TCRP Project A-35 Improving Safety Culture in Public Transportation
April 2011 - April 2013
In 2011, the Transportation Learning Center joined a team of transit experts to develop a critical research project for Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) - Project A-35 Improving Safety Culture in Public Transportation. The central goal of Project A-35 is “to help transit agencies improve their safety cultures.” In order to achieve that goal, the team will answer a number of key questions designed to gain insight into safety cultures inside and outside of the public transportation industry.
Read MoreThese questions include:
1. What is safety culture?
2. How do key transit agency stakeholders perceive safety culture?
3. How are safety values communicated throughout the agency? i.e., from the board to the shop floor and the track worker?
4. What key factors (positive and negative) impact safety?
5. What methods do transit systems use to assess, improve and monitor safety?
6. What transit agencies have positive safety cultures?
7. What factors set these agencies apart from their peers?
8. How are the safety improvements made?
9. What methods do organizations outside the public transportation industry use to assess, improve and monitor safety?
10. What industries and organizations outside the public transportation industry have positive safety cultures?
11. What factors set these organizations apart from their peers?
12. How are safety culture improvements made? What are their metrics and methods for monitoring and continuous improvement?
13. How can these insights be applied to the public transportation industry?
14. What resources do transit agencies need to help them improve safety culture?
In Phase I, the research team has conducted literature review, transit stakeholder surveys, transit case studies, as well as case studies of companies outside of transit. Phase II of the research will focus on evaluating best practices of safety culture leaders within and outside of public transportation, developing leading and lagging indicators for measuring safety culture, and specifying elements that improve safety performance and safety culture in transit.
The report and materials generated from this project will explain the imperative of a safety culture; identify and assess safety culture concepts from within and outside of the public transportation sector; and present organizational models, processes, and pragmatic strategies for assessing, improving and monitoring the safety performance and safety culture of the public transportation industry.
Go back to Solutions and Services - Safety and Health
