Public Transportation Safety Performance Measurement Education and Training

Public Transportation consists of a variety of modes including buses, light-rail/streetcars, heavy-rail (metro/subway), commuter trains, cable cars, paratransit, ferries and water taxis. Historically, public transportation systems in the U.S. have been among the safest modes of surface transportation in terms of fatalities, injuries and reported safety events. In recent years, however, the risk and vulnerability of public transportation systems to catastrophic accidents have been on the rise. This is due to the growing ridership and service complexities, aging infrastructure and equipment, turnover in the transit workforce, and the quality of safety policies, procedures, and training. From 2004 to 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported on eleven transit accidents that, collectively, resulted in 16 fatalities, 386 injuries, and over $30 million in property damages. During that same 2004—2016 time period, transit agencies reported over 290,000 incidents and other events, more than 2,600 fatalities, and over 301,000 injuries to the National Transit Database (NTD). In Section 20021 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP—21), which is codified at 49 U.S.C. 5329, Congress directed the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to establish a comprehensive Public Transportation Safety Program. One element of this program is the requirement for operators of public transportation systems to develop and implement Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP) based on the Safety Management System (SMS) approach. The PTASP must include, among other things, a safety performance measurement system comprised of safety performance indicators and targets. FTA expects transit agencies to (1) develop their own performance indicators and targets, (2) regularly monitor the performance of their systems to ensure that they are meeting their targets and improving safety outcomes, and (3) determine whether they should revise their safety performance targets at least annually. Each transit agency must make its safety performance indicators and targets available to the relevant State agency and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO). Transit operators also must certify they have a safety plan in place meeting the requirements of the rule by July 20, 2020. The plan must be updated and certified by the transit agency annually. The aim of this study is to develop and implement Public Transportation Safety Performance Measurement Education/Training Course Material based on the recent research conducted by the PI. The developed course materials will include training plan, instructor guide, participant guide, PowerPoint presentations and test questions. The envisioned training plan will include four basic modules: Module 1: Introduction to Safety Management System (SMS) policies & procedures, and PTASP regulation & Requirements; Module 2: Fundamentals of Performance Measurement; Module 3: Good Practices in Developing Safety Performance Measurement System; and Module 4: Ten Steps to Building and Sustaining a Safety Performance Measurement System. The developed education/training materials will be made available to transit agencies in Region-6.

• Record URL:
  https://transet.lsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2021/08/21SAOSU02.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • 21SAOSU02

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $110000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747106

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Transportation Consortium of South-Central States (Tran-SET)

  Louisiana State University
  Baton Rouge, LA  United States  70803
• Project Managers:

  Mousa, Momen

• Performing Organizations:

  Oklahoma State University, Stillwater

  School of Civil & Environmental Engineering
  Stillwater, OK  United States  74078
• Principal Investigators:

  Ahmed, Samir

• Start Date: 20210801
• Expected Completion Date: 20230201
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Education and training; Performance measurement; Public transit; Safety management; Transit safety
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01833049
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Consortium of South-Central States (Tran-SET)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747106
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 20 2022 4:29PM