In his first term in the Minnesota House in 2019, Rep. Brad Tabke was one of legislators trying to broker a bipartisan agreement on Metro Transit safety. Back then, the discussion surrounded shifting fare enforcement from police officers to civilian staff and swapping expensive misdemeanor violations rarely prosecuted with citations similar to parking tickets.
Four years later, Tabke — who uses bus and light rail to get to and from the Capitol from his home in Shakopee — no longer thinks the so-called transit ambassadors program is enough. The state and Metro Transit need to do more, and quickly, to reduce crime and misbehavior on the Metro Transit system, especially the Blue and Green light rail lines, he said.
“As I was riding transit it became very clear from the first couple of days that what we wanted to do for safety wasn’t a viable solution, maybe a 20-to-30% solution at best,” Tabke said last week. “We need something else to move the needle in the culture of safety and efficiency and comfort of using the trains.”
Tabke, a DFLer who is vice chair of the House Transportation Committee, said he wants the bill to move quickly in order to get the work started before summer when bad behavior and criminal activity increases on trains. A hearing is set for Feb. 23 and after a stop in the House Ways and Means Committee, he hopes it can move to the House floor.
Senate Transportation Committee Chair Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, is the lead on the plan in the Senate.
Conversations with the Met Council, advocates, transit police and transit riders led Tabke to a plan to “reset in the culture of what it is to be a transit rider.” His proposal would require the Met Council to develop a code of conduct for transit riders and then create a two-phase plan to enforce it. Called the Transit Service Intervention Project, the first three-week phase would mobilize social service workers and advocates for people who are homeless as well as for those living with mental illness and addiction. They would work to get people into housing or services.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]State Rep. Brad Tabke no longer thinks the so-called transit ambassadors program is enough.[/image_caption]
The second phase, lasting another nine weeks, would team these workers with law enforcement — both Metro Transit police and officers from cities the light rail trains pass through — to continue the social services interventions and enforce the code of conduct. The bill includes giving police officers the authority to remove people who violate the code from trains and platforms.
Coordinating the work of the various government and nonprofit entities would be done by a project manager appointed by the governor. It also includes a task force made up of people from the state departments of Public Safety, Human Services, the Met Council, the counties and cities in which light rail passes, the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota and other advocacy groups. The project would be evaluated after the first three months to determine if it should continue or be modified. It isn’t yet clear how much the programs outlined in the bill would cost. “It’s important for people to understand that this is the start of what we hope is a sea change in safety and comfort of riding the trains,” Tabke said. If it works, more people will ride the trains, which will also help with safety.
The code of conduct could go beyond the misdemeanors cited in the draft bill which include playing loud music, smoking, eating, littering and bringing a non-service animal onto trains. Tabke said he expected it would include drug use, threatening other riders and damaging trains.
The bill specifically prohibits the code to penalize people “sleeping in a manner that does not otherwise violate conduct requirements.”
Met Council is on board
During a virtual listening session Friday, participants were mostly supportive but were concerned that the interventions target only behaviors that are disruptive and dangerous and not just those that are annoying. A person without a home who eats on a train is less of a problem than someone who smokes, uses drugs or threatens other riders, participants said.
Others raised concerns about racial equity and social justice, fearing enforcement would fall more heavily on low-income and people of color.
“A misdemeanor is small but they also contribute deeply to racial inequities,” said Amity Foster, a transit rider and advocate. “I’d just like to flag that. I don’t have a solution but we should be aware of that as we roll this out. It’s gonna have impact bigger than transit safety, or it could.”
Ryan Timlin, the president and business agent for the transit drivers union ATU Local 1005, suggested placing special emphasis on hot spots — routes, times and stations where illegal activity is more common. He expressed sympathy for helping people without homes or who are addicted to drugs, “but they can’t be doing that stuff on the system. It’s not good for anybody.”
Met Council spokesperson John Schadl said the council is aware of and supportive of the Tabke proposal.
