Preventing Mass Transit Crime

An anthology presents 8 previously unpublished studies on the use of situational crime prevention in urban mass transit systems. Marcus Felson et al.'s evaluation of 1991-1992 modifications in New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal—involving situational prevention combined with environmental measures—indicates that the changes made the huge complex much less of a crime generator, crime attractor and fear generator. Situational measures adopted to curb pay phone toll fraud at the same facility were also effective, according to Gisela Bichler and Ronald V. Clarke. Robert R. Weidner's evaluation found that "high-wheel" turnstiles were somewhat effective in preventing fare evasion at a New York City subway station, with little evidence of displacement. According to Paul Barclay et al., deployment of a bicycle-mounted security patrol at a commuter parking lot in Vancouver (CAN) that had been a stolen vehicle "hot spot" produced a substantial drop in thefts. Nancy G. LaVigne documents the Washington, DC Metro commuter train's success in designing out crime. Plans for designing security into the new Meteor metro line in Paris, FR are assessed in light of crime prevention strategies by Marina L. Myhre and Fabien Rosso. The hypothesis that streets robberies are more likely to occur at intermediate levels of pedestrian traffic is not confirmed in Clarke et al.'s study of 206 New York City subway stations. Richard Block and Sean Davis analyze whether the environs of rapid transit stations in Chicago, IL area magnets for street robberies.