BART rider satisfaction and police presence gain in new survey

Customer satisfaction with BART is rising as overall ridership increased by more than 9% over last year and a greater percentage of those riders than ever say they are seeing BART PD on their trips. The trends are included in BART’s latest Quarterly Performance Report covering October-December 2023.

BART’s overall customer satisfaction rating in the most recent Passenger Experience Survey (PES) reached 81%, which is up 7% from the previous quarter. This is the third consecutive quarter PES results have shown that BART’s overall customer satisfaction rating has increased. PES is a year-round survey conducted on BART trains on a near-daily basis.

It is the first time since the 2012 Customer Satisfaction Survey that BART has seen a Customer Satisfaction rate in the 80s. Overall satisfaction hovered between 84 and 86 percent from 2004 through 2012, before hitting a low of 56% in 2018. In our latest survey in 2022, satisfaction was 67%. BART conducts the Customer Satisfaction survey every other year and the next survey will be fielded in Fall of 2024.

This improvement in ratings comes as BART has advanced the implementation of its Safe and Clean Plan which focuses on boosting the visible safety presence in the system and increasing staffing to clean trains and stations.

Police presence reaches all-time high

For the second consecutive quarter the percentage of riders who say they have seen BART PD on their trip has reached a record high. This time 20.3% of those questioned reported they saw BART’s safety presence on trains or in stations. That’s up from the previous record of 17% just last quarter. The last two quarters have been the first in BART’s history where the percentage of riders who reported seeing BART PD exceeded the agency’s official goal of 12%.

Sexual harassment continues to drop

BART’s efforts to be at the forefront of combating sexual harassment and gender-based violence continue to show results. The percentage of riders saying they have experienced sexual harassment on BART has been declining since early 2023. In the latest quarter the percentage fell to 7%, which is down from a high of 10%. The improvement follows the launch of Phase II of the Not One More Girl campaign. 

The Quarterly Performance Report will be presented to the BART Board of Directors at the February 22nd board meeting.