Enhancing the Transit Experience with Stephen Tu: Innovations at LA Metro

Malcolm Gladwell, the famous author who wrote the book Tipping Point, also wrote another book called Blink, and in it he talks about how we thin slice and how oftentimes we make a judgment, on a person or an experience or an organization pretty quickly after we first interact with them. I think that's the case with public transportation agencies and our services.

I'm Paul Comfort, and this is Transit Unplugged, the world's leading transit executive podcast, and today we're gonna dive into that first experience someone has when they come to your station, What's that experience? Well, LA Metro, the nation's second largest transit agency, has a whole, division now called their Station Experience Division, and Stephen Tu is the Deputy Executive Officer in charge of Station Experience and Operations. He's our guest on today's podcast.

We recently Visited L. A. to film an episode of our Transit Unplugged TV show, which also airs this month of November. And in it, we talk about L. A. 's push toward a car free Transit First Olympics. And we talked with Stephen at the end of the line at their transit station at Santa Monica, down at the Santa Monica Beach. Great station. We met him there and he talked about their station experience program and some of the key components of it. And today, we dive in even further.

We talk about their tap to exit program, their open elevator door program, their smart restrooms and their ambient noise classical music that they're playing in stations to help reduce loitering and vandalism, illicit activities, as well as improve cleanliness, we dive into all of them. You can take a look at them and say, hey, maybe this would work for my agency.

I think you'll find this a fascinating interview and discussion about some of the ground level things we're doing to improve customer experience. At the station level, all on this episode of Transit Unplugged. Enjoy this conversation now with Stephen Tu.

Great to be with you Stephen on the podcast. Thanks for being our guest today. Yeah, thanks for having me, Paul. I really appreciate it. when I met you there at the station, and you told me all about the station experience, I was like, man, we gotta get him on the podcast and dive into this a little deeper than what we were able to do on the show. We were able to show them, But I'm happy today to have you talk about the Station Experience Program that you oversee there at LA Metro.

Yes, absolutely. I think, this is something that as we have our North Star on the 2028 Summer Olympics, coming off the heels of, Paris 2024 Olympics, we know that, there is going to be a lot of opportunity for us, particularly with how much rail expansion and BRT expansion is in the pipeline for LA Metro, and our opportunity to really address a lot of the unfortunate societal challenges post pandemic that we have been seeing, really restoring appropriate activity quickly

and tactically, so that we can deliver a very successful system, not only for the Olympics, but for the legacy of all the Angelenos in future years to come. That's great, Stephen. And it, I think it ties into the overall ridership, improvements that we want to see in our industry is, you know, the experience that passengers have, not only on the bus, but also in the station, leads largely to whether or not they feel comfortable riding, right? Right, exactly.

And I think a lot of this comes down to just getting back to basics. really delivering not only fast and frequent service, but also safe service. Safe service that allows people not only to be safe, but to feel safe. That perception of safety we know across North America, uh, is incredibly important. And that's exactly what we're working on here.

Well, let's, let's dive in then. today's episode is might be a little different than people are used to, today we're going to unpack something that I think a lot of transit agencies can learn from because you guys are doing it well, and that is station experience. Explain to me the whole concept to start with, how long the program's been there, and then we'll dive into some of the, the key features of it.

Yeah, so, Paul, just about a couple years ago, we were coming out of the throes of some of the unfortunate, issues that we were dealing with from a societal standpoint. That was the opioid crisis, affecting really a large swath of North America and a lot of the public spaces . And that includes some of our transit stations. There was a particular station that, really became, plagued with a heavy amount use of intensities of fentanyl use, and that was at Westlake MacArthur Park Station.

What we did there, was we started thinking about what kind of environmental design tactics could we take to quickly restore appropriate activity, also help to supplement the existing traditional security and law enforcement presence that was there.

