Senate Bill (SB) 434 by Senator David Min (D-Irvine) was signed into law in 2023 and required the state’s ten largest transit agencies, including the SFMTA, to collect comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data to understand the experiences and perceptions of safety and harassment on transit.
This bill was in part driven by the SFMTA's Safety Equity Initiative and its proactive efforts to collect safety data from Muni riders and encourage harassment reporting. Read more about our initial survey effort and findings.
In early 2023, the SFMTA partnered with UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies to conduct a comprehensive Muni rider survey measuring experiences with harassment on Muni.
In 2024, we combined our 2023 Rider Safety Survey and the Mineta Transportation Institute's Street Harassment Survey, with some modifications, to meet the requirements of SB 434 and maintain the integrity of our existing database. Between November 2024 and April 2025, we surveyed almost 2000 Muni riders, with the assistance of Civic Edge Consulting, FM3 Opinion Research and Strategy, and multiple community-based organizations. Ambassadors boarded Muni vehicles and surveyed customers along 15 Muni lines where existing data shows greater incidents of harassment. We reached out to over 100 community-based organizations and dozens promoted the survey among their members. The survey was offered in English, Cantonese, Spanish, and Filipino according to San Francisco's language ordinance. We also provided a Vietnamese version at the request of some community groups.
We also partnered with six community-based organizations to help host and facilitate two in-language focus groups in Chinese and Spanish, and four additional focus groups in English with youth, LGBTQ+ and transgender people, and people with disabilities.
- Coalition for Community Safety and Justice
- Good Samaritan Family Resource Center
- Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco - Tenderloin Clubhouse
- Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
- The Transgender District
- Lighthouse for the Blind
One of the requirements of SB 434 was to publish the data collected by December 31, 2024, which we fulfilled by publishing a preliminary set of data and a summary of the highlights of our research up to that point.
We have updated the published data and highlights to reflect the completed data set. You can find this linked below.
Please email TellMuni@SFMTA.com with the subject "2024/2025 Muni Rider Safety Survey" if you have any questions or wish to provide feedback.