ETS begins testing, installation of retractable shields for buses
Prompted by stabbing of driver in 2018, new safety feature a North American first
Testing is underway for retractable shields that will be installed on all city buses to increase driver safety.
Edmonton Transit branch manager Eddie Robar showcased the first shield installed on a bus parked outside city hall Wednesday.
“I think this will be the first instalment of powered bus shields in any fleet in North America,” Robar said, adding that other cities do use shields that can be manually retracted.
Shields will initially be installed on four buses and tested so that the city can work out specifications for different bus models. Once that’s sorted out, shields will go into 159 buses that already have on-board air conditioning. The remainder of the fleet will get shields and also be outfitted with HVAC systems to help control temperature in the driver compartment.
The work is expected to be completed by spring 2020. The shields cost the city $7 million, and retrofitting non-air conditioned buses will cost $4.75 million.
The city had been planning to start-up a pilot with shields, but decided to speed up the process and move ahead with outfitting the whole fleet following the stabbing of a bus driver in September 2018. The attack on the bus driver happened just over a week after a 19-year-old was stabbed on an LRT platform in an attack that police described as random and unprovoked.
The funds for the shields are coming out of the $20-million transit safety plan approved by city council in 2018 in response to the stabbing and other violent incidents.
In November 2018, 24-7 security guards were put in place at 25 transit and LRT stations. Edmonton Transit also launched extra safety training for operators, and Edmonton police have begun doing “strategic ride-alongs” on buses to add a security presence
Robar said a report on the effectiveness of the new security
I think this will be the first instalment of powered bus shields in any fleet in North America.
measures will go to city council in July. He said the 24-7 security has helped save lives on more than one occasion, and that it’s been a huge help for reducing vandalism and mischief.