Federal Transportation and Transit leaders will meet with members of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA & NHPI) communities on October 24 to discuss the rider experience for Asian riders in New York City’s transit system. We talked.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) Secretary Nuria Fernandez, Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY-6), and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman and CEO Giano Lieber roundtable I participated in. Seven representatives of AA & NHPI community organizations and his Presidential Advisory Committee on AA & NHPI also attended the roundtable. Community organizations highlighted the attacks the Asian rider experienced in his MTA’s network.
Participants recognized the importance of transportation to AA and NHPI communities, providing access to jobs, education, community and services. They also shared the experiences of members who were targeted by anti-Asian hate and their ideas for dealing with crime and improving safety in transit.
Data from the NYPD Crime Dashboard shows a nearly 42% increase in reported incidents at transportation facilities in 2022. York City in the first half of the year. About 12.5% of these incidents were found to have anti-Asian prejudice as a motive. These include the death of Michel Goh, who was pushed in front of a train in January, and an Asian man attacked with a hammer in a subway station. march.
“Reports of high-profile incidents such as the attacks on New York City trains and buses, the tragic death of Michelle Goh, and the shooting at a Brooklyn subway station have shaken New Yorkers, including many Queens residents. It’s horrible for them to navigate our transportation system,” Meng said. “This violence is completely unacceptable and especially damaging to public transportation spaces. Combating these crimes must remain a top priority at all levels of government and we will not tolerate these threats to public safety. As I said, we must never be an afterthought for safety and do everything we can to keep people out of harm’s way. We thank Secretary Buttigieg and Secretary Fernandez for coming to New York City to address our pressing concerns, and thank MTA Chairman and CEO Lieber for participating in this important discussion.”
Community representatives expressed the need for more multilingual signage and information, and increased funding and services to support mental health care and the needs of the non-resident population. They also expressed the importance of communities of color working together to combat hate crimes, ignorance, and public transportation bias.
USDOT and FTAs recognize that safe and reliable public transportation is essential to promoting equity, justice and opportunity for all. This roundtable will help USDOT and FTAs better understand local perceptions of public transportation by AA and NHPI passengers and identify potential solutions to better meet the needs of these communities. , was the first in a series of planned discussions across the country.
