Nearly 90% Of Public-Facing Transit Workers In New York City Were Assaulted Or Harassed By Unruly Passengers, According To A Recent Survey
During the COVID-19 pandemic, crime skyrocketed on New York City’s subways and buses. So, not only did transit workers have to deal with the risk of contracting a potentially deadly disease, but they also had to face violent attacks while on the job.
According to a recent study led by researchers at the NYU School of Global Public Health, 89 percent of public-facing transit workers in New York City were assaulted or harassed by unruly, violent passengers from 2020 to 2023.
“Transit workers are our city’s unsung heroes—they kept New York City functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it came at a cost to these frontline workers,” said Robyn Gershon, the study’s senior author and a clinical professor of epidemiology at the NYU School of Global Public Health.
“They not only experienced high rates of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and even death, but throughout the pandemic, they have experienced very high rates of victimization.
We hope that providing evidence of the harassment and violence that workers face can lead to better data on transit worker safety and improved policies protecting this vital workforce.”
Due to efforts by the state, city, and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), crime on subways has decreased, but attacks against subway workers and bus drivers still occur.
Since 2020, Gershon and colleagues have been evaluating how COVID-19 has impacted New York City’s transit workers.
In the study, they surveyed 1,297 public-facing transit workers in late 2023 and early 2024 about their work experiences during the pandemic.
They asked workers if they had ever been subjected to verbal harassment, physical assault, groping, cat-calling, or had something stolen from them. Nearly nine out of 10 employees—89 percent—reported experiencing some form of victimization.
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Almost half of all employees experienced verbal harassment, intimidation, or physical assault. One in five (20.6 percent) had experienced theft, while 6.3 percent had reported experiencing acts such as groping and cat-calling.
Female employees, in particular, bore the brunt of the attacks, with 70 percent being physically assaulted while at work.
Physical assault was more common among female bus workers than female subway workers, male subway workers, and male bus workers.
The rates of violence and harassment against transit employees are disproportionately high compared to workers in other industries.
For example, healthcare workers are often subjected to similar threats, but only 58 percent of the workforce experiences them.
“Our findings point to the need for greater attention to recording and reporting victimization against workers in both buses and subways,” said David Vlahov, the first author of the study and a professor at the Yale School of Nursing.
“We need to better understand the frequency and risk factors related to this violence and harassment, especially for female workers.”
The researchers noted that a limitation of the study could be volunteer bias, meaning that those who have experienced assault or harassment may be more likely to complete the survey.
This could have led to a higher incident rate than would be found across the transit workforce as a whole.
Nevertheless, further efforts are needed to protect the health and safety of transit employees and ensure that they have a safe workplace.
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