Metro Survey Shows Sexual Harassment is Slightly Down

Metro has released the data from their "semi-annual" customer satisfaction survey of bus and train riders. The Source says nearly 20,000 riders filled out surveys asking about their opinions on everything from station cleanliness to how safe they feel riding Metro vehicles. The latest survey data comes off the heels of recent Metro plans to curb sexual harassment and decrease the travel times of its bus fleet. Since the previous Metro (where a disturbing 22 percent of riders on trains and buses reported experiencing sexual harassment), they have increased the specificity and amount of questions asked about instances of harassment on Metro buses and trains.

Rather than fit under an all encompassing question of whether customers had been sexually harassed, this survey delineates between non-physical sexual harassment, instances of groping, and indecent exposure. They found 18 percent of bus riders and 21 percent of train riders had experienced sexual harassment in general (a slight drop). 7 percent of all respondents for both bus and rail said they had experienced inappropriate touching or groping. 7 percent of bus riders had experienced indecent exposure versus 10 percent of train riders. Overall the number of people getting sexually harassed is down from last year's survey, but (in terms of general harassment) identical to the numbers from the winter 2013 survey.

As for those total trip times, both wait times and total travel times have not experienced significant drops in the past few surveys. This will probably change in the next survey when the Metro goes through with plans to speed up service through strategic cuts to existing routes.

A final standout statistic: the median income of metro riders. Since 2013, the median income for both bus and train riders has fallen every year. (The median income of train riders remains significantly higher than bus riders, though.) —Jeff Wattenhofer

· 2015 Survey [The Source]
· Here's Metro's Big Proposal to Speed Up and Cut Back on Los Angeles Bus Service [Curbed LA]
· Metro attacks sexual harassment with "off limits" campaign [The Source]