Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way, Volume 2: Research Overview (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 19-51
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19 The objective of the survey was to catalog practices to mitigate trespassing incidents and understand trespassing concerns and issues. This chapter documents the activities and findings of the survey of domestic and non-North American rail transit and commuter rail agencies.
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20 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way Survey Analysis The survey responses were pulled on February 3, 2020, for analysis. Duplicate entries were removed for individuals who completed the survey more than once.
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Agency Location Number of Respondents Bay Area Rapid Transit San Francisco, CA 1 Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Austin, TX 1 Chicago Transit Authority Chicago, IL 1 Dallas Area Rapid Transit Trinity Railway Express Dallas–Fort Worth, TX 1 Denton County Transportation Authority Lewisville, TX 1 Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency Helsinki, Finland 1 Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Cleveland, OH 1 High Speed 1 London, United Kingdom 1 Houston METRO Houston, TX 1 Los Angeles County Metro Transportation Authority Los Angeles, CA 1 Maryland Area Regional Commuter Rail Baltimore, MD 1 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Boston, MA 1 Metra Commuter Railroad Chicago, IL 1 Metrolink Los Angeles, CA 1 Metro-North Commuter Railroad New York, NY 1 Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Atlanta, GA 1 Metropolitan Transportation Authority Long Island Rail Road Long Island, NY 2 North County Transit District San Diego, CA 1 Not provided Charlotte, NC 1 Not provided Finland 1 Not provided Quebec, Canada 1 Not provided Zagreb, Croatia 1 Not provided Brussels, Belgium 1 Not provided Brno, Czech Republic 1 Not provided The Netherlands 1 Not provided Paris, France 1 Not provided Chicago, IL 1 Not provided Oslo, Norway 1 Port Authority Transit Corporation Philadelphia, PA 2 ProRail Utrecht, Netherlands 1 Rio Metro Regional Transit District New Mexico Rail Runner Express Albuquerque, NM 1 Sacramento Regional Transit District Sacramento, CA 1 Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority San Jose, CA 4 Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français Saint-Denis, France 1 Sound Transit Seattle, WA 1 Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Philadelphia, PA 1 TEXRail Dallas–Fort Worth, TX 1 Transport for London, London Underground London, United Kingdom 1 TriMet Portland, OR 1 Utah Transit Authority Salt Lake City, UT 2 Valley Metro Phoenix, AZ 1 VIA Rail Canada Place Ville Marie, Montréal, Canada 1 Table 6. Survey respondents by agency and location.
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22 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way Transit Agency Location Rail System Type Light Rail Heavy Rail Commuter Rail Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro) Austin, TX X Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (ST)
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Online Survey of Practitioners 23 • White, middle-aged males • Individuals taking shortcuts • Individuals walking recreationally The majority of rail transit and commuter rail agencies in the United States reported that they had not performed studies or collected data or information regarding the characteristics of trespassers, as shown in Table 9. Those who provided details on the characteristics of trespassers conveyed the two mainstream approaches for addressing trespassing incidents: identification of hotspot locations and identification of a trespasser demographic.
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24 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way along the right-of-way, and intentional trespass as the three top causes of trespass violations. Those top three causes were consistent with the responses from the commuter and light rail services' respondents.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 25 Fencing Thirty-five agency respondents reported currently using fencing, and two reported never using fencing. Table 14 shows fencing use by effectiveness for agencies who reported currently or previously using fencing.
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26 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way Effectiveness Use Extensively Most Locations Half of the Locations Some Locations Few/No Locations Missing Very effective 2 0 0 1 0 0 Somewhat effective 1 4 0 5 1 0 Neutral 0 0 1 1 1 0 Somewhat ineffective 0 0 1 1 1 0 Very ineffective 0 0 1 0 0 0 Missing 0 0 0 0 0 1 Table 15. Landscaping use by effectiveness for those who reported use.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 27 Sixteen U.S. rail transit and commuter rail agency respondents reported currently using landscaping; Figure 10 shows levels of effectiveness by extent of usage, and Figure 11 shows levels of effectiveness by extent of usage for different operation types.
