Assaults on bus drivers steadily declining in Metro Vancouver
Credit to Author: Jennifer Saltman| Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 00:51:52 +0000
Fewer bus drivers in Metro Vancouver are being assaulted, thanks in part to protective barriers that are being installed in the region’s buses.
According to data provided by TransLink, the regional transit authority, there were 89 assaults last year on drivers who work for Coast Mountain Bus Company, the operating arm of TransLink that provides 96 per cent of bus services in Metro. That number is down from 99 the previous year and 106 in 2016. In 2015, there were 110 assaults.
To date in 2019, there have been 54 assaults on bus drivers, with the worst month being April, when there were 11. This is comparable to 2017, when there were 55 assaults in the first seven months of the year.
“We’re encouraged to see that when factoring in ridership growth, TransLink is on track to match last year’s record low levels of operator assaults,” TransLink spokesperson Jill Drews said in an email.
This year, buses in Metro Vancouver have had an average of more than 20 million boardings each month.
Balbir Mann, president of Unifor Local 111, which represents almost 4,000 Coast Mountain drivers, confirmed that the data provided by TransLink matched the union’s records.
Both the union and TransLink say it is unlikely that lower assault numbers have anything to do with fewer assaults being reported by drivers.
“We’re encouraging members if anything happens out there that is toward you, consider it as an assault — it doesn’t matter, minor or major — and our members are reporting all of them to (Coast Mountain),” Mann said.
Operator protection barriers are a major factor in the decrease.
“It’s helping us with the unprovoked attacks on our members, this barrier,” said Mann.
In spring 2017, TransLink announced that it would make safety barriers standard on all new 40-foot, 60-foot and double-decker buses ordered for Metro Vancouver, as part of its efforts to reduce driver assaults.
New buses with barriers began arriving in late April 2018.
The barriers have a fixed solid portion that prevents attacks from behind, and a sliding glass partition that lets drivers talk to customers. Purchasing and installing a barrier costs about $5,000.
According to a recent report to TransLink’s board of directors, Coast Mountain has installed barriers on six trolley buses, and there are 285 conventional buses in service with barriers. The company plans to put barriers in 208 air-conditioned New Flyer Xcelsior buses and retrofit its 256 trolley buses, and it is expected that 60 Xcelsior buses and 72 trolley buses will have barriers by the end of this year.
Barrier installation is a bit behind schedule because the transit authority had to develop a different prototype for each model of bus in its fleet.
“We have taken the necessary time to develop prototypes for all models,” said Drews. “They also have to work for operators or else they could cause ergonomic or reliability issues.”
Mann said the union is encouraging Coast Mountain to do the retrofits on existing buses sooner rather than later.
It is expected that the entire bus fleet will have safety barriers by 2027.
Over the years, Coast Mountain has also brought in on-board security cameras, GPS radio systems, assault alarms, driver training, more transit security and police, and run public information campaigns to reduce assaults.
Mann said the training in particular has helped members to not engage with people who have not paid fares or are causing issues.
The District of West Vancouver keeps the statistics for West Vancouver Transit, also known as Blue Bus, which has nine routes that serve the district and some stops in North Vancouver and Vancouver.
In 2015, 2016 and 2017, there were no assaults on bus drivers, according to West Vancouver’s records. In 2018, there were two assaults — one in March and one in April. There has been one so far in 2019.
West Vancouver spokesperson Donna Powers said Blue Bus operators are trained with the same policy as Coast Mountain, which is to let customers know that they can be fined for not having the correct fare.
“Some operators will force the issue and have been assaulted for it,” Powers said in an email.
West Vancouver hopes to have protective barriers installed in its buses by the end of this year.
A representative from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 134, which represents Blue Bus drivers, could not be reached for comment.
According to TransLink, there have been two assaults on HandyDART in the past 13 months. The number is low, likely because every customer, including their contact information, is known to TransLink.
“Most drivers and customers have established excellent relationships because they see each other regularly,” Drews said.