“We are pleased to participate in this effort and look forward to working with the Legislature this year to address transit safety and security, as it is a top priority of ours as well,” Schadl said.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]A sign depicting what’s not allowed on a Metro Transit vehicle.[/image_caption]
“It is our highest priority,” Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle told the Senate Transportation Committee last month. “If we don’t have a safe and welcoming environment for our customers, we can’t expect our customers to return and use our service.”
Zelle also told the committee the Met Council is going to hire private security contractors to patrol hot spots full time. The Council recently announced the hiring of a new transit police chief, Ernest Morales, III, who is expected to be on duty before the safety intervention plan begins.
Transit ambassadors
The transit ambassadors concept — which Tabke promises will have a different name this year — was meant to take on fare evasion. Current law requires commissioned police officers to issue citations. But because the offense is relatively minor but the penalty severe — $180 — it left prosecutors in Hennepin and Ramsey unlikely to take cases to court.
Civilians, like parking enforcement staff, could write a ticket akin to a parking ticket that might carry a fine of $35 and not require a court appearance. The ambassadors could also help riders navigate the system and would be able to radio to transit police to report crimes or disturbances. At the same time, police officers could devote time to crimes, not whether someone paid a fare of a few dollars.
Some, but not all, Republicans considered the ambassadors concept soft on crime and kept it from passing for four legislative sessions. While the DFL has the legislative clout to pass it this year, Tabke said his experience has convinced him that stronger interventions are needed.
The ambassadors program has been used in other cities, including the Bay Area of California on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.
Code of conduct? OMG!
“Code of conduct,” ok, I am with you as a skeptic, if it won’t be enforced. Americans don’t even have any effective code of conduct, any really enforced standards, for sitting members of Congress, as we can all agree in the case of George Santos, ace pitcher for the New York Yankees and secret adviser to the Kansas City Chiefs.
But there are various kinds and levels of enforcement, so making a reasonable code for transit riders would also have the effect of allowing transit riders to cite it in conversations around the entire community and urge riders to take it seriously.
Perhaps a better name for it would be “Expectations” or “These Are The Rules.”
It would be instructive for Met Council to look at how trams are operated in Amsterdam. Entrance is limited to the front of the tram by the driver or an entrance in the front of another car where there is a staffed desk. Payment is made on the tram rather than outside at the station. This allows the driver/staff to make sure each person pays. It also means that passengers don’t have to worry about missing the tram if they are running late and don’t have time to pay at the platform payment stand. The other advantage of the staffed desk is that the person keeps an eye on behavior. It certainly costs more to have paid staff on the tram, but in my opinion it is well worth that cost, as people pay their fares and they behave. The trams always feel very safe and ridership is high.
I’m not familiar with the Amsterdam system, but the word “tram” suggests something more like a streetcar than a light rail train. Streetcars would be easier to police and monitor than light rail trains, and the unfortunate fact is that our planners don’t seem to know the difference between the two. They’ve planned and routed LRT as if it were streetcars, thus impairing the advantages of either mode. The existing Green Line is a striking example of that confusion. It seems clear that individual streetcars on University Avenue would provide handier, more detailed service than LRT, and should be safer to ride because of pay to board.
Probably entirely too sensible to be implemented here.
Sounds like a rational idea to explore. But, proponents will have tough sledging when citing a model from Europe… as it is missing two key things: ‘Murica and a gun.
Alas, that is an entirely different type of train than what we have. Ours are three cars long, without connections between them, and requiring everyone to pay upon entering would take forever.
Talk about job creation: hire 2 guys per train to keep out (and if need be, knock out) the riffraff. Law-abiding riders deserve to be safe; prospects for danger shouldn’t even enter their minds.
When I retired in 2016 I did use the light rail to travel to both downtowns and MOA. It was an easy walk from my home to the Lake Street station. As social issues grew, walking to Lake Street to use transit became less of an option. Now that I am 69 and live in Roseville with easy access to the A-Line, there is no way I would use transit. A few years ago young thugs beat up an older man and threw him off the number 5 bus at Chicago & Lake causing injuries to the gentleman. Another reality is hiring people for security on transit lines. That is a heavy lift. I applaud your efforts Rep. Tabke to tackle this immense issue.
