urbanSTL

Metro Transit and Partners See Additional Progress on Creating a Safer Transit System
https://www.metrostlouis.org/nextstop/m ... yJuVHPmox0

MetroLink boardings increased 26 percent from Quarter 2 of 2021 to Quarter 2 of 2022 as people returned to work, school and recreational activities that were cancelled or held virtually previously because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 177 incidents were reported, up from 160 in Quarter 1. Incidents per MetroLink boardings during Quarter 2 were 10 per 100,000 boardings (.0001).  The majority (71%) of the incident reports in Quarter 2 2022 were self-initiated and generated by proactive policing. That is up from 66% for all of 2021.

A large number of the incidents were for Standard of Conduct (62%); followed by Violent Crime (34%), and Property Crime (4%). Weapon violations accounted for 44% of the violent offense types and were likely the result of proactive crime-fighting initiatives targeting known “hot-spots.”

Sounds like the turnstiles break ground next Fall.

Eh, I think they’re just paying lip service to the Sheriff (and scared older folks that listen to KMOX, that probably don’t even ride MetroLink).

Turnstiles are one thing but realistically how would magnetometers work within the system?  Gonna hire a couple of folks to monitor each entrance and exit and wand anyone that sets the alarm off?  If they do find a weapon are they also going staff every station with a police officer to detain them? Imagine trying to get into the Stadium station after a Cardinal game.  You’d have to have multiple people staffed at each station at all times.  Honestly, that (plus the magnetometers themselves) would likely cost more than turnstiles.  Logically it just doesn’t make much sense.

I’ve found that STL has way more annoying (and unsafe) drivers.

Public transit here has always been pretty easy in my opinion.  Which is why I’ll be riding it around town for my company’s national sales meeting that starts tomorrow and is being exclusively hosted among downtown venues.

To be fair to Metro, these are pretty regular problems at most transit agencies across the country right now, especially with supply chain issues.

Also, it’s almost like Metro is focusing on the millions of dollars of flood damage that’s hobbled the Blue Line (which occurred over 2 months ago in late July). A lot more critical infrastructure involved there than a lightly used elevator at a lightly used station. As of 2011 less than 500 people used it per day…I bet it’s hundreds less today considering current ridership counts.  The system only counts roughly 22,000 daily riders as of Q2 of this year.  At one point it was over 64,000 per day.

On a personal note, I’ve stopped using the system since the transfer station flooded out. Selfish reasons…but I’d rather Metro focus on getting its second line back to full capacity on a regular schedule than an elevator issue at a lightly used station.

(Side note, does anyone know where to get that ridership information for individual stations?)

Take this quote from one of the nation’s “premier” transit operators (hard to write that seriously, the NYC subway might be the shittiest transit system in the world lol):

There were three escalators at the Washington Heights station, one of the deepest subway stations across all five boroughs, but now all three are suddenly off-limits. For weeks, only one escalator was down and two remained functional, with a fix promised by the end of May.

But signs showed up during the day Monday, informing riders that the escalators will not be replaced until Feb. 2023. The escalator project is part of the MTA's ongoing efforts to be considered "reliable" for riders.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/traffic/tran ... 496/?amp=1