Assessing Emergency Preparedness of Transit Agencies: Focus on Performance Indicators

In any emergency situation, a certain degree of confusion and chaos occurs. The more organized and orderly the response effort, the more likely that lives may be saved and property preserved. Emergency preparedness can enable transit agencies to react to an emergency on or off transit property. Evacuations and transport of emergency police, fire, and emergency medical technician personnel to and from the incident site may be facilitated by using transit vehicles. Because emergencies do not occur frequently, it is unadvisable to wait until they happen to evaluate a transit agency’s level of emergency preparedness. Instead, proposed is the development of performance indicators that measure the achievement of emergency preparedness goals and policies of a transit agency. An emergency preparedness assessment flowchart incorporating performance indicators was developed. Overall emergency preparedness indicators and sample performance indicators for each component are suggested along with standards and data sources for the indicators. In addition, the use of cost–benefit analysis is suggested to facilitate security-related investment decisions by agency management.