Senator Introduces Bill To Collect Data On Public Transit Rider Harassment

A bill that would direct the top ten public transit systems in California to collect data on rider harassment for use in improving ridership safety was introduced in the Senate on Monday.

Senate Bill 434, authored by Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine), would require the ten largest public transit systems in the state to conduct surveys with subpopulations of riders on if and how they have been harassed on public transit in the five years before the effective date of the bill. Questions in the survey would be aimed to help pinpoint what subgroups of people are more likely to be harassed and where the harassments most likely take place. Outreach activities to riders would also be conducted by the respective transit operators to complete the surveys.

While the transit systems were not named in SB 434, they would likely include systems in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Orange County, Sacramento, and Long Beach based on recent public transportation ridership figures.

Senator Min wrote the bill as a follow up to SB 1161, a bill passed last year that created a community survey for California transit operators to strengthen and promote passenger safety. While his legislation was originally aimed at addressing the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans that began in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he expanded it to include all groups to find which ones receive the most harassment. In a statement on Monday, he specifically noted many reports showing high harassment figures for Asian Americans, seniors, women, LGBT people, and other people of color.

Min also noted that, with the data collected by SB 434 surveys, new safety strategies and solutions for riders facing the most harassment can be put into place to help encourage ridership and improve overall rider safety.

“No Californian should feel unsafe commuting from one place to the next. Period,” said Senator Min on Monday in a statement. “As we rebuild and reimagine a post-pandemic world, improving public transit should top our list of priorities. I’m proud to introduce this bill in partnership with Stop AAPI Hate to finally address the systemic safety issues that have plagued our public transit systems for too long. A majority of women, elderly, LGBTQ+, and disabled Californians experience street harassment or worse while using public transit. It’s time we step up and give public transit providers the tools necessary to keep all passengers safe.”

“A lot of folks feel unsafe in public spaces generally, but on public transit particularly. We’ve heard so many reports of people being attacked, berated and it obviously hits vulnerable communities the most. Asian Americans get hit, seniors get hit, women get hit, LGBTQ people get hit. We don’t have a sense right now, how often does this occur, what types of harassment occurs, are there types that are more frequent than others?”

Today, I’m proud to join @StopAAPIHate and announce #SB434. My bill requires California’s top 10 public transit systems to collect survey data as a critical step towards improving ridership safety, addressing street harassment, and bringing riders back to public transit. 1/ pic.twitter.com/hFwD4gagiv

— Senator Dave Min (@SenDaveMin) February 13, 2023

SB 434 introduced in Senate

Stop AAPI Hate, a group that has been monitoring anti-Asian harassment incidents for the past several years, sponsored SB 434 with Min on Monday. The group, which found out that 10% of all harassment incidents reported since 2021 against Asian-Americans occurred on public transportation, joined with Min in backing the bill due to the rise in harassment incidents.

“There are parts of our community that can’t afford to have a private car, they are reliant on public transit to run their daily errands, to go to doctors appointments, so it’s critical, especially for the top 10 transit agencies, that they really understand the experiences of their riders,” added Stop AAPI Hate co-founder Cynthia Cho on Monday. “In order to create effective solutions, we really need to understand the experiences of people who are impacted from street harassment, and essentially that’s what this bill does, it gives transit riders a voice.”

AB 434 currently has no opposition against it, although some political insiders noted that some lawmakers would likely want to know what the final cost of the surveys would be, as well as which transit systems would be specifically covered.

“A bill aimed at improving public safety is always an easier sell,” Dana, a staffer in the State Capitol told the Globe on Tuesday. “But, especially with a budget deficit this year, the cost of the program will be extremely important to know. Some in the Senate and Assembly won’t budge to vote unless they see those numbers. Also, which transit systems that would get surveys would be important too. While hitting the largest ones is important, if Central Californian cities are ignored, especially in areas with a high Latino or older white population, there may be some skewed statistics, as well as criticisms that large parts of the state were ignored. Voters in Fresno, Modesto, even places like Bakersfield may see the surveys as blatantly ignoring them, so amendments looking for a few places to be included for geographical reasons may be wanted. It’s happened with bills before that covered NorCal and SoCal but ignored the Central part of the state.”

SB 434 is expected to be assigned Senate committees soon.