The Safe Access to Research Project is a partnership between SDOT and local community-based organizations who work with people experiencing housing insecurity. The goal of this project is to learn what barriers this community faces to feeling safe on and around transit. We want to hear from the housing insecure community about their experiences navigating transportation in Seattle. At the end of this project, we will make recommendations of the most urgent and impactful interventions to support transit safety for the unhoused community. This project is funded by the Seattle Transit Measure.
Check back on this webpage for findings and our final report in late Fall 2025!
Background
Research in the Puget Sound area shows that feeling unsafe is a common concern for people riding public transportation, like buses. Often, other riders’ behavior affects how safe people feel riding transit.
People who are experiencing housing insecurity or are unhoused are more likely to be victims of violent crime, but past research has not focused on this community’s feelings of safety while riding transit. Additionally, this community is more likely to die on city streets in traffic incidents than other populations (Vision Zero Top-to-Bottom-Review). We need to learn more about how the unhoused community experiences and perceives safety related to public transit, so we can help.
How will we complete the project?
The project will begin in Spring 2025 and last three months. We will use surveys, interviews, and other methods to learn more from people experiencing housing insecurity. We will complete the project in partnership with seven community partner organizations who already serve the housing insecure community.
What happens after the project is completed?
We will analyze everything we learn and create a report with recommendations on next steps. We plan to share this report on this webpage. We will also share it with our community partners to see how recommendations can be incorporated in future work supporting transit, transportation, and other services for people experiencing housing insecurity.