When the “transit ambassador” program started a while ago, it was predictable that it wouldn’t work. Here is your big government woke Minnesota lawmakers on display. The change to ambassador program was 4 years ago, it was quickly seen that the new program wouldn’t work but it takes 4 years to first admit it doesn’t work, then change it.
A transit rider stated she felt taxpayers criticizing the transit authority was a shot at it’s riders, that is not accurate. The folks running the transit program are the problem not it’s riders. When you have unlimited taxpayer dollars coming in, change is slow and criticism is not welcomed.
“Woke” is globally vague attempt to imply that whatever policy is being attacked is inherently and deeply flawed, without making any cogent, relevant argument as to why that is supposed to be the case. Ditto “big government,” it’s not a part of any meaningful argument — the government programs need to be evaluated on their own merits.
Definition of Woke: trying to use ambassadors, with no legal authority, to stop riders from using transit system as a bathroom, living room and kitchen on public dime….. Shockingly it did not work!
Cogent point: nobody, except wokies, thought it would work.
Not too many years ago, “woke” was a term used in Black communities to describe someone who was well-informed about the world. Being well-informed is, of course, anathema to conservatives so the term was turned into an insult.
Appropriating the term wasn’t enough.
The next conservative cult leader’s attorney had to define woke and did so as “it would be the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” The fact that conservatives use the term “woke” as an insult when literally defining it as those who acknowledge something that is 100% demonstrably true is so ironic it is lost on them. It is basically an admission of being purposefully ignorant of something and proud of it. It is such an egregious self-own that it would be considered too ridiculous for an Onion article. But conservatives post-Trump have become such unintended parodies of themselves that they have ushered us into a post-ironic world where parody no longer can function. It is how they hope to keep people from laughing at them.
It’s easier to spell than “empathetic.” Also, they may not be sure what “empathetic” means, but they have some vague sense that most people would not regard it as a bad thing.
I’ve long thought that among today’s brand of MAGA or MAGA-inspired extremism – sorry, MAGA-inspired conservatism, that empathy is seen as weakness. You hear the phrase, “the cruelty is the point,” and part of that is ignoring it, or as often seen and heard by GOP candidates and office holders, endorsing and encouraging it.
The problems on the Blue and Green lines are signs of deeper problems within the Twin Cities. The problems stem primarily from poverty, unemployment, homelessness, failure to complete a high school education and drug use, not to mention failure to respect the rights of other travelers.
The purpose of public transportation is transportation; not to solve society’s fundamental problems. It’s time to solve the root causes of our basic problems. The majority of the light rail problems could be solved by a secure access to the light rail open only to customers who have paid tickets.
We can do both, in the sense that when transit has become a point of contact with homeless people, drug abusers, and mentally ill people, making real attempts to connect them with social services helps everyone involved.
National Alliance on Mental Illness cites that only 5% of violent crimes are due to peolpe with mental illnesses. The other 95% of violent crimes are due to people without mental illnesses.
Moreover, kids from affluent families are also trouble-makers. I am from an affluent family, and we have had relationships with past transit commissioners and Metropolitan Commissioners. I know from personal experience of the ill-deeds of my “affluent and wealthy peers,” that many are deadbeats.
Please don’t speak from a position of ignorance.
By the way, with depression and anxiety from being attacked by people for roughly thirty-years, including being molested and raped by several women when I have been in job interviews or asleep, I am among those who are “mentally ill,” and I am a pacifist who has written to world leaders and received replies. I attended Macalester College and and University of Minnesota, as well as schools in Europe and Latin America. Speak for yourself.
Tram idea does not work here as you can’t walk car to car. We need a turnstile system or a scanning system at each entry with lights or noise for violators like in store exits. It could use the Go card easily. This PREVENTS cheating. Remember we had criminals cheating on car pool lanes on 394 and the state found millions to fund more highway patrol cars and officers to stop the cheaters.
