Executive Summary
Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) granted the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) the authority to establish and enforce a comprehensive framework to oversee the safety of public transportation throughout the United States. MAP-21 expanded the regulatory authority of FTA to oversee safety, providing an opportunity to assist transit agencies in moving towards a more holistic performance-based approach to Safety Management Systems (SMS). This authority was continued through the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).
In compliance with MAP-21 and the FAST Act, FTA promulgated a Public Transportation Safety Program on August 11, 2016, that adopted SMS as the foundation for developing and implementing a Safety Program. FTA is committed to developing, implementing, and consistently improving strategies and processes to ensure that transit achieves the highest practicable level of safety. SMS helps organizations improve their safety performance by supporting the institutionalization of beliefs, practices, and procedures for identifying, mitigating, and monitoring safety risks.
There are several components of the national safety program, including the National Public Transportation Safety Plan (NSP), that FTA published to provide guidance on managing safety risks and safety hazards. One element of the NSP is the Transit Asset Management (TAM) Plan. Public transportation agencies implemented TAM plans across the industry in 2018. The subject of this document is the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) rule, 49 CFR Part 673, and guidance provided by FTA.
Safety is a core business function of all public transportation providers and should be systematically applied to every aspect of service delivery. At the City of Pine Bluff, all levels of management, administration, and operations are responsible for the safety of the clientele and themselves. To improve public transportation safety to the highest practicable level in the State of Arkansas and comply with FTA requirements, the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) has developed this Agency Safety Plan (ASP) in collaboration with the Southeast Arkansas Regional Planning Commission (SEARPC), which is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the region, and the City of Pine Bluff, dba Pine Bluff Transit (PBT).
To ensure that the necessary processes are in place to accomplish both enhanced safety at the local level and the goals of the NSP, the Pine Bluff City Council adopts this ASP and the tenets of SMS including a Safety Management Policy (SMP) and the processes for Safety Risk management (SRM), Safety Assurance (SA), and Safety Promotion (SP), per 49 U.S.C. 5329(d)(1)(A)*. While safety has always been a primary function at PBT, this document lays out a process to fully implement an SMS over the next several years that complies with the PTASP final rule.
* Federal Register, Vol. 81, No. 24
