Puget Sound transit agencies want to ensure the safety and security of transit riders. Transit operators have long monitored crime and are aware of high incident locations. However, they lack data-driven tools to readily match crime events with the locations of individual transit facilities and with transit service periods. This pilot project explored the use of data-driven tools to identify concentrations of criminal activity near transit facilities and illustrated how novel sets of disaggregated data on both crime and transit ridership can serve the development of models to assess the safety of transit riders at specific locations.

Transit agencies across the nation are increasingly using electronic fare payment methods to speed passenger boarding, reduce the cost of fare collection, provide various other rider benefits, and support more complex fare transactions. This project, jointly sponsored by WSDOT and Sound Transit, explored the use of fare transaction data gathered from the Puget Sound region’s ORCA transit cards, in combination with other sources of transit and non-transit-related data, to produce information that can significantly benefit transit operations and the transportation planning processes for both transit agencies and metropolitan planning organizations.