FTA Administrator Calls for Improved Safety, Real Outcomes at TRANSform

FTA Administrator Marcus Molinaro emphasized urgency in his address to the APTA TRANSform conference Sept. 15. He called for bold, unorthodox measures to support the priorities of safety and accessibility for American families and pledged to modernize transit systems, ensuring that they are “safe, accessible, and responsive to the needs of all Americans.”

Introduced by APTA Chair Leanne Redden, executive director, Chicago Regional Transportation Authority, Molinaro noted that “the American family” has high expectations for public transportation, as possibly “the one place that (they) interact every day with their government.” Yet accessibility improvements are slow in coming, and recent headlines of violent crimes on transit systems have highlighted for Molinaro the urgent need for safety updates.

“Not every fare evader is a violent criminal, but every violent criminal in a transit system is a fare evader,” Molinaro said, and blamed “local leaders who refuse to enforce the basic laws” for choosing to have unsafe systems. To agencies left to deal with the consequences of those choices, he said, “We recognize the challenge and want to be partners with all of you. So, we’ll be there to help you move resources, we’ll be there to challenge you to invest in safety and security. But I make this unquestionable pledge: When it comes to elected officials and policymakers who make those decisions to make us less safe, we will call them out as well.”

Molinaro also granted agencies permission to “irritate in your advocacy” when talking to local officials about safety needs and urged attendees to utilize existing tools for ongoing challenges, including interacting with homeless people in the system. “I encourage you to train your drivers in crisis-intervention mental-health first aid,” he said, and to offer the training to travel ambassadors, and others on the system, even including riders.

He took several audience questions following his remarks and deferred questions about funding in favor of talking about the partnership role his agency plays. He hoped with surface transportation reauthorization that he could introduce some initiatives for operator safety, and that Congress would allow agencies “more flexibility with the dollars to invest in safety of riders and security of the systems.”

Regarding the issue of aging infrastructure, Molinaro said the Administration is “laser-focused on outcomes that actually improve the daily lives of Americans. Not reports, not initiatives, not metrics that don’t prove out reality, but real results.”

So “if you’re considering a new start vs. core capacity, if you’re considering some advancement vs. state of good repair,” he continued, “my suggestion is you get your core system as safe, efficient, and effective as possible…. safety is the core of what we have to provide.”

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