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MBTA: Less stabby, more mouthy
By adamg on Mon, 01/28/2008 - 2:08pm
MBTA police say violent and theft-related crime in the transit system dropped 10% last year, but that non-violent crime, such as public drunkeness and lewdness, vandalism and mouthing off (a.k.a. "simple assault") went up 12%.
In terms of percentages, the Blue Line was the most peaceful line, barely beating out the Green Line. Surprisingly, commuter rail had almost as many violent incidents per 100,000 riders as the Orange Line, although in both cases, the odds of getting attacked or robbed were still fairly small (0.45 incidents per 100,000 riders on the Orange Line; 0.41 on commuter rail).
Overview and line-by-line statistics.
Violent crime stats by station (you can also see a system map that shows the same info).
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Comments
Our household crime report
I've just compiled our 2007 household stats and "mouthing off" was surprisingly down while public drunkeness and lewdness jumped significantly by 57%. So yes, it was a very good year indeed.
Per-rider vs. per-mile stats
Commuter rail riders cover more miles on the average than Orange Line riders, and thus, all else being equal, have more of a chance of being caught up in a crime per ride. If the statistics were quoted per passenger mile, commuter rail would doubtless come out more favorably.
Other factors
I notice that the most prevalent form of crime systemwide and against riders of commuter rail (72/176 events) is larceny from motor vehicles. I suspect that another part of the disparity has to do with fewer riders of the subway using their cars to get to the station. You park your car at the station, and they steal your GPS. That's reported as a crime on the MBTA. For the Orange Line, larceny from motor vehicles were 19/235 events.