a “bold and innovative pilot demonstration project that can showcase the utility of those mitigation strategies and promote the adoption of those solutions.” FTA said it may “implement the proposed pilot demonstration project for a Phase II.”

Eligible applicants include providers of public transportation, including public transportation agencies, state or local government departments of transportation, and federally recognized Native American tribes; private for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, consultants, research consortia and industry organizations; state, city or local government entities, including multi-jurisdictional partnerships, and organizations such as metropolitan planning organizations; or institutions of higher education, including large research universities, and technical and community colleges, particularly those with minority serving institution status, according to FTA.

The agency said it is seeking a project that can begin implementation within three months after award of the cooperative agreement; the maximum period of performance allowed for the work covered by the award is not to exceed 24 months from the date of award.

The deadline for proposals for Phase I funding is Feb. 13, 2023. “Eligibility for Phase II is subject to the availability of future funding, the quality of the materials developed in Phase I, and the merit of the proposed pilot demonstration project developed in Phase I,” FTA reported.