(Download
Document In Adobe PDF Format)
America’s public transportation systems play a critical role in assuring
the safety and security of our families and communities.
- Safe transportation. Bus and rail systems provide a consistently
safe mode
of travel.
- Secure systems. To keep their systems secure in today’s
world, transit agencies have made increased investments in security.
- Strategic role. Transit systems regularly perform a variety
of lifesaving services
in local and regional emergency response efforts.
Providing Safe and Secure Transportation; Ensuring America’s
Emergency Response
Americans enjoy safe and secure public transportation
systems. Bus and rail transit services offer widespread availability, affordability, convenience, reliability and ease of access.
Now confronting unprecedented threats, transit systems today are meeting
the challenge of strengthening levels of service while maintaining systems
that are open and easily accessible.
On September 11, 2001, public transportation in New York City, New Jersey,
Washington, D.C. and throughout the country helped to safely evacuate
citizens from center cities. Similarly, buses have played a major role
in response to a full range of disasters, including road, rail and air
transport accidents; natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes,
blizzards, floods and fires; and chemical, radiological and
other industrial releases.
|
Building on a long-standing record of providing safe and secure
transportation, the nation’s transit systems are making extraordinary
efforts to:
- Provide the highest levels of safety and responsiveness in day-to-day
operations
- Enhance threat detection and prevention systems
- Provide heightened levels of preparedness
- Train employees to execute sophisticated responses to an increasingly
complex array of threats to health and safety
- Secure the added resources and interagency cooperation essential
to assure public safety and security
|
Public Transportation’s Mandate: Meeting Today’s
Priorities
When Americans face either natural or man-made disasters, America’s
public transportation systems provide comfort, safety, security and rescue,
no matter what the threat.
A Record of Safe Travel
The risks of fatality and injury on public transportation are far lower
than in an automobile. According to the National Safety Council, the chance
of a fatality in a passenger car is 79 times greater than on a transit
bus. 1 In addition, travel in private motor vehicles generates a high
toll in incapacitation, injury and monetary costs. Overall, transit passengers are much safer than motorists, and residents of more transit-oriented
regions experience still lower fatality rates, which tend to decline as transit
ridership increases. 2
Applying tough equipment standards, thorough system maintenance and proven
operating practices, transit agencies make the safe transport of their
customers their priority and mandate. While the bus makes its rounds,
computer-controlled diagnostics identify any problems before service is
affected. Programs such as system safety plans, safety management audits,
standards development programs and peer review panels are only a few of
the ways in which APTA works with bus and rail systems to maintain and
enhance safety practices. And the transit safety record attests to the
success of these efforts.
Prepared to Respond
The interstate highway system was begun by President Eisenhower in 1956
as a national defense program. Today, public transportation also provides
a significant component of our national defense, and is a fundamental
element in responding to community emergencies. Transit systems often
provide the only opportunity to avoid or flee potentially catastrophic
events, and regularly serve as and/or give critical
support to first responders by delivering emergency equipment and supplies,
ferrying emergency response personnel and controlling access to and from
disaster sites.
Time after time, public transportation’s contribution during a crisis
has proven critical in saving lives and property from unthinkable consequences.
On August 28, 2005, actions by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit
Authority helped evacuate residents from homes, schools and businesses
upon detection of a chemical leak from a rail tanker.
Transit systems in Texas, Florida and other Atlantic and Gulf Coast
states provide critical evacuation during hurricanes and flooding. 3
San Francisco Bay-area ferries have provided alternative access during
six separate incidents in the last 23 years. 4
Across the nation buses are used as heated or air- conditioned shelters
and treatment centers for emergency workers at the sites of fires or
hazardous materials incidents. 5
On and following 9/11: In New York City and rural Pennsylvania alike,
transit buses shuttled police, fire and construction workers to emergency
sites; trains, buses and water transit evacuated many times their normal
daily ridership from Lower Manhattan and in Washington, D.C.; and New
Jersey’s Hoboken Terminal housed three medical triage operations and
a decontamination center.
Also on 9/11: In Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and many other
communities unscheduled services provided safe routes out of downtowns
where buildings were evacuated and businesses closed; and in Little
Rock, Portland, Denver and Kansas City transit agencies operating in
traffic-free zones helped take stranded airline passengers to hotels
and special shelters. 6
|
Per Passenger Federal Transportation Security
Expenditure: Transit and Air Travel In response to 9/11, there has been a focus on air travel security,
and rightfully so. It is important to realize, however, that people
use public transportation vehicles over 32 million times each weekday.