Sacramento haș a system that appears to work well with a fine and homeless can work it off at Loaves and Fishes. Security carries a database type walkie talkie and turns over the offender at next stop calling on his walkie talkie. BUT, PREVENTION is easier than correction so I like turnstiles or something to PREVENT free loaders from getting on the platform. MN needs to stop being so naive with honor system for fares on A line and light rail- we lose a lot of money and force passengers to endure tons of headaches. Think we need to step up to solve the homeless issue and stop thieves from getting on LRT platforms ASAP. I have witnessed some REALLY violent behavior on both light rail lines. Prevention before boarding is best, but I do like emptying out the train at the end of the line so cleaners can remove the stench. Prevention is more effective and can truly cost less in the long run. Honor system no longer works in MSP – even our A line needs to have people scan upon boarding as few seem to pay.
I think the first month anything is tried will be difficult for enforcement as MTC has allowed this behavior for years now. The first month you will need extra officers for sure. The soft start like with homeless camps followed with enforcement seems to be a compromise that works in homeless camps. Our light rail is known as our biggest homeless shelter in the Cities and I noticed many of them heavily drugged or doing drug deals (one last Friday in main floor restroom with security officer) or relieving themselves on cameras outside closed restroom in St Paul Union Depot. It was closed due to drug trafficking. Many homeless are veterans like myself and many are mentally ill, which can’t be dealt with by light rail system. Best prevention is prevention.
My wife and I no longer ride the light rail due to safety concerns. Really sad as I liked our light rail and it WAS very successful.
How about enforcing the laws and rules we already have, rather then adding more and creating a new bureaucracy whose primary function is to make everyone feel good about doing something, rather than actually attacking the problem by kicking people off mass transit who are just looking for a place to hang out, rather than going somewhere.
None of this is about merely making us “feel good,” it’s meant to deal with serious problems. And kicking people off the bus or light rail who are homeless, disturbed, substance abusers, etc., solves nothing overall, it just relocates the issues elsewhere.
Yeah, it may however encourage people to use the metro transit system they payed for!
Kicking them off and getting them into treatment programs will resolve a lot.
Before I was first diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder – depression in 1988 when I was 26-years old, my friends started leaving me cold. It was that which led to my strong sense that I had to get my life together, and I did. After six months, my friends started coming back to me and treating me with the same respect they did prior to the point when my life began to fall apart.
It is a federal law that all insurers must insure people with mental health concerns and treat them with medication and/or talk therapy. Even medical assistance pays for this. I served for three years as an advisor to the Hennepin County Bopard of Commissioners and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton on mental health. Dayton has been public about his depression and alcoholism and is doing well in his seventies.
These conditions are often not caught until someone is in their mid-twenties. I’d previously been an honors and gifted student at De La Salle High School, one of the top ten schools in Minnesota. I’d been active in all kinds of extracurricular activities, and my Oxford-trained academic advisor encouraged me to attend Harvard, Yale or Georgetown. I opted for Macalester College, which was in town and near my family and friends.
Mental health concerns can be effectively resolved, and many of our most endeared politicians (prior to the bizarre movies about people with mental illnesses came out) and popular culture stars have mental illnesses. Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut, is mentally ill with depression and alcoholism in his history. He walked on the moon.
Getting people off these vehicles and punishing them for their lack of common sense and poor hygiene is the best thing that can happen to them. Singapore employs caning people who are foolish and use poor hygiene in public. It is time we stop listening to weak minds who sing kumbayah and ignore harsh realities which are costly and provide headaches, as they do with their insidious and foolish attitudes of being nice to everyone.
Our state legislators should be legislating for statewide reforms and programs, not metro area concerns. Let the Twin Cities councils and committees take care of their own problems.
Majority of the state’s population lives in the Twin Cities, so naturally enough, legislation focused on the Cities is always going to be a priority. The reforms that are effective are going to benefit the majority of Minnesota citizens, including vistors from the rest of the state and the USA who might ride a bus or light rail. You need either a much better set of arguments, or to reconsider the likely effects of your views. Fortunately no one is going to be persuaded by them as it is, at least no one not already resigned to societal stasis and hopelessness in the face of serious problems in the transit system of our largest cities. But those people never consider anything on its merits, they’ve given up.
I think there is a large percentage of the public that will just avoid mass transit all together, and many of them are past transit users.