And we found that a lot of different tactics that we had, that were consolidating our access control points, our entries, being able to improve fare compliance, allowing us to pump in fresh air, those types of simple tactics really allowed us to, have a huge turnaround, in the amount of misuse we saw a 60 percent drop in vandalism, 70 percent drop in loitering inside the station, and really allowing us when we surveyed our riders there and some of the communities

with the greatest need, was to be able to, really allow people to feel safer. And our ridership's been going up as a result.

And so, because of that, test kitchen, if you will, of Westlake MacArthur Park, our CEO really allowed us to say, let's take this best practice and expand this system wide to other stations that have similar challenges. And that's how the Station Experience Program was born. That's excellent. Have you been in charge of it since it started?

Yes, have been in charge, and we've been a small team, but really, this isn't necessarily reinventing the wheel and coming in with, a huge amount of, changes. Really, this is, a collaborative effort. How can we work with what's working well already, and be able to pair that with the opportunities? What can we do with other departments working to their strengths, to be able to get everyone on board? And work together, and be able to deliver these, successes.

And I think that's really where we've been able to take the low hanging fruit and being able to apply that to the areas that need it the most and have those quick, turnarounds, those early wins to be able to allow us to scale up. That's great. Well, let's talk about them. Let's unpack them then. So walk me through some of the programs.

Why don't we talk, start with, something you showed me there, at the end of the line at the Santa Monica, Pier station, which is a tap to exit program, explain that to me. Yeah, so we know that fare collection has been a big part of major agencies, not only for, just the, the portion of being able to collect the fare, but, what we've been finding across other major cities is the importance of having that be your access control point for appropriate activity.

We've seen Washington, D. C. and BART. For instance, upgrading their fare gates. but one of the challenges we have here in L. A. is that not every station we have has fare gates. Only about 50%, give or take, of our stations have fare gates. And so what that means is that there may be some people that never, actually encounter a fare gate on their journey.

By, putting in the tap to exit program, we're increasing the probability that someone will encounter a latched fare gate at some point in their journey, particularly in our core stations where a lot of people may come from an ungated, station out in the suburbs, and then they converge into the core of the city, then they're gonna come across, this, and so, what we've seen in just, we've only had this for about six months or so, started at one station in North Hollywood,

now we're at, a couple stations, now, including downtown Santa Monica.

We've inspected, the fare gates themselves have been able to inspect over three quarters of a million tap cards, our fare card, to exit, and those fare gates have been now automatically, correcting over 80, 000 exits, at those, two stations alone, so we really see it as a force multiplier that helps augment our fare inspection teams, we've also seen significant drops in the TransitWatch app submittals, the See Something, Say Something app, where people are

reporting substantially safer and cleaner conditions on their entire journey. So is this just on rail? Is this just light rail or what is it? Yeah, this is, uh, starting on rail for now, but it's not to say that it can't be on our BRT systems or other transit centers. I think we're really just scratching the surface and seeing what are the right tools to use in the right locations. So what happens, let's say I'm a passenger. I, I, I jump on at a suburban station without gates.

I get to the end of the line there at Santa Monica. I get off and now there's gates, but I don't have any card to tap. What, what happens? Yeah, well, it wouldn't be any different than what we see in other major agencies. We have a 24 7 gate help intercom that goes directly to one of our operators that can assist you if you're having trouble with your fare. We also have transit security officers there to assist you. So if, but if I get to the gate and I don't have a card, what do I do?

I just buy one there at the ticket vending machine or what, what happens? Yeah. So the gate help intercom, we're, we're able to release, the fare gates if someone has trouble. there's all sorts of different ways our agents can direct you to the tap vending machines to be able to get your fare. We've always wanted to take this as an education first approach. This has never punitive measure. What we've heard by and large from our riders is that they just want to see everyone doing the right thing.

Paying their fare share and following the rules. Because what we've found from our law enforcement partners is that if people follow the rules and paying their fare, we see substantial improvements in terms of public safety. And it was a really cool idea because we have a similar fare structure to Atlanta, the MARTA system. Okay. And MARTA, very similar, similarly has latched fare gates, even though they don't have distance based fares.

