The authors of a new study by the Mineta Transportation Institute hope their findings will assist those responsible for security planning around travel on public transport. In their latest Peak Hour Study, Brian Michael Jenkins and Bruce R Butterworth analyzed more than 500 attacks on passenger rail and bus systems in modern developed countries between 1970 and 2020. They found that more than 60% of the attacks occurred in off-peak hours, as opposed to only 19% occurring during peak hours. However, the peak-hour attacks were 4.5 times more lethal. (The timing of the remaining attacks is unknown so they could not make a determination.)
For Chanda Litten, light rail in Sacramento is the way to get around although she was sometimes faced with characters who made her uneasy. “It’s really dark, and you see some undesirables,” she reported to a local TV station. “It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it can be very scary.” Norm Leong, the head of Regional Transit Police in Sacramento, California, plans to improve the system through use of more video and patrol coordination with local police.
