WA: EDITORIAL: Address public transit safety with a regional approach

Metro Transit riders who rely on bus service along the 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street corridor in Seattle are being forced to change their travel patterns after the agency decided to bypass some bus stops out of safety concerns. Those concerns are legitimate. The area is known for active drug use and dealing.

The abrupt change was implemented on Dec. 16 after the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 insisted it would no longer put its drivers in harm's way in an area of open-air drug transactions, drug use and overall criminal activity. And only a few days after the decision was made to bypass that bus stop, a Metro Transit driver, Shawn Yim, was killed after an altercation with a passenger in the University District while on duty. A suspect in his killing was arrested Saturday.

The Seattle Police Department has stepped up enforcement at 12th and Jackson over the past months, but a more comprehensive approach is need. ATU Local 587 President Greg Woodfill has called for a regional task force for transit safety and security. Such a task force makes sense.

"We need a regional approach because transportation is vital to the region. If the passengers aren't going to feel safe to use it then it will all be for naught. We need to do it now," Woodfill said.

But after several violent incidents on buses and Sound Transit Link, nine people stabbed over three days last month in and near the Chinatown International District and Yim's death, it is past time for a broader approach. A regional task force should involve all public safety agencies, drivers, supervisors and passengers. It should also be limited in time and scope, and focus on solutions, not finger-pointing.

Left out of the safety conversation are passengers who have no other option but to use public transit. Many of those who normally use the now-closed bus stop are elderly and now are forced to walk past the criminal activity, even at night.

"This union and our operators, we care about those passengers," said Woodfill. "We don't want them to have to go through that. If you close a zone like that, the political pressure will force them to make those zones safe. Our intention is for everyone to be safe. We need the public and those passengers and members of that neighborhood and businesses to put the political pressure on the city and county to devote whatever resources they need to restore those zones."

As public transit officials work to bring back passengers they lost during the pandemic, they must realize safety is what will determine the system's ultimate success, and act accordingly.

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