So, we're really following a model that isn't necessarily cutting edge, but something that we know is proven in other major cities. But the equity piece to this, which is really important, is we also have a really cool program. It's called Low Income Fare Is Easy. It's the LIFE program. L I F E. Oh, I love that. Yeah, the LIFE program. Allows our income qualified individuals to have a couple months of free rides and substantial discounts thereafter.

And so, again, this point is that we just want people following the rules. Even if you're income qualified, you can't afford a full fare, we'll be able to get you connected to the right fare media. Well, that's smart. That's great. Okay, let's jump on to the next one.

Tell me about open elevator doors. This was a really cool concept that we actually, have. been, really reaching out across the transit industry in North America, and we found that Denver, RTD, was actually piloting this at a couple of their transit centers, and when we reached out to their leadership, they had seen, some very early success. And so we went back to our system to say, where, could we do this, maybe with some of the elevators that have similar capabilities?

And we piloted this, in our brand new regional connector stations in downtown LA, and what we saw were, not only improvements to safety and cleanliness, because you're, the doors are always open, you're pumping in fresh air from the outside. and from a security standpoint, everyone can see in and out what's in that elevator before the doors even open because the doors are already open.

But our transit ambassadors also report that customers with strollers, with bicycles, having a much easier time getting in and out.

So we saw this as an instant success and now what we've been doing is rolling this out to our other stations that have the same capabilities and as we upgrade our legacy elevators, uh, in the coming years, we expect to put in the same practice as well, really being able to just deliver a kind of a no brainer, safe, and clean experience, that a lot of people have really been able to get behind. So, when the, when the elevator comes to the main floor, the doors open and they stay open.

Kind of like in a hotel. I've seen that in hotels. When I go in there, the doors on the main lobby are open until you get on. Is that kind of what it is? Yeah, that's exactly right, Paul. Just as you would go to a hotel lobby or you go to one of those office buildings down in the lobby where you just take whatever door is open, it's the same exact thing. It provides a welcome environment and people know right away it's safe and clean. They know exactly where they're going. That's good.

And that, and so at nighttime, maybe somebody would set up camp in an elevator that would close, right? They may, but this keeps it open, so that's probably not going to happen. Is that the idea? Yeah, that's exactly right. Our custodians have been reporting substantial reductions in, public urination and vandalism, inside the elevators. We've seen a huge drop in people loitering inside the elevators or, Even smoking inside the elevator. Oh yeah, yeah.

And that's great because now for our parents with strollers, bringing children in there, it's fresh air in there, it's not necessarily having odors in there. And so we've seen just a tremendous improvement, again, not only in the actual safety and cleanliness, but the perception of it has jumped up as well. Brilliant. Yeah, I know. I hate when I get an elevator. Smells like somebody's been smoking in there right before me. I can't stand that. You know?

Because you're locked in, you can't get out and you're breathing that. Yeah. Yeah. That's good man. Those are great.

Now tell me about smart restrooms. 'cause that's, I, I know when I was CEO of the MT in Baltimore, one of the concerns that even our drivers, our bus operators had was that they didn't have access to bathrooms at the end of the line sometimes, you know? And so this is a great program. Will you tell me about it? Yeah, you're exactly right, Paul. This is something that we are really fortunate to be able to have tried as a small pilot last year.

And now we have seen, by and large, a runaway success for us to be able to improve and expand restroom access. Something that our riders have been asking for many years and our leadership has been asking. But we know as transit agencies has been, A large challenge of what happens for the unintended consequences.

And with this, this firm that we partnered with, Roam Labs, what we found is that by putting in an access control accountability piece, requiring that people have a valid cell phone, to be able to access the unit, we found that, just the natural community policing is there, we've been able to actually hit a record amount, over 100, 000 uses now, with about 50 percent of them being repeat users, across just 10 locations.

