Announcements

FTA Proposes New Requirements to Improve Transit Worker Safety

Published on: April 21, 2023

To protect transit workers and the traveling public, FTA is proposing new safety requirements authorized under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. FTA is seeking public comments on its proposed requirements, which are part of updates to the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP) regulation, which strengthens safety policies, procedures and practices in the transit industry.

A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was published on the PTASP webpage today and will be published in the Federal Register next week. Some requirements only apply to transit agencies serving large urbanized areas, and include:

• Establishing safety committees with equal numbers of frontline transit workers and management representatives to address concerns from workers and riders. The proposed rule provides new guidance on safety committee membership, procedures and responsibilities.
• Creating risk reduction programs to reduce accidents, injuries and assaults on transit workers, and establishing annual targets based on measures FTA will establish in the National Public Transportation Safety Plan. Risk reduction programs would include:
  • evaluating assaults on transit workers and vehicular/pedestrian safety risks and considering corrective strategies, such as installing bus driver shields or barriers.
  • deploying certain assault mitigation measures when a risk analysis performed by the safety committee determines such measures would reduce assaults on transit workers.

The proposed rule also incorporates the statutory requirement that transit agencies serving small urbanized areas develop their agency safety plans in cooperation with frontline transit worker representatives.

The public will have 60 days to submit comments on the PTASP NPRM upon publication. More information about the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans can be found here.

Links:
Proposed changes to PTASP requirements
Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law