Today, FTA published an initial analysis of responses from transit agencies to FTA’s General Directive 24-1: Required Actions Regarding Assaults on Transit Workers. The analysis shares information on how transit agencies are assessing, mitigating and monitoring the safety risk related to assaults on transit workers, and summarizes risk ratings, types of mitigations and the effectiveness of safety strategies grouped by agency type and size.  

The analysis shares the varying mitigations used by transit agencies and the status in implementing them, along with information on how they measure their effectiveness in reducing assaults on transit workers. 

• De-escalation training and video/audio surveillance are the two most widely implemented mitigation strategies used by transit agencies.  

• Another strategy is posting signage geared at riders that alert them to the use of surveillance and/or penalties for assaulting transit workers.  

• Video/audio surveillance was the strategy most widely reported as effective for reducing assaults on transit workers, followed by automatic vehicle location technology and operator protective barriers. 

This information will help FTA understand how transit worker assault safety risk assessments and safety risk mitigations vary throughout the industry and help inform future activities that may be effective in continuing to reduce the risk of assaults on transit workers.