Bill Text: CA SB1161 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Amended

California Senate Bill 1161 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Transit operators: street harassment survey.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-09-13 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 318, Statutes of 2022. [SB1161 Detail]

Download: California-2021-SB1161-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly June 29, 2022

Amended IN Assembly June 16, 2022

Amended IN Senate May 02, 2022

Amended IN Senate April 06, 2022

Amended IN Senate March 17, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 1161

Introduced by Senator Min
(Coauthor: Senator Rubio)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Haney and Santiago)

February 17, 2022

An act to add Section 99177 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to transportation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 1161, as amended, Min. Transit operators: street harassment plans.

Existing law creates various transit districts throughout the state, with specified powers and duties relative to providing public transit service. Existing law provides various provisions applicable to all public transit and transit districts.

This bill would request the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies to, on or before June 30, 2023, develop and make available to transit operators, as defined, a survey for the purpose of promoting consistency in the collection of specified survey data. The bill would require transit operators to, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, on or before June 30, 2025, develop and implement a plan to reduce the street harassment experienced by its riders, as specified, and to consider the safety concerns and needs of riders impacted by street harassment when planning, designing, and operating their systems. The bill would require transit operators to, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, on or before June 30, 2024, collect survey data for the purpose of informing the plan. The bill would require the plan to be developed in consultation with certain riders, and would require those transit operators to conduct outreach in multiple languages in order to reach limited-English-proficient persons impacted by street harassment, as specified. The bill would require a transit operator to provide to the Transportation Agency specified information, including a description of the plan developed by the transit operator, actions taken to implement the plan, and efforts to consult riders. The bill would authorize these plans to include changes to policies, design, operations, or other aspects of transit systems, as specified. The bill would require the Transportation Agency to, on or before January 1, 2027, produce and submit a report containing certain information related to the implementation of these provisions to the Legislature and the Governor. To the extent the bill imposes additional duties on a local agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Public transportation ensures that each person may enjoy the freedom of movement. Providing a safe journey for women and other vulnerable communities will increase ridership throughout the public transit system.

(b) The State of California encourages transit operators to recognize a definition of rider safety that acknowledges safety is not merely the freedom from physical harm but also the freedom to take public transit without street harassment.

(c) Street harassment on public transit diminishes ridership growth, undermines riders’ safety, hurts all riders, and can reinforce social inequality and economic hardship throughout a rider’s lifetime.

(d) Women and girls, particularly those of color and those in the LGBTQ+ communities, are often the targets of street harassment on public transit. Such harassment includes unwanted sexual and racialized comments and slurs, whistling, leering, and other intimidating actions. According to a 2019 statewide study by the University of California, San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health, 77 percent of women experience sexual harassment in a public space, including 29 percent on mass transit. Furthermore, women who identify as lesbian or bisexual are more likely to report experiencing sexual harassment than straight women.

(e) A 2019 bay area study by Alliance for Girls found that girls, including transgender girls, cisgender girls, and nonconforming youth, in the Cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland expressed feeling unsafe on public transportation due to the daily harassment they experience on buses and trains on their way to and from school.

(f) LGBTQ riders face elevated risk of harassment and discrimination on transit systems, according to a 2018 report by the Movement Advancement Project. Additionally, 2017 data from the Center for American Progress found that 11 percent of transgender people and 9 percent of LGBT people with disabilities avoided public transportation due to fear of discrimination.

(g) According to a 2019 report by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, safety is the primary barrier to riding transit for women. Fear of harassment leads to behavioral adjustments and precautions by women riders, including leaving a bus or train mid-trip to avoid harassment, avoiding travel in the evening, avoiding certain settings such as crowded buses, and not walking alone.

(h) Low-income women face even greater barriers to movement, including safety concerns, poor walking environments, lower access to driver’s licenses, and transit inefficiencies such as long travel times and infrequent service. Unlike more affluent women, low-income women have fewer private transportation options.

(i) Women of color on public transit experience even more threats to their safety. According to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, women of color report feeling more unsafe on public transportation than women who identify as white.

