A National-Level Hazard: Growing Assaults on Transit Staff

Public transportation workers are facing a growing wave of violence, with assaults on frontline transit employees rising sharply across North America and beyond. This perspective examines the factors driving this troubling trend and identifies the protection of transit workers as an urgent workforce and public safety priority. Drawing on global data from 2003 to 2024, the report finds that 86% of all recorded attacks occurred between 2015 and 2024, with the United States and Canada accounting for 41% of all attacks between 2021 and 2024. The analysis explores the notable vulnerability of public-facing transit employees (e.g., bus drivers and on-board staff) whose roles require frequent interaction with passengers and, in many cases, on-the-ground policy enforcement. The report shows that bus drivers account for 63% of attacks in the United States and Canada and that most incidents involve lone offenders acting spontaneously rather than organized or ideologically motivated violence. The authors examine the broader societal pressures contributing to this trend and discuss how frontline transit workers have become increasingly exposed to aggression in the course of routine operations. This report calls for transit agencies, labor organizations, and policymakers to collaborate on systematic data collection, risk assessment, and operational strategies that improve worker safety and reduce assaults across transit systems in order to protect the workers who keep communities moving.