Two questionnaires were developed and administered for this project, one for transit customers and one for transit vehicle operators. The questionnaires are included as Attachment 1. Questions, developed in consultation with FTA’s Office of Safety Security, were designed to ascertain transit customer and employee perceptions of the security of their transit environment.

System Selection

Twenty-five (25) transit agencies (see Attachment 2) were selected for the study, representing a cross-section of agencies, countrywide. The following factors were considered in the selection of the 25 agencies:

• Geographic location
• System size/modes
• Conduct of previous FTA Security Audit.
  • Geographic location
    Five grantees were selected from each of the following five geographic regions:
    • Northeast
    • South
    • Midwest
    • Rocky Mountain/Southwest
    • West Coast.

  • System Size/Mode
    Five transit agencies were selected from each of the following system sizes/modes:
    • 0-50 buses
    • 51-100 buses
    • 101-250 buses
    • >251 buses
    • Multi-modal (Bus and Rail).

  • Previously conducted FTA Security Audit
    Subsequent to consultation with FTA’s Office of Safety and Security, it was decided not to conduct a perception study at a transit agency that previously had a voluntary FTA Security Audit, to reduce potential bias toward systems with recent heightened attention to security issues.

  The table in Attachment 2 describes the features of the systems selected.

  Pilot Sites
  Two pilot studies were conducted to test flow and wording of the questionnaire, the electronic collection equipment, and the transfer of data. The first pilot of the transit user