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28 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way According to the survey respondents, landscaping tends to be more extensively used in the commuter and light rail system, and 60% of the respondents from each operation type considered landscaping effective. Anti-trespass Guard Panels Use of guard panels was split: 11 agencies currently use panels, one previously used them, 15 never used them, seven were unknown, and four had missing answers.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 29 Video Analytics Fourteen agency respondents reported currently using video analytics, with 13 currently using it and one previously using it. Table 17 shows levels of use by effectiveness for those who reported currently or previously using video analytics.
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30 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way Figure 14. Video analytics effectiveness by extent of usage.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 31 effectiveness for those who reported currently or previously using camera detection. Of those that are currently using camera detection, three considered it very effective, eight considered it somewhat effective, five were neutral, one considered it somewhat ineffective, and one considered it very ineffective.
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32 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way Figure 17. Camera detection effectiveness by extent of usage for different operation types.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 33 electronic detection in few/no locations, and two considered electronic detection ineffective. Electronic detection is currently being used by rail transit and commuter rail agencies, and the respondents' perspective on the efficacy of electronic detection is diverse, as Figure 19 shows.
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34 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way reported previous use. Table 20 shows levels of use by effectiveness for those who reported currently or previously using PSDs.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 35 Figure 20. Lighting effectiveness by extent of usage.
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36 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way Enforcement Almost all agency respondents reported using enforcement (n = 35) , with two agencies never using it and one having a missing answer.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 37 Education Twenty-seven agency respondents reported currently using education, and three reported prior use of education. Table 23 shows levels of use by effectiveness for those who reported currently or previously using education.
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38 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way currently using education at their agencies, 15 reported using education in most locations, and 14 of them considered education an effective measure, while one considered it ineffective. Seven reported using education in some locations, and three of them considered education effective, while one considered it ineffective.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 39 Other Mitigation Strategies Three other mitigation strategies were reported: No Trespassing signs (n = 2) ; use of big data to target enforcement (n = 1)
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40 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way 0 5 10 15 20 25 N um be r o f R es po ns es Figure 26. One mitigation strategy selected.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 41 Table 26 provides a breakdown of the reasons for selecting the one mitigation strategy the participant would choose by operation type from the U.S. rail transit and commuter rail agency respondents.
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42 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way would need to be part of a public outreach campaign. Table 27 shows the mitigation strategy by reason selected.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 43 • Engineering – Use of exclusive right-of-way with no grade crossings (n = 1) – Tar or something else on tracks to deter trespassers (n = 1)
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44 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way employed at a U.S. light rail service.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 45 The next question asked participants to rank methods for identifying problem trespasser locations. Participants ranked the following options as first for identifying problem trespasser locations: data analysis (e.g., hotspot analysis)
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46 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way 0 1 2 3 4 5 N um be r o f R es po ns es Figure 30. One mitigation strategy selected according to non-rail stakeholders.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 47 Next, the survey asked if the respondents had lessons learned, best practices, or recommendations for the team. The recommendations included the following: • Partnerships with multiple local agencies to address trespassing (n = 2)
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48 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way Cause of Trespass Violation Non-U.S. Stakeholders Homeless encampments 3.9 Logical crossing points along the right-of-way (origin-destination pairing separated by rail right-of-way with a circuitous lawful path to connect)
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Online Survey of Practitioners 49 Table 38 contains the mitigation strategies identified as the least likely to be selected by the non-U.S. stakeholders.
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50 Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way respondents said the keys to helping with the issue were the sharing of data, definition of what a trespasser is, and additional funding to look at the problem and implement strategies. Non-rail Transit and Commuter Rail Agencies The areas of greatest concern for those not aligned with a rail transit or commuter rail agency were passenger stations and locations adjacent to residential areas.
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Online Survey of Practitioners 51 As a mitigation strategy, lighting was perceived as mostly effective but did receive several ineffective ratings. Lighting is used by 26 of the survey participants, and almost all the agencies that use it in most locations indicated lighting was effective.
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