If you commute on MetroLink, you can get a free safety app

A nonprofit is offering to pay for Missouri and Illinois commuters to get a mobile app that could help keep them safe on MetroLink.

Citizens for Modern Transit has formed a partnership with SafeTrek, a St. Louis-based company whose app allows people to quickly notify local police if they’re in danger.

The app normally costs $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Citizens for Modern Transit will cover the annual fee for anyone in the St. Louis region who goes to www.safetrekapp.com/affiliate/CMT and registers his or her commute.

“We just want to make sure transit users can be proactive when it comes to their own personal safety,” said Kimberly Cella, executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit.

MetroLink’s safety has been questioned in the past year because of violent incidents, including two shooting deaths. One occurred in March at the Busch Stadium stop and one in April at the University of Missouri-St. Louis station.

St. Clair County, St. Louis City and St. Louis County recently developed a joint security plan that gets police officers involved from all three jurisdictions.

MetroLink spokeswoman Patti Beck commended Citizens for Modern Transit for offering its help.

“When you consider how many people we transport, we are one of the safest transit agencies in the country,” she said. “We have nearly 41 million boarding a year on Metro vehicles, (and) the incidences of serious crimes are very rare. But one incident is too many.”

The SafeTrek app was created by a team of students as part of a 2013 technology competition at University of Missouri. The initial focus was safety on college campuses.

Today, the app is available throughout the United States for people in all walks of life. Washington University in St. Louis offers it to students and faculty at no charge.

Here’s how the app works: If you’re in a potentially dangerous situation, you press a “button” on your smartphone screen and hold it down. You release it when you feel safe and type in a four-digit personal identification number.

If you release the button but fail to type in your PIN, a call for help will go to local police.

“We determine up to five-meter accuracy of your location within just five seconds — compared to an average 911 call, which can take over six minutes to determine only 50- to 300-meter accuracy,” according to the SafeTrek website.

Citizens for Modern Transit formed 30 years ago to advocate convenient and affordable public transportation in the region. MetroLink, which opened in 1993, now has 37 stations and 46 miles of track.

Today, Citizens for Modern Transit works to increase ridership on Metro trains and buses by sponsoring programs such as Guaranteed Ride Home, Try & Ride and Ten Toes Express.

“We are constantly looking for ways outside the box to incentivize people to ride transit, and (SafeTrek) is a perfect fit,” Cella said.

Real or perceived MetroLink safety problems could be one reason, along with lower gas prices and other factors, that ridership has declined during the past three years, she added.

In order to get the SafeTrek app through Citizens for Modern Transit, you must be a regular commuter. In a year, the organization will evaluate and determine whether to continue with the program.

“What we hope is that all these transit riders will download the app and never have to use it,” Cella said.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 11:47 AM with the headline "If you commute on MetroLink, you can get a free safety app."