In January, a sleeping rider was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver on New York City’s subway. A month before that, a police officer fended off five homeless men who attacked him on a train platform. And on Sunday afternoon, a man was fatally shot at a subway station in Queens, the first murder on the system in more than a year.

The subway has come a long way since the dark days of the 1980s and 1990s when violence was rampant and riders felt constant dread. The system has become very safe, with just one murder on the subway last year compared with 26 in 1990.

But lately, riders are starting to feel less safe on the subway, a belief that is often reinforced by a flood of complaints about the transit system, doled out in real time on social media.

The shooting in Queens on Sunday was captured on Twitter in a graphic video showing a struggle between several men who had stepped out of a southbound 7 train at the 90th Street-Elmhurst Avenue station around 12:45 p.m.

At one point in the video, gunshots can be heard offscreen. The police said the two suspects in the shooting had fled on foot.

“Violent incidents like the one today will not be tolerated on our trains, or anywhere in New York City,” said Phil Walzak, a police spokesman. “The subway system remains incredibly safe, with approximately one crime for every million riders per day.”

But data shows crime is heading in the wrong direction: Transit crimes were up 3.8 percent last year, according to the police, part of a slight rise since 2014. Still, there were only about 2,500 major crimes — including murders, rapes and robberies — in the system last year, or about seven per day, compared with nearly 17,500 transit crimes in 1990.

Back then, people were afraid to ride the train and often avoided doing so late at night. Some stayed away from the subway altogether. The stabbing of a tourist on the subway in 1990 as he defended his mother during a robbery crystallized fears about crime.

Recent concerns about safety have caused subway riders to once again change their behavior. Some do not take the train after a certain hour or allow children and visiting relatives to travel alone. Others switch cars to avoid menacing passengers.

Ana Smith, 62, of Brooklyn, said she does not let her 10-year-old grandson ride the subway alone.

“I have to be with him,” she said as they waited at a station in Brooklyn on a recent morning. “I have to protect him. It’s too dangerous. We have too much crime in this train station.”

The police insist that the subway is safe and that a few notable incidents captured on social media have skewed perceptions that it is not. The transit police chief, Edward Delatorre, said the rise in transit crimes last year was mainly driven by thefts in Manhattan.

Mr. Delatorre said in an interview that the number of crimes in the subway is so small, that “one or two recidivist offenders can enter the system and throw the crime numbers out of whack.” Still, he said he was adding more officers to the system as part of a new policing model under Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The subway’s leader, Andy Byford, said in a statement: “I want people to know that despite this beyond-horrifying incident which is under active investigation, the subway is remarkably safe, both generally as a public space as well as relative to other modes of transport such as driving.”

Subway ridership has exploded over the last quarter century, making it all the more notable that crime has remained low on the system. There were about 1 billion annual subway trips in 1990, compared with 1.7 billion trips in 2017.

But the city’s former police commissioner, William J. Bratton, suggested on Twitter recently that disorder on the subway could signal a return to the conditions that led to soaring crime. On Christmas Day, he posted a video of the officer fighting off the men and said it was a reminder that the city’s descent into violence had begun in the subways. “The quality-of-life declines and warning signs are all there for it to happen once again,” he said.

In the 1980s, muggings and violent crime were rife on the subway. The fear was so universal that Bernard Goetz was applauded by some for shooting four teenagers on a train in 1984 after believing he was being robbed. The 1990 killing of the tourist from Utah, Brian Watkins, was particularly jarring: Mr. Watkins was stabbed in the chest after several young men slashed his father’s pants pocket and hit his mother. The incident represented a breaking point for the city that led to an aggressive police crackdown.

In 1982, a transit officer described sensing “a big sigh of relief” from passengers when he would step on to a train. “You can actually hear it,” he told The Times. “People smile at me. They’re relieved.”

Subway riders today are perhaps most concerned about poor service and constant delays. Subway leaders are also worried about a rise in fare evasion — a problem they say drains more than $200 million in revenue from the system each year.

But New Yorkers are increasingly worried about crime, too. In January, four men attacked an 18-year-old woman at a station in the Bronx, punching her and stealing her headphones.

Ivan Cruz, 20, an architecture student at New York City College of Technology, said he was often harassed on the subway.

“I always try to stick around a group of people to feel safer,” Mr. Cruz said at the Jay Street-MetroTech station, a busy hub in Brooklyn, on a recent afternoon.

Mr. Cruz said he was recently approached by an intoxicated passenger and later by a group of teenagers who bullied him. He worries that someone could try to push him, so he avoids the station at night.

“I only see a few officers patrolling here,” he said. “I’d feel safer with more.”

The only subway murder last year took place at the Jay Street station, when a 65-year-old man died after a teenager punched him on the platform and knocked him onto the tracks. Bystanders, who reported that the teen was ranting incoherently, helped the man back onto the platform, but he went into cardiac arrest and died.

New Yorkers regularly encounter agitated people on the subway who yell and threaten other passengers. The city is struggling to cope with a growing homeless population, many of whom have mental health issues. Some of those people end up in the subway.

Chief Delatorre said he does not believe there are more outbursts by people with mental health problems on the subway than in the past.

“I believe it’s more noticeable,” he said. “The Wi-Fi is stronger and now anytime anything happens, it’s blasted out right away.”

The challenge of policing the subway was highlighted by an altercation in January when transit officers asked two men to leave an entrance after riders complained they were smoking. The men had been arrested at the same station in December for attacking officers.

The officers, who were caught on video pummeling the men with their batons, are being investigated for using excessive force. Charges were dropped against one of the men — a move that prompted a rare rebuke from James P. O’Neill, the city’s police commissioner. The decision had put the safety of officers and the public in jeopardy, Mr. O’Neill said on Twitter.

The police say the recent uptick in crime was due in part to several international pickpocket rings. Under Mr. de Blasio, the police are using a new approach, known as the neighborhood policing model, on the subway.

Chief Delatorre said he is posting more officers on parts of the subway to develop relationships with M.T.A. workers and riders.

“The feedback we’re getting is positive,” he said. “They’re seeing more officers on platforms and on the trains.”

Cece Colon, a retired legal secretary, fled an F train recently when a confrontation erupted between two women.

“It was too much — I got off and got on another train,” Ms. Colon said while waiting at the Jay Street station.

Ms. Colon said she avoids carrying expensive items on the subway.

“Nothing in my purse is valuable,’’ she said. “I feel more liberated.’’

Lora Hinds, 47, an M.T.A. dispatcher, said she avoids wearing jewelry.

“I try not to travel at night if I don’t have to,” she said.

The Second Avenue station on the F line in Manhattan has become well known for a group of men who harass riders. On a recent afternoon, about eight men sat on the platform drinking and smoking. A high school student said the men yelled racist things at her.

Now her boyfriend accompanies her on the subway to make sure she is safe.

“When we are together, they don’t bother us,” the teenager said.

Ashley Southall contributed reporting.

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