This is more than 16 times the number of daily air travelers on
the nation’s airlines. Since 9/11, the federal government has
spent over $18 billion on airline security, while it has allocated
only $250 million for transit security. |
| $9 per passenger air travel | Less than1¢ per passenger public transportation |
Source: Arnold Howitt and Jonathan Makler,
“On the Ground:
Protecting America’s Roads and Transit Against Terrorism,”
published by Brookings Institution, April 2005. |
Immediately following 9/11, APTA was supported by the Federal Transit
Administration through a two-year grant that enabled the creation of the
Public Transit Information Sharing Analysis Center (ISAC), a highly successful
security intelligence communications system. As of the publication of
this brochure, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had not indicated
that it would support the continuation of ISAC, thereby causing APTA to
look to other systems to fulfill ISAC’s role.
Investing in Strategic Support Systems
Like the national defense system and our communications, energy and power
networks, our transit systems are complex. They require built-in redundancy
to assure that there is backup capacity to meet the most severe potential
threats or breakdowns. Our nation’s roadway systems function more
effectively because we are expanding state-of-the-art public transportation
options that provide the redundancy to guarantee the safe, secure and
reliable flow of people and commerce, despite threats that may arise.
The Need to Invest in Transit Security
New and innovative policies, strategies and partnerships… dedicated
leadership and employee commitment… critical investments in new technologies
and training. Our transit agencies are working hard to meet the challenge
to remain safe and secure. Investments have been made in chemical/gas
detection systems and programs. Modern communications and fleet management
technologies, including Intelligent Transportation Systems applications,
also play a critical role in providing safety and security for transit
passengers and
employees.
|
“Since 2001 transit systems in the U.S. have invested over
$2 billion on security and emergency preparedness programs, almost
all from their own budgets and without grant assistance.” Source: Survey of United States Transit System Security Needs
and Funding Priorities—Summary of Findings, American Public
Transportation Association, Washington, D.C., April 2004. |
But to assure that mounting security challenges can be met— without
diminishing the fundamental quality or availability of basic services—more
funding is essential. There is no question that increased threat levels
have a dramatic impact on budget expenditures of transit systems. The
heightened “orange alert” following the July 2005 attacks in
London cost U.S. transit systems over $900,000 per day, or an estimated
$33 million over the 36-day code orange period.
A December 2003 Presidential Directive on Homeland Security (HSPD-7)
delineated the Secretary of Homeland Security as being responsible for critical infrastructure security. Mass
transit is defined as a critical infrastructure.
Transit agencies around the country have identified in excess of $6
billion in transit security needs—$5.2 billion in security- related
capital investment and $800 million to support personnel and related operational
security measures—to ensure transit security and readiness. 7
|
“Our nation has entered a new era in the history of transportation,
an era in which one of our most cherished freedoms—the basic
freedom of mobility — has been challenged.” Norman Y. Mineta, Secretary U.S. Department of Transportation
Metro Magazine, November-December 2001 |
To this end, a strong federal/state/local funding partnership is essential.
Important security-related capital and operational investment priorities
are as follows:
Capital Investment Priorities
Reliable and interoperable radio communications systems, including
operational control redundancy
Security cameras on vehicles
Controlled access to facilities and secure areas
Security cameras in stations
Automated vehicle locator systems
Transit Operations Investment Priorities
Funding support for current transit agency/local law enforcement security
personnel
Training for security personnel, including preparatory drills
Funding for additional transit agency/local law enforcement security
personnel
Security training for other than law enforcement personnel
Joint transit/law enforcement training, including preparatory drills
Funding support to sustain a Public Transit Information Sharing Analysis
Center
Investment in Transit Keeps America Safe and Secure
Safe travel, dependable emergency preparedness and response, and redundancy
are top priorities for today’s public transit systems. As local,
state and federal officials continue to work to strengthen our ability
to recognize, deter and respond to both man-made and natural disasters,
we must direct the necessary resources to our transportation systems to
assure that they continue to serve as effective agents in protecting our
safety and security.
Our future depends on it.
Works Cited
- National Safety Council, Injury Facts, Itasca, IL, 2004.
- Litman, Todd, Terrorism, Transit and Public Safety: Evaluating the
Risks, Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Victoria, B.C., Canada,
July 12, 2005.
- Higgins, L., Hickman, M., Weatherby, C., Emergency Management Planning
for Public Transit Systems, Federal Highway Administration and the Texas
Department of Transportation, Report 1834-3, Washington, D.C., May 2000.
- www.watertransit.org/pubs/iop_response.pdf
- Higgins, op. cit.
- “America Under Threat: Transit Responds to Terrorism: September
11 Special Report,” Special Supplement to Passenger Transport,
American Public Transportation Association, Washington, D.C.
- Survey of United States Transit System Security Needs and Funding
Priorities—Summary of Findings, American Public Transportation
Association, Washington, D.C., April 2004.
Published by the American Public Transportation Association
and the Public Transportation Partnership for Tomorrow
Some of these pages may include links to documents in the Adobe PDF format. Please download the Adobe PDF reader if you have not already done so.