I guess that’s an argument for never trying to evolve better transit systems, no matter how beneficial more and more safe and reliable mass transit will be to help us deal with the effects of global climate change. An argument that surrenders in advance to these problems, and will be rejected by anyone with a sense of community.
I thought modern wisdom has taught us to believe that all cultures are equal and should be celebrated? Am I detecting a whiff of cultural supremacism here?
If you want a good chuckle, imagine the start to finish process of the clueless working group that was tasked with producing the it is illegal to use the train as a public restroom sign.
Combine this with the innate wisdom of the transit advocate and philosopher who “flagged” but “had no answer for” the potential consequences of actually enforcing the existing laws.
Whoever said comedy is dead?
It’s funny when people try to help!
It’s almost as hilarious that someone would think the two things I mentioned would be any sort of “help”!
What could be more helpful than sneering, am I right?
Acknowledge we may need to do some perceptually unpleasant things to actually address a problem? Not count on the same privileged platitudes and feelgoodery that have lead to this mess in the first place?
When people in power make obviously meaningless and ridiculous decisions they deserve to be mocked.
Or, maybe like the those I’m mocking, you actually believe people who openly shoot dope and defficate on public transit will be swayed by a firmly worded placard?
Why don’t you make actual proposals instead of indulging in mockery, or making vague generalities about doing “perceptually unpleasant things?” The people whom you mock are putting forth some suggestions for making things better. What are you suggesting?
Because it is all a tragic comedy. And, if you can’t laugh at those who deserve to be laughed at they will continue to behave in their same clueless manner. Was trump not deservedly mocked when he told us to put bleach and sunlight up our ho has? Speaking truth to power through satire and mockery is as old as humanity.
My “vague” idea of how this needs resolving is we attack it on a micro level before we try to address any macro societal isssues. The transit system belongs to all of us and we should all feel relatively safe using it. The only thing I see making a difference is starting a period of strict overwhelming enforcement of conduct while riding, on platforms etc. Problem passengers will need to be immediately removed. Trains, busses etc need to be stopped for infractions. The use of overwhelming physical, technological, and consequencial force will likely be needed in the beginning to turn the tides. People in the activist crowd will decry this and perceive it to be whatever -ist they are highlighting on that day. This is all the perceptual unpleasantness I am talking about.
Once we let it deteriorate to this level it’s going to be really messy to actually clean this up. I don’t know if we have available the amount of money and manpower this will require, or if it is even going to make a difference this late in the game. We ceded all control long ago.
At the edges we can try to enlist social welfare groups etc. to help as part of this effort, but I’m personally skeptical of their efficacy in this situation. As long as we aren’t ineffectually spending too much public money on this part of the effort the more the merrier.
Now back to my mockery which is way more fun than writing treatises. And, you keep on believing in the all ideas are good ideas people who come up with the”this is not a public restroom”signs!
“The use of overwhelming physical, technological, and consequencial force will likely be needed in the beginning to turn the tides.”
That line speaks for itself.
You are writing from a very practical and logical sense that would, seemingly, produce positive results …. but, it would offend some, or a few, and therefore your ideas are not practical and do not make sense in the world in which we live.
Singapore uses caning on people who don’t flush urinals in public restrooms and who behave poorly on public conveyances. Perhaps this should be tried here in the State of Minnesota, ignoring the activists who decry it as inhumane. It works in Singapore, and they have among the cleanest and most well-run cities in the world.
“Perhaps this should be tried here in the State of Minnesota, ignoring the activists who decry it as inhumane.”
I think the Eighth Amendment might come into play here. You’ll have to redirect your fantasies.
Before retirement, I wrote surveys for a living. It is an iron clad rule that people may not answer your question, but they are unlikely to answer a question you don’t ask
Let me offer a suggestion. You ask now for comments. That is what you get. If you change the question to “comments and suggestions,” you will get people to suggest solutions. Not only that, their comments will start to define the problem that their solution fits.
