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Vandalism is minimized in the following ways: By Surveillance. The stations will be television monitored with two-way voice communication. They are small areas that can be surveyed easily, and infrared detectors will be used to detect the presence of people so that the operator, in slack times, need not constantly view the screen. By Identification. A means will be provided to permit a boarding passenger to reject a vandalized vehicle. An alarm signal will then be sent to the nearest control room where a human operator is alerted to roll back a video memory unit and make a permanent record of the last passenger to egress from the vandalized vehicle, and to command the vehicle to the nearest maintenance shop. Normal police methods will then be used to apprehend the vandal. Experience at the Morgantown automated people mover system has shown that knowledge of such a procedure, not possible in conventional transit, will by itself deter most vandalism. By Psychology. In public places, vandalism has been greatly reduced by the application of human psychology (see Psychology Today, September 1982). Plain walls that look like writing tablets invite being written on. Textured walls and walls with diagonal lines or protrusions markedly reduce graffiti. Appropriate colors, music, architectural design, and plants reduce vandalism. Frequently cleaned public places are not as subject to vandalism as dirty ones. By use of Attendants. In large stations or in stations unusually prone to vandalism it is not unreasonable economically to use attendants, and they may be used if other methods fail.
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