Figure 5-8: Rate the Safety of max Stations / cat Stops (October 2005)

As shown in the tables above, MAX riders considered their vehicles much safer than CAT riders considered their vehicles. MAX was given an aggregate positive score (excellent and good) of 98.7% in April and 96.0% in October for vehicles, while CAT's aggregate positive score was 74.2% in April and 68.4% in October. The biggest difference however is in the number of riders giving the vehicles an “excellent” rating with only 12% and 21.3% giving CAT an “excellent”, but the majority of MAX riders (68.9% and 64.9%) giving MAX an “excellent” rating. Scores for stations and stops were similar to those for vehicles, with 92.5% aggregate positive ratings in April and 91.1% in October for MAX stations compared to 54.3% in April and 48.5% in October for CAT stops. Only 3.1% of riders gave CAT Route 113 an “excellent” rating for station/stop safety in April and 13.8% in October. Clearly, riders consider the MAX service much safer than CAT Route 113.

In addition to survey data, interviews with the transit agency and corridor communities indicate an enhanced feeling of safety and security along the corridor with the implementation of MAX. Prior to MAX, CAT Route 113 was known as a route with a higher potential for crime. Generally, the route served a rough crowd. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that having the Wackenhut officers on-board is helping crime. The officers assist in reporting graffiti and other incidents. Evidence in an enhanced sense of security in the corridor includes merchants and shopkeepers reporting that are keeping their stores open for longer hours.

The evaluation team investigated crime in the corridor using incident summaries for Las Vegas Boulevard from January 2000 to April 2006 provided by the North Las Vegas Police Department. Although anecdotally the corridor may “feel” safer, there is no evidence to suggest that crime rates overall or in any specific incident category have decreased measurably due to the presence of the MAX service or the additional Wackenhut fare evasion security personnel in the corridor.

Traffic Safety

Using revenue fleet miles and vehicle accidents for the entire RTC system, Route 113 and MAX Las Vegas Boulevard North, the number of accidents per 100,000 revenue vehicle miles was calculated. Based on this calculation, 40.6% fewer accidents occur on MAX than on the RTC system as a whole. 56.5% fewer accidents occur on MAX than on Route 113, indicating that MAX is twice as safe. Injury rates remain similar to the RTC system as a whole.

In addition to having lower accident rates on MAX, the preventable accident rates on MAX are substantially lower than on the system as a whole. Since the opening of MAX, only 4% of the accidents have been preventable, compared to an RTC system average of 25% of accidents being preventable. Only one preventable accident occurred on MAX since the opening of service. Since January 2005, they have gone over 17 months without preventable accidents.

Two elements contribute to this safe record on the MAX system, the exclusive bus lanes and the drivers. In order to determine which has more effect, the number of preventable accidents in the corridor on Route 113 before the exclusive lanes was compared to the number of preventable accidents after the lanes were put in place. The preventable accident rate decreased to almost 1/3 of the rate prior to implementation of the exclusive lanes. However, the preventable accident rate on MAX is 1/20 of that on Route 113 today. Therefore, although the exclusive bus lanes have some effect on the safety of the bus route, the drivers have even more effect. The additional training, higher pay scale and extensive selection process for MAX drivers is a model that should be followed by other BRT systems.