Transit fatality rates have risen from 4.6 per billion passenger miles carried in 2002 to 5.8 per billion in 2016. Among major forms of transit, hybrid rail (diesel-powered rail cars that often run on light-rail schedules) is the most dangerous, killing 29 people per billion passenger miles. Light rail is next at 13, while buses and heavy rail are both less than 5.
These numbers are from the Federal Transit Administration’s safety and security time series, which counts fatalities and injuries by mode. The FTA’s spreadsheet also includes fatality numbers for 2017 and January of 2018, but does not have passenger miles for those years, so we can’t calculate rates. I’ve summarized the data in a spreadsheet showing fatalities and passenger miles by mode and year.
Commuter rail is not included on the FTA spreadsheet as that is governed by the Federal Railroad Administration. You can find commuter rail fatality numbers in table 2-34 of National Transportation Statistics. Comparing these fatalities with passenger miles reported by the National Transit Database historic time series indicates an average commuter-rail fatality rate of about 8.8 per billion passenger miles.
The spreadsheet reported a few streetcar fatalities, but all of these were in Philadelphia, which I consider to be light rail, not streetcars. (The difference is that light-rail cars can be coupled together and sometimes run in their own rights of way, both of which are true for Philadelphia’s system.) The spreadsheet also reported a handful of cable car, monorail, automated guideway, and other fatalities, but 95 percent of fatalities are bus, light rail, heavy rail, or commuter rail.
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Why would transit fatality rates be rising? Commuter-rail fatality rates have remained roughly constant since 2002. Bus and heavy-rail rates have risen only slightly. Hybrid rail did not exist before 2011, but it caused only 1 to 4 fatalities per year.
The major culprit seems to be light rail, which has seen fatality numbers quadruple between 2002 and 2016. Light-rail rates have risen from less than 10 per billion passenger miles in most years before 2009 and to more than 15 per billion in most years since 2009. Light rail carries less than 6 percent of transit passenger miles but was responsible for a third of the increase in fatalities since 2002.
Putting 60,000-pound streetcars in the streets and running them at 10 to 12 miles per hour doesn’t seem to be a major threat to public safety. But putting trains of two to four light-rail cars weighing 200,000 to 400,000 pounds in streets and running them at 20 to 30 miles per hour turns out to be very dangerous. Of course, transit agencies always try to blame accidents on the auto driver or pedestrian, but the real problem is putting such heavy vehicles on the streets in the first place.
Well it’s finally happened, I’ve been banned from Streetsblog, DISQUS comments.
Apparently citing data, providing data both statistical and anecdotal. I’ve been mistaken for Randol O’Toole and refered to as “Shill of the oil industry”
Getting hit by a Volvo pulling a 53′ dry van(80,000 lbs) @ 30 mph isn’t good either.
LazyReader, well Randal O’Toole is a shill. Your arguments are political, not economic.
Randal O’Toole has even agreed with me and admitted to it too :$
“Highways are there regardless of economic conditions” -Randal O’Toole
Highways are there………..because they’re the connecting points of local roads and streets. And their economic validity is irrelevant because for less money you can have highways over rail. A mile of four lane highway with pullover shoulder costs 8-11 million dollars per mile. Rail anywhere from 10 million in the boondocks to 100+ million in the urban areas.
Highways are there regardless of economic conditions, that’s because they can survive bad economies, evolving economies and shifting ones……hell we can drive on dirt or gravel if we want to and we did………turn of the 20th century. Roads have been around for 10,000 years, an invention as old as civilization, one of the inventions that began civilization.
Any shiny, new fangled transportation technology that requires new infrastructure to be put into place is destined to fail against transportation where simple technological improvements using existing infrastructure.
UC professor Charles Lave insisted on observing the “Law of Large Proportions.” Investing $1 Billion on the option used by 90+% of the people (Drive Alone, carpool, vanpool, paratransit vehicle, buses) will produce far more benefits than investing the same $1 Billion on the option used by 1% of the people (Rail). A billion dollar suspension bridge can be paid for with user fees. A billion dollar railway bridge is often never paid for, except via the means the transit provision in the first place and fares barely cover a portion of the operating expenses and maintenance requirements. This is why transit agencies often avoid building bridges or tunnels.
I’m less worried about transit fatalities and more about personnel finances. Many transit agencies are or are nearing inevitable bankruptcy. Like the Antiplanner said “It takes two parties to agree to a contract”.
In some cases these agencies were well aware that their financial obligations were questionable when they were agreed upon. Many of these contracts were signed upon in the 1990’s…..the legislators, governors, mayors that put their thumbs up on the issue, they’re gone, but the debts remain. Now the new generation of politicians is set to inherit a crisis, or worse the Public lynching of having protestors at their home or place of work. It’s been made painfully aware that most of these agencies had unfunded liabilities in one form or another and chose to ignore it.
LazyReader; A mile of four lane highway with pullover shoulder costs 8-11 million dollars per mile. Rail anywhere from 10 million in the boondocks to 100+ million in the urban areas.
THWM; Yes, the costs of expressways and HSR are approximately the same, but I’m not saying that everything should be HSR.
Again it’s politics, not economics. With the way that you guys do things, you’d go bankrupt from having sidewalks :$
Freeways and her do not cost the same. Look at what I5 in central valley cost vs the $150 million – $200 M Cali had is spending to build. Flat open relatively sparsely populated and they’re spending 8 h 10 times as much per mile to carry 1\5th as many people and zero freight, no first responders, etc.
You’re still conflating things, I don’t support crooked contractors. I’m helping people in my region against this rail project, it’s not compatible with regular trains :$
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/politique-quebecoise/201805/31/01-5184015-francois-legault-prolongerait-le-rem-en-monteregie.php
Prk166, so given your sheer hatred of railroads, do you want to go all Incel like with your car on a sidewalk? :$
Highwayman, so given your sheer hatred of cars, do you want to go all sleepy time in your train going into a curve? :$
I’m fully aware that you teahadi’s don’t have any moral compass.
Driving drowsy is a problem, regardless of mode :$
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNvn3CTaig