(j) Data collected by the Stop AAPI Hate coalition finds that nearly 40 percent of the nationwide acts of hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders happen in California, and hate incidents involving women make up nearly two-thirds of all reports in the state. Most of these hate incidents involve verbal harassment and occur in public spaces, including public transit.

(k) Though they experience higher levels of harassment, women of color are also more dependent on public transit. According to the Center for American Progress, women of color experience a persistent gender wage gap in conjunction with racial bias in the workplace, which leaves them perpetually underpaid. Without the economic means for private transportation options, women of color are more likely to be dependent on public transportation.

(l) Riders significantly underreport instances of street harassment. Research published by the University of California, Los Angeles Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies finds that only 10 percent of people who experienced or observed sexual harassment on transit reported the incident. Research collected by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University finds that street harassment is underreported globally as women are often embarrassed and reluctant to report when public culture puts the blame on the victims of harassment.

(m) The Legislature affirms that protecting transit riders’ safety, combating street harassment that could be experienced in transit journeys, and ensuring equal access to transportation are public policy priorities.

(n) Public transit operators may attract new riders by taking steps to enhance rider safety and to combat street harassment. When riders feel safe waiting at transit stops and riding transit, they may increasingly use public transit. In turn, the growing ridership helps to enable the public transit system to thrive.

SEC. 2.

Section 99177 is added to the Public Utilities Code, immediately following Section 99176, to read:

99177.

(a) For the purpose of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Institute” means the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies.

(2) “Street harassment” means words, gestures, or actions directed at a specific person in a public place, without the consent of that person, because of a characteristic listed or defined in Section 11135 of the Government Code, that the person experiences as intimidating, alarming, terrorizing, or threatening to their safety. For the purposes of this section, street harassment because of age shall include any chronological age.

(3) “Survey data” means information regarding public transit riders and their experiences using public transit, including, but not limited to, demographic information about riders and information about their experiences with safety, including, but not limited to, street harassment.

(4) “Transit operator” means the 10 transit operators, as defined in Section 99210, with the most unlinked passenger trips in 2019 in the state, according to the National Transit Database.

(5) “Transportation Agency” has the same meaning as in Section 13975 of the Government Code.

(b) (1) On or before June 30, 2023, the institute is requested to develop and make available to transit operators a survey for the purpose of promoting consistency in the collection of survey data pursuant to subdivision (c).

(2) The survey shall include questions asking for the following information:

(A) Demographic information regarding riders, including their race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, income, primary language, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.

(B) Information regarding a rider’s experiences with safety while waiting at public transit stops and riding public transit, including:

(i) Whether a rider experiences street harassment.

(ii) The frequency with which a rider experiences street harassment.

(iii) The type of street harassment experienced by a rider.

(iv) The actual or perceived characteristics that serve as the basis for street harassment experienced by a rider.

(v) Where and when a rider experiences street harassment, including on what mode of transit.

(vi) Whether a rider experiencing street harassment is alone or accompanied by others.

(vii) Whether a rider experiencing street harassment reports the incident, and, if so, to whom and the response received.

(viii) The impact of street harassment on a rider, including whether and how they change their use of transit.

(ix) A rider’s perceptions of safety while using transit.

(3) In developing the survey, the institute shall consult with organizations representing subpopulations impacted by street harassment and with transit operators. The institute shall consider existing efforts by a transit operator to collect survey data and make recommendations on how a transit operator may use or update available survey data instead of collecting new survey data.

(c) On or before June 30, 2024, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose, a transit operator shall collect survey data for the purpose of informing the plan required by subdivision (d) to reduce the street harassment experienced by its riders. The transit operator may, but is not required to, use the survey developed and made available by the institute, and may ask additional questions beyond the questions included in the survey. The transit operator shall also conduct outreach activities with subpopulations of riders who are underrepresented in surveys and impacted by street harassment to gain insight into the perspectives of these riders based on their experiences, that may include focus groups, participatory workshops, or other methods of engaging riders. The transit operator shall collect, at a minimum, the information described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b), provided that any such information collected in the five years before the effective date of this section may be determined by the Transportation Agency to have been collected pursuant to this subdivision.