That we've had across our system, but soon to be, we're going to go expanding up to six times bigger, 64, units that we'll be having across, our entire system. That means two and three stations are going to be having, restroom access that we're really confident is going to deliver a safe and clean, and appropriately used restroom. So we're really, really excited about this, that we've found something that.

can deliver a restroom experience that we know people are asking for, but not have the huge amount of abuse that you see in traditional open access restrooms. Gotcha. So is it a standalone, like, unit sitting out somewhere at a station? Is that the idea? Yeah, it's, it's almost like you think about those kinds that sometimes you're at a wedding or one of those, you know, there's kind of like, or the movie trailer kinds there.

So there, there are these premium modular restrooms that really take a tight footprint. And we're really fortunate here in California where we get a lot of sunny weather. They can actually run standalone on solar power alone. That means you don't have to get the all the permits and design work for plumbing, or sewer, or electricity, and that means we can deliver something as soon as next week, rather than having to wait a whole year to be able to plan and secure permits to go somewhere.

Now, does it cost anything? If I want to use it, you say, you use your phone, right? Is there an app or something, and you click it and it opens the door, or how does it work? Yeah, it's absolutely free to use. Oh, okay. We just ask that you use. You access it with a cell phone. one of the fortunate things is our, our recent, ridership survey show that 94 percent of our riders have, access to a mobile phone. These don't even require a smartphone. You can use an old clamshell.

You can use one of the state's lifeline provided phones. As long as you have, just the SMS texting. You'll be able to get in at less than 10 seconds. That's great. Are they self cleaning? Or is it like They, they actually are not self cleaning, technically speaking. Okay. what they are is they are data driven restrooms with a bunch of different sensors in there. Not cameras, but sensors. Yes. But the, the sensors allow us to track usage.

And when there's a surge of usage, let's say there's a special event like the Dodgers parade. Yeah, right. they can dispatch, the cleaning crews to clean it more frequently, and that allows us to work smarter. So rather than the traditional restrooms where you don't know if, you're just cleaning on a set interval, but you don't know if it got used or not, we can actually target the resources to where they're needed the most. That's

interesting. All right, last one is music and sound, et cetera, using. So, again, quick anecdote. When I was at MTA, you know, I've always done radio and, communications and we opened up America's only FM radio station run by a transit agency, WTTZ, 93. 5 FM. It's low power FM. and, uh, we played smooth jazz all day long and transit and traffic updates four to five times an hour.

And it was a great program, and we became literally like a top ten station because I started playing that music at all the stations, in all the buses, and at all our subway and light rail stations, you know, just background, nice background music, so it wouldn't be just quiet there, so we had, you know, 350, 000 people that rode our system a day. So suddenly I was a top 10 FM radio station with 300, 000 listeners. But anyway, I digress. So, but you guys are doing something similar.

You're playing some music at places and tell us about the program. Conan Chung, your COO mentioned it on our last podcast. but tell us it's kind of become part of your station experience program, right? Yeah, definitely. I think this is a concept that isn't new, in public spaces per se. You hear it, when you walk into any fast food restaurant. we even learned that Taco Bell, for instance, they play soundtracks based on time of day when they want people to stay there a little bit longer.

Order more food versus they want more turnover. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, it's very interesting. Yeah, music sets the mood. Yeah, it can set the mood and, and have, you know, a desired, effect in public areas. And so we tested this at Westlake MacArthur Park, but what we've really found is that it really does help to inspire appropriate activity.

by doing this, for people who are there for short term waiting, just, let's say, one headway, five to ten minutes for the next train, it's really a complimentary feel, that helps, supplement the rider lighting that we have in there, the fresh air that we're pumping into that station, all, all together, a safer ecosystem in that customer experience, But for someone who may be there for a couple hours, it starts to become, an area where maybe they're not getting

that peace and quiet that they normally would have in a desolate area in, in the corner of the station, because we know that someone who's sheltering, or in crisis in our stations, it's not someone that's getting better. They really need to be in a visible area where our, our social services partners can really be able to reach out to them and offer support, and that's not down on our platform.

