Wednesday, April 10, 2024

FTA Publishes Updated Version of the National Public Transportation Safety Plan

Today, FTA published an updated version of the National Public Transportation Safety Plan concurrently with updates to the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP) regulation. View the PTASP and National Safety Plan documents.

These updates are a part of a continuing effort to improve transit safety performance on federally supported transit systems. The National Safety Plan updates incorporate Bipartisan Infrastructure Law requirements for PTASP safety performance measures and lay out a performance-based approach to reduce injuries and fatalities on transit systems under FTA's safety jurisdiction.

The plan includes best practices, tools, technical assistance, voluntary standards and other resources. While the National Safety Plan is not a regulation and does not impose mandatory requirements, it creates a blueprint for transit agencies to adopt stronger safety measures.

Key updates to the National Safety Plan include:

Adding seven safety performance measures to address incidents and rates of vehicle collisions, transit worker injuries and fatalities and transit worker assaults. These apply to all agencies subject to the PTASP regulation.
Adding eight performance measures for the safety risk reduction program to improve safety performance by reducing the number and rates of vehicle and pedestrian accidents involving buses, as well as the number and rates of assaults on transit workers. These apply to Urbanized Area Formula Grant (Section 5307) recipients that serve areas with a population of 200,000 or more.
Adding voluntary minimum safety performance standards and recommended practices for new categories, such as transit worker safety, pedestrian and bicyclist safety, rail grade crossing safety, tunnel ventilation and fire safety.
In coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, adding new practices for transit agencies to ensure public and personnel safety during an emergency and resources that contain information on driver assistive technologies, driver protection infrastructure and strategies to reduce visibility impairments.

FTA will host a webinar in the coming weeks highlighting these important safety updates.