Light Rail Is Criminogenic
23rd August 2018
The key to minimizing crime, Newman discovered was to control access. That meant maximizing private property, minimizing common areas, and limiting the number of entry points into both homes and neighborhoods. Private property deters crime because anyone who doesn’t belong can be readily identified. Cul de sacs deter crime because there is only one way out. Alleys increase crime because they give burglars easy access to a second, largely hidden entrance to most homes.
Newman didn’t specifically study light rail, which hadn’t really been invented when he was doing his research. But light-rail trains and stations are all common areas. Light rail also gives potential criminals one more easy way into and out of neighborhoods. While transit advocates claim that the relationship between light rail and crime is a myth, a suburban police chief in Portland once told me that police throughout the area knew that crime would increase in a neighborhood when a light-rail station opened in that neighborhood.
In dense urban areas with mass transit, nothing is handier for a criminal than to escape the scene by jumping on a train. Think of the number of movies in which people being chased duck into a subway. The French Connection leaps immediately to mind.
August 23rd, 2018 at 15:09
In Calgary we have what is called the C-Train. Us cops call it the Crime Train.
August 23rd, 2018 at 18:20
With good reason, I have no doubt.