San Francisco, CA
Transportation, Community safety and policing | 2025
Facilitated the development of holistic, equitable, and community-informed transit safety solutions.
Hateful sentiment—even violence—against Asians, immigrants, and other people of color has risen alarmingly. Public transit is one common place where anti-Asian hate occurs. According to a 2023 Stop AAPI Hate and NORC survey, 27 percent of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders nationwide experienced hate, such as verbal harassment and physical assault, on public transit. Safety concerns on transit can restrict many immigrants in San Francisco’s Chinatown from access to jobs, school, health care, and other resources for thriving. To address transit safety for Chinatown community members, Chinese for Affirmative Action, an immigrant rights and social justice organization, conducted transit audits and engaged stakeholders to recommend improvements in transit safety.
Chinese for Affirmative Action conducted safety audits of three transit lines along seven bus routes that serve San Francisco’s Chinatown. Fourteen Chinese immigrants with limited English proficiency served as community auditors. In the safety audit, individual transit users observed and collected data to document factors such as school and work commute times, the presence of transit staff, feelings of safety, and in-language signage. Chinese for Affirmative Action then presented preliminary findings to 24 community members in Chinatown in a policy feedback session. Immigrants who participated in the audits and feedback sessions revealed that they were concerned not only about theft and harassment, but also tensions with other passengers and physical accidents. Residents were also concerned about getting lost without multilingual support.
Chinese for Affirmative Action produced a report in both English and Simplified Chinese analyzing data from the safety audits and feedback sessions, as well as from a previous survey and focus group, to create recommendations. Recommendations included increasing the presence of community ambassadors, making physical improvements to buses and transit stops, launching a public education campaign to improve rider etiquette, and providing onboard bus stop announcements in multiple languages.
The Coalition for Community Safety and Justice is a group of four organizations: Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Chinese Progressive Association, the Chinatown Community Development Center, and Community Youth Center. This coalition will use the report to advocate for policies and increased investment in programs and infrastructure to achieve holistic safety improvements. The organizations will meet with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to discuss the community-based recommendations. Chinese for Affirmative Action is also using the knowledge gathered from this process to conduct a participatory transit audit with youth in San Francisco. Through this work, Chinese for Affirmative Action hopes local, regional, and state agencies will implement their community-based recommendations to improve transit safety in Chinatown and provide an alternative to short-sighted policies that disproportionately hurt Black and Brown communities. Increased safety will improve transit access for Asians, immigrants, and people of color, leading to better health and economic activity.