Fear of Crowds May End Up Haunting U.S. Transit Agencies
Without a nationwide mask mandate for transit, public transportation leaders have been forced to emphasize passenger crowding to ease rider anxieties.
“Crowding” has emerged as one of the buzziest terms in public transport during the Covid-19 era. Seeking to avoid standing-room-only trips — and the elevated fears of contagion that now accompany any gathering of people in an enclosed space — transit agencies in cities like Pittsburgh and Oakland have revised their rules to limit the number of bus passengers allowed on board. Some, like Boston’s MBTA and L.A. Metro, have started offering passengers real-time crowding estimates for buses and trains.
This fixation on transit crowding is understandable. Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, the six-foot social distancing guidance recommended by the Centers for Disease Control has been firmly fixed into the consciousness of most Americans, and that much separation isn’t always possible in enclosed vehicles, be they trains, buses, taxis or airliners.