Public Transportation Needs a Cleanup for Employees to Return to Work

A commitment to clean offices will only do so much to encourage employees to return to in-person work if their commute is unsanitary. To help make the daily commute safer and healthier for Los Angeles residents, the Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) approved its largest budget ever—U$8.8 billion—to clean public buses, trains, and stations as well as enhance programs to eliminate crime and attract new workers, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Metro officials are optimistic their new efforts will help bring back riders and clear the agency’s battered image. Riders have complained of soiled bus and train seats and station elevators that reek of urine. Money from the new budget will not only go toward hiring more cleaning staff but also replacing all the fabric seats in buses and trains by the end of the next fiscal year.

Metro will also double the amount it usually spends on unarmed “ambassadors” who ride along on public transportation to help make commuters safer. Violent crime is up 81% on the system for the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2021.

“The increase in the safety and cleanliness is great. It’s a tough pill to swallow that we need to be celebrating that at this stage of the game,” said Jessica Meaney, executive director of Investing in Place, a nonprofit transportation advocacy group. 

Ridership on public transportation systems across the nation plunged during the pandemic, as businesses shifted to remote work and homeless people took over the largely empty buses, trains, and transit stations. To accommodate the increasing number of commuters as the pandemic wanes, Metro will also use the funding to hire new bus drivers and train operators so it can increase services.