The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced the winners of the 2015 Bus Safety & Security Excellence Awards, Sunday, May 3, at the opening session of the annual APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

The winning systems are chosen based on four criteria: project effectiveness, benefits accrued directly from the positive impact of the program, innovativeness, and finally project transferability that allows other systems to replicate the success.

“Congratulations to these public transportation systems for implementing programs and projects that have improved safety and contributed to making a safe public transit industry even safer,” said APTA President & CEO Michael Melaniphy. “Their outstanding efforts ultimately help save lives.”

  The APTA Bus Safety & Security Excellence Awards recognize public transportation organizations for their innovative and proactive programs dedicated to improving safety and security for their employees, passengers, and the public.  The top honor is the GOLD Award, which is given to agencies with the best overall bus safety or bus security program selected by an independent panel of judges. A Certificate of Merit is given to public transit systems in recognition of exceptional achievement in safety or security.

The 2015 Bus Safety & Security Excellence Award winners are as follows:

Systems with fewer than 4 million bus passenger trips annually
• GOLD Award for Safety – Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, Burnsville, MN. - MVTA staff, together with the City of Eagan, Eagan Police Department, a consulting group, and Minnesota Department of Transportation worked to proactively develop a traffic management plan which resulted in improved safety of riders.

Systems with more than 4 million and fewer than 20 million bus passenger trips annually
• GOLD Award for Safety – Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Jacksonville, FL. - The Jacksonville Transportation Authority is moving forward with new routes, a new system and a new direction. The significant success of a restructuring was supported by an improved comprehensive safety program.

 • GOLD Award for Security -- Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, Cincinnati, OH. - SORTA enhanced their current security program by coordinating with local law enforcement, pooling resources, involving employees and customers in "eyes and ears" program. Additionally they used national resources and tools to improve their security program.

Systems with 20 million or more bus passenger trips annually
• GOLD Award for Safety – San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, San Diego, CA. - MTS Bus recently created the “Safety First, Every Trip, Every Day” campaign to renew focus on driving safety. The campaign included strategic data analysis, hazard elimination/mitigation, innovative and engaged communication and training, as well as enhanced recognition of safety success. This program has seen a 24% reduction in preventable accidents compared to the previous five year average and a 50% increase in the total number of customer compliments for safe operation.

• Certificate of Merit for Safety – Alameda Contra Costa Transit District, Oakland, CA. - AC Transit established an Accident Reduction Committee (ARC) as part of a larger effort to address the overall safety culture and improve the safety for their operators and passengers. The committee is inter-disciplinary and inter-departmental in nature, and is designed to leverage the broad range of expertise and experience of its members. The committee involves district-wide participation from the legal, marketing, transportation, training, safety, and the operations department.

• GOLD Award for Security – Regional Transportation District, Denver, CO. - Regional Transportation District (RTD) designed and implemented a new citizen advisory smartphone application to enhance their “See Something, Say Something Transit Watch” programs which provide police with instant updates to incidents on any part of the system.

• Certificate of Merit for Security – Société de transport de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec. - STM improved training program for transit inspectors and provided enhanced security on buses which resulted in improved customer satisfaction. This resulted in an overall reduction in assaults, thefts & crimes in general.