And so, really, this is a layered, part of our public safety ecosystem that we have been pushing out to other areas. in our surveys, actually, some of our, our survey respondents felt the most strongly that classical music has helped to, improve, the appropriate activity in the stations the most and that hence they are the most supportive of that tactic. and you also have something called ambient noise.

Yeah, this is something that we actually, saw in the city of Philadelphia, and we've reached out to some of our partners over there, that they have in their city parks. The ambient sound device is, something that we also know is, a device that can help to keep people moving through areas that we don't necessarily want them dwelling in. That could be parking structures where we don't want people.

camped out, setting illegal fires, we've had that unfortunately in the past, people don't feel safe parking their cars, and walking, to the train platform and so, what we've seen is a huge improvement, um, in that, uh, if you're a normal parking user and You're driving in, you don't even hear it until you get out of the car and you walk over the platform, but we've seen this in a number of different municipalities, and, again, a way to layer on as part of

the public safety ecosystem of brighter lighting and, increased security. And our care centered strategies of offering our homeless outreach teams, offering services, a substantial improvement in, in appropriate activity in our parking lots, in our back of house areas. And so really, again, using the right tool in the right locations has really been, where we've found success in scaling this up to more, stations.

It's really interesting, Stephen. Thank you for sharing all that with us today. I mean, L. A. is the second largest transit system in the country. And as you said, you know, public transit systems have largely become, we don't just transport people, we also interact with people in all phases of life and whatever the issues are that are going on in the culture at large, the wider culture.

You've come up with some really interesting, innovative approaches in order to make sure that, the system is designed for the passengers and a great experience for them. I really appreciate that, Paul. I just would reiterate this is a team effort. Like I mentioned, we've reached out to Atlanta and Denver and the Bay Area on some of these really cool concepts. So, I think we're all in this together across North America.

We really appreciate, and New York City Transit, I wanted to add, and Chicago Transit Authority. We've had some great partnerships across all of the major transit agencies. We're all in this together and we're really trying to use the best practices and learn from each other across North America. it is one of the great unique things about the public transportation industry is that because we all operate in individual cities, we're not in competition with each other.

And somebody comes up with a great idea and they share it and it becomes an industry practice and that's what we love to cover here on the podcast is best practices. And so I'm sure some people, you know, from wherever around the world may be interested in finding out more and I guess they could contact LA Metro if they're interested. Certainly. Yeah, certainly. And we, we, love to publish, some of the successes that we have.

We give regular updates, not only to our general audience, but to our board of directors. And so they can always plug in at Metro. net to see the latest and greatest on the great work, that we're doing here in Los Angeles. Well, thank you. Stephen Tu, Deputy Executive Officer of Station Experience and Operations at LA Metro. We appreciate you sharing some of these best practices and the successes you've been having there.

We wish you great success as you continue to operate an amazing transit system that is getting ready for the world's biggest events coming up, the Olympics. Thank you again, Paul, and you're always welcome any, back anytime to Los Angeles when you want to see our, our latest developments. Thank you so much.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Transit Unplugged with our special guest, Stephen Tu, of LA Metro. Hi, I'm Tris Hussey, editor of the podcast, and coming up next week, we have something equally special. We have the Southwest Transit Association's, or SWATA, post election update, featuring Executive Director Rich Sampson, and Legislative Committee Chair, Becca Green, of Little Rock's Rock Region Metro. Make sure you don't miss this special episode.

You're going to get some real insight into what the upcoming Administration and Congress means for transit. Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo. At Modaxo, we're passionate about moving the world's people. And at Transit Unplugged, we're passionate about telling those stories. So until next week, ride safe and ride happy.