U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure approved several measures this week including the Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation Act, which aims to maintain a safe transportation system for the traveling public.
The bill would require certain transportation carriers, including passenger airlines, commuter and intercity passenger railroads, transit agencies, operators of cruise ships, certain types of bus companies and ridesharing companies to establish formal policies, training and reporting structures regarding sexual assault and harassment. It also requires the U.S. Department of Transportation to collect information on the number of sexual assaults or harassment incidents reported by these entities and make this information publicly available.
The bill’s fact sheet references a CNBC story from April 2018 that reported an estimated 90 percent of companies currently have a sexual harassment policy in place, but one in five companies does not offer training to prevent such incidents.
“In transportation, the number one priority is safety. That means not only getting the traveling public to their destination safely, but also ensuring their safety throughout the trip,” said U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.-4) and chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. “Unfortunately, sexual assault and harassment occurs all too often to the employees of transportation providers and individuals who are traveling, and more must be done to protect them.”
Transit agencies have taken their own steps and implemented customized programs to help combat harassment on their systems with one of the more recent examples being from the Washington Area Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its “You can STOP harassment” campaign. STOP is an acronym for Sidetrack, Tell, Observe and Postpone.
The legislation ramps up the effort to combat harassment on transportation modes from system-by-system awareness campaigns to require transportation providers to enact strict policies to prevent these incidents from occurring and adopt procedures to respond to these incidents.