(d) (1) On or before June 30, 2025, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for this purpose, a transit operator shall do both of the following:

(A) Develop and begin implementing a plan to reduce the street harassment experienced by its riders. The plan shall be based on, and informed by, the survey data collected pursuant to subdivision (c). The plan shall be developed in consultation with riders, as set forth in paragraph (3), and may be developed in consultation with relevant local governments or private enterprises with ownership and jurisdiction over portions of the transit system, such as bus shelters.

(B) Consider the safety concerns and needs of riders impacted by street harassment when planning, designing, and operating its system.

(2) The plan may, but need not, include changes to policies, design, operations, or other aspects of transit systems under the jurisdiction of the transit operator or relevant local government or private entity, such as any of the following:

(A) Performing safety audits of transit systems or parts thereof that consider the experiences of riders by gender.

(B) Developing a rubric, questionnaire, or other tool to analyze and understand the impacts of prospective changes to transit system policies, design, or operations on riders by gender or other characteristics such as socioeconomic status.

(C) Increasing the presence of transit staff who are not transit police, private security, or other law enforcement, such as increasing the presence of unarmed transit ambassadors or crisis intervention specialists.

(D) Improving the physical infrastructure of transit vehicles, stations, and stops to increase the safety and perception of safety for riders.

(E) Improving the frequency, timing, and reliability of service.

(F) Training transit staff about when and how the law or transit policies require them to respond to and report incidents of street harassment.

(G) Conducting educational and awareness raising campaigns regarding street harassment.

(3) A transit operator shall develop and implement the plan in consultation with riders. These riders shall include subpopulations of riders at increased or disproportionate risk of experiencing street harassment, which may include, but not be limited to, women riders, non-English-speaking riders, and LGBTQ+ riders. In consulting with riders, a transit operator shall conduct outreach in multiple languages to reach limited-English-proficient riders impacted by street harassment. The languages may be determined by survey data or by the top non-English languages used by limited-English-proficient persons in the community served by the transit operator according to the most recent American Community Survey by the United States Census Bureau.

(4) A transit operator may meet the requirements of this subdivision if it has taken action in the five years before the effective date of this section that otherwise meets the requirements of this subdivision, as determined by the Transportation Agency.

(e) A transit operator shall provide to the Transportation Agency the following information:

(1) A summary of the survey data collected by the transit operator pursuant to subdivision (c), including any survey data collected in the five years before the effective date of this section determined by the Transportation Agency to have been collected pursuant to that subdivision.

(2) A description of the plan developed by the transit operator, actions taken to implement the plan, and efforts to consult riders, pursuant to subdivision (d), including any actions taken in the five years before the effective date of this section determined by the Transportation Agency to otherwise meet the requirements of that subdivision.

(3) An evaluation of the plan, including its effectiveness in reducing street harassment, improving the safety of public transit, and increasing ridership on public transit, and identifying any additional needs that remain unmet in reducing street harassment.

(f) (1) On or before January 1, 2027, the Transportation Agency shall produce and submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor that assesses the survey data, plans, actions, and self-evaluations of the transit operators and summarizes key findings and insights. The report shall include, but not be limited to, a summary of the information provided by a transit operator pursuant to subdivision (e) and an evaluation by the Transportation Agency of the effectiveness of the transit operator in reducing street harassment and any additional needs that remain unmet.

(2) A report to be submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(g) (1) An appropriation in the annual Budget Act or another statute for the implementation of this section shall not be used by a transit operator to increase transit police, private security, or other law enforcement.

(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or restrict a transit operator’s use of any other funds, separate from those appropriated by the Legislature for implementation of this section, for purposes related to reducing street harassment or for any other purpose.

(h) Nothing in this section shall be construed to create new or additional liability for a transit operator for failing to respond to an incident of street harassment.

(i) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a transit operator to develop or implement ~~the~~ a plan ~~where the transit operator does not already have jurisdiction to develop or implement the plan.~~ for addressing street harassment perpetrated in facilities or rights-of-way in which it currently has no legal jurisdiction.

SEC. 3.

If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.