Let me illustrate. Here is how you could learn and maybe find solutions who will work for those whose behavior you are trying to change – the offenders. Rather than giving them an immediate penalty, invite them to share their opinion about why they offended and what would make it easier to change their behavior. Do an interview or a focus group. The reward for an interview. No charge. For participating in a focus group, maybe a one month transit pass with a drawing for a full year.
An observation. Homeless people lack everything. They practically have to break laws to live. Many are mentally ill. They should probably not be on the street.
A revolutionary idea would be to give them weekly transit passes, if they show up for a wellness pass to get one. Trying to collect from them is like trying to get blood from a turnip. The only condition – no disorderly behavior while on transit. Quietly sleep OK, but nothing else. Professionals in the field have blinders which prevent them from setting the situation. They are patients and need therapeutic solutions.
That will allow law enforcement for violent young men who ignore all rules. They need tough love, not looking the other way. They chose to act as they do. Society cannot tolerate the outcomes.
Mr. Stegner, I frequently applaud your comments. However, your comment that “mentally ill people…they don’t belong on the streets,” is the worst form of ableism and objectifying that I can imagine. The Mayo Clniic has reported that over 30% of college students, like myself, experience depression and anxiety. You can check online for the veracity of the follownig: From 1776 to 1974, 49% of U.S. presidents experienced one or more forms of mental illness — including Abe Lincoln and General of the Army, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was principally known for bringing us the Interstate Highway System and the rise of the middle class.
Further, a statement in the aricle used the words “mental illness” as if there is only one kind of mental illness. There are nearly 300 forms of mental illnesses with over 600 sub-forms/varieties.
Let’s not go around frightening people about those of us with one or more mental illnesses. I got mine from being atacked by my mom and stepdad, as well as my brother (with knives and baseball bats), as well as by students in junior high school through college and then, over thirty years later, but drug addicts near my University of Minnesota West Bank neighborhood. I’m a pacifist. I was ignored by UMPD for two years when UMPD Captain Fran Gernhandt saud: “Barry, you’re mentally ill. You bring no your own problems. Therefore, UMPD will neither investigate nor arrest anyone on your behalf.” My dad was an Associate U.S. Attorney and Associate Minnesota Attorney General. He was a city attorney and President of the Anoka County Bar Association. Even he didn’t do anything to assist me, and the results were ruinous. My self-esteem and morale were so low for decades that I couldn’t believe anyone would accept me as an emlpoyee — despite the fact that my IQ is 126 and I was a gifted and honors student at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis — where several student beat me and tried to throw me through a second story picture window leadinf from the “new building” to the older historic building. I was hospitalized for over 50 days and didn’t want to go back to school. I was, however, admitted to Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN, where I became a lifelnog friend of Mac’s president, John B. Davis, Jr.
Further, again, National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) reports that only 5% of violent crimes are committed by people with mental illnesses. They are usually people with drug and alcohol problems using violence to get money or rob homes and stores to get their fix of drugs. Ninety-five percent (95%) of violent crimes are commited by you “normal people” who don’t really care about the well-being of others. Roughly 20% of the U.S. population has been diagnosed with one or more mental illnesses. There are greater numbers of peolpe, but they refuse to do anything about their conditions for fear of what others might say about them, as they are trainwrecks waiting to happen or have left the station.
The public is woefully and poorly educated about mental illnesses and the people who have them. Many of the most famous and beloved people in politics and popular culture have experienced one or more mental illnesses (again, there is a plurality of them of over 600 varieties). If you are addicted to caffeine, you’re mentally ill. Similarly, with alcohol. However, since the time that satirical and horror movies about people with mental illnesses have come out, out society in the U.S. believes that we are utrustoworthy — so that peolpe will buy hot dogs, pop and candy. When I was in Europe and Latin America, I had no problems with harassment or violence and was treated like a prince.
Stop believing that people with mental illnesses are irretriveably unfit for public office, public service or public living. This is a brain distortion on your part and does a great deal of harm to the millions of us who have intelligently sought care to overcome our difficulties, often based on the treatment we receive from other people.
I used the transit system quite a bit to commute to my job between 2004 and 2008. The trains were clean, on time, and comfortable. I actually liked using them. My most recent use of the trains were eye opening. I thought reports off filthy train interiors, rampant smoking, drug use, harassment were exaggerated. To my dismay, I discovered those reports were accurate. I was shocked at what I saw. No wonder ridership is down. I won’t use the trains anymore myself until radical changes happen.
The problem is that trouble makers who moved onto the trains now consider them “their turf.” You can have all the civilian “ambassadors” you want. The trouble makers are going to fight back to defend their turf. The Met Council had better be prepared for some ugly scenes on the news when the “service workers” and “advocates” start trying to do what Tabke proposes. They’re gonna get hard pushback. They can try to be as calming and rational as they want, but it won’t be pretty.
This 1000%!!!!
I’m glad someone is trying to do something. On the other hand, doesn’t Metro Transit have its own police force? Why are they so utterly incapable of ensuring that people are not smoking on trains, are not defacing property, etc.? Also, having individuals who are no peace officers issue people citations for fare evasion is a joke. First, why would anyone engaging in fare evasion positively ID themselves and then stick around long enough for a citation to be issued if there is no threat of arrest? Second, does anyone seriously think that those citations are going to be paid? If they are not paid, what is the deterrent effect?
Even before the pandemic when ridership was high, transit police rarely ever rode the entire route. Frequently they would at a stop like Nicollet Mall and ride to the Franklin Ave Station on the Blue Line. I have never seen a transit cop ride the entire length of the Green Line.
In the time I was riding the trains, the ONLY time I EVER saw the transit police was when they were sitting in their comfy squads, next to the station. I NEVER actually saw any of them on the trains themselves.
Mike and David,
YES – absolutely correct on that. I ride the Green Line and the A line from time to time. During the day is fine. After dark and later in the evening, it changes drastically.
I recall one time in the evening coming in via Amtrak. My wife said that when traveling in Europe, we always used public transit so could we take a trip here doing the same?
At Union Station we disembarked Amtrak late in the evening and walked up to the light rail station. There must have been six to eight transit cops and SUV’s parked on the sidewalk. A transit cop did do a walk-thru of our light rail car minutes before departure. (And perhaps, met the minimal “standard of duty”.) Then about one minute before we left out from the shadows came all sorts of people of the night. While they all took over one end of the car, we left. With all the transit cops in a circle back by their SUV’s.
In St. Paul at Union Station, the light rail train boards on the west side. Where were all the transit cops? On the east, blind side of the loading.
Could we try destination buses. The only successful run is the State Fair run. Collection points for those wanting to go to the MOA, airports, sports venues, theaters. This be all things to all people isn’t working.
Where would that leave the people who need to get somewhere other than one of the destinations?
The biggest mistake – in my opinion – was the way the train platforms are constructed. I get wanting them to feel open and welcoming, but the design was always going to lend itself to these problems. I can think of two reasonable suggestions:
1. A transit cop needs to be on every trip. They can easily get out at various stops along the way and change cars. This allows them to conduct random ticket checks and monitor for problems. A consistent transit cop presence on each and every trip should act as a deterrent for bad behavior. Even before the pandemic they would rarely ride the full route.
2. The busiest train platforms need to be reworked so they can’t be accessed until a fare has been paid. I get it will take a lot of time and money to do each platform on both lines, but start with the busiest ones.
As far as turnstiles go, I know a couple of people from NY city. They told me that the turnstiles in their system doesn’t slow down the freeloaders one second. All they do is jump over them and keep going.
Expensive non-solution, and makes it harder for people on crutches, in wheelchairs, and those with lots of baggage/shopping bags, etc.
The reality is Metro Transit , for a variety of reasons has lost a significant amount of ridership and fare revenue.
A significant portion won’t be coming back. Our future transit investments should reflect that. Spend the money where it is needed vs wherever they feel like it.
Many of these comments assume bad behavior on the trains is due to homelessness, poverty, etc. Undoubtably somewhat true.
But I’m also seeing something else—a party atmosphere where misbehavior is celebrated and laughed at. People lighting up as soon as the “no smoking” reminder comes on. Bicycles obstructing the aisle placed directly in front of the bicycle rack. This suggests to me that the party can be moved elsewhere.
Culture can be changed if we believe people are capable of change rather than helpless victims of circumstance. Give them a chance.
All aboard the magic train/bus.. Take you pick. Party on Wheels.
I’m not concerned if the enforcement would fall heavily on non-White commnuities, if Whites were also tagged and removed. I have seen both non-Whites and Whites creating disturbances on the train, yelling, putting their wet shoes on the seats and smoking.
In 2019, I got on a train and sat down, only to smell that someone who had defecated in their pants had sat down there before me. The odor rubbed off on my clothing, and I was told that if I came to work like that again, I wouldn’t have a job.
My dad’s friend and coworker, Bruce Nawrocki, was a transit commissioner in the 1970s abnd 80s. My friend AJ Siddiqui, MBA, CPA was a Metro Council Commissioner in more recent years. I have been riding public busses for fifty-four years and I learned to be courteous and use good judgment when on the busses and trains. I think of public amentities from both the perspective of a citizen who uses them, as well as one with friends and acquaintances who have been policy-makers and legislators.
I have also been a rider on public transit in Europe and Latin America. Only in Minnesota have I seen such a poor regard for public hygiene and safety by riders and people who claim to be leaders in the legislature. Trying to be nice to everyone is a fool’s craft and shows zero-wisdom. Using kid-gloves on teenagers and adults who should know better is just stupid. There’s no other word for it.
The political correctness which I see from a number of people who want to be easy on peolpe because they are not White is just an idiot’s way of ignoring the greater responsibility to all people. Regardless of a person’s race, if they are creating problems involving drugs, violence, smoking cigarettes, making loud noises with their voice or their stero, or whether they are putting their feet up on the seats or smell horrible, they should be removed from public transit and punished and re-directed to better behavior. They should be fined and not permited to ride public transit for a period of weeks or months, with gradually more punishment for continued poor behavior.
Without going so far as Singapore’s use of caning to punish people on public transit or engaging in other non-hygienic behavior, which works in Singapore, memorable penalites that poor specimens of riders do not want to see repeated should be employed. Being nice to everyone does not resolve issue with unreasonable people.
I haven’t been on a public transit conveyence since 2019. The obnoxious behavior which I routinely see is an outgrowth of poor commnuity development and poor public policy and public education.
Clean and safe public transportation doesn’t require a cultural revolution. I’m disappointed to see otherwise liberal lawmakers adopt an incoherent model/narrative of culture war that has yielded nothing but toxic results elsewhere. Forget about changing the culture, that’s swinging way way way out of the league for lawmakers… haven’t the Republicans taught us that? Culture wars are just toxic social conflicts no matter who starts them be it cyclists or Fascists.
Just focus on making transit safe and reliable, if you do that, people will use it. Obviously transit has suffered in recent years, that doesn’t mean transit is stupid, or that it will never be popular or as popular as it may have been in the past. In the past Democrats have backed away from relatively obvious solutions to transit funding either out of basic ideological agreement with Republicans or fear of “over-reach” of some kind so the question is whether or not they’ll blow it again or use their “trifecta” to finally fix the problems?
I still think PREVENTION is better and cheaper in the long run. Turnstiles in MN may be needed like the NY City floor to ceiling ones I used in April. Violent behavior and using the train as a moving toilet make the light rail truly unusable. Many other behaviors make it not practical to use as it is not safe. Time to fund prevention like we did with car pool lane cheaters on I-394: more highway patrol cops and cars were spent to correct the problem. The first month or two will take the biggest amount of staffing to create any significant change. I get notices daily of police emergencies and medical emergencies on our light rail- they also may it more expensive, less dependable and discourages ridership.
Eating on a LRT car? With my occasional hypoglycemia, my Dr. said just eat a mid morning sweet. So now I would not be allowed to pull out a granola bar when needed to reduce my light headedness and dizziness? And of course I would put the wrapper back in my pocket to be disposed of when I got home.
Offenders should have to do community services.There are enough garbage out there to clean up..
K9 at stations and trains to keep out the drug dealers and users.
Airports have k9 to sniff your bags why cant MET Council?