There’s a common perception in the U.S. that taking public transit is dangerous. It's actually safer than driving.

Just like roller coasters. They seem dangerous because the 3-4 deaths a year are covered with a wild amount of attention.

People don't like giving up control. But the fact of the matter is that giving up control of a vehicle to a professional who drives for a living is way safer than doing it yourself. (I have family who refuse to fly and I've had this conversation before.)

Same with air travel. No matter how you slice the statistics air travel is so much safer than pretty much anything else. Only trains are close.

Yet an unsignificant percentage of people have a fear of flying, but almost no one has a fear of driving/passenger.

Different kinds of danger. It's the same reason why a shark feels more threatening than your steering wheel or a bottle of beer; our brains are not good at recognising abstract threats. If you see a disorderly drunk guy one time on the train and felt threatened, your amygdala will remember that literally forever

Where I live I literally would not be able to take public transport to get to my current job, or my current school (both an hour drive away in different counties from where I live, public transport doesn't cross county lines). I looked into taking public transport to get to my last school when my car broke down, but it would have been about a 5 hour one way trip involving 3 different buses and a 3 mile walk between one of the bus lines in order to go 16 miles (I couldn't have walked or biked it because it's all major highways and said highway crosses a river with no pedestrian crossing - that's miles out of the way). I got a rental car instead.

I took public transit to nyc because I dont want to deal with having a car with me, but I honestly regret it. The only bus back home is at 730am, with a 1 hour train ride to the station (so I need to wake up at 6am to be safe). I need to take another train home, which only runs every 2 hours, an I need to wait an hour. The ride itself is another hour. 8 hours for a trip I could have make in 4 hours, and for nearly half as much in gas compared to fares

The bus fare is fast too, most of the other options habe multiple changes that extend the 4:30 by HOURS. It could take me 10 hours of public transit

I fucking HATEEEE layovers, and changes. Routes and lines that are only ran every couple hours, so EVERY step can easily add an hour or more to a journey

Yup. It's very slow this is why do many don't use it. It can also often be gross and/or sketchy.

this is a great point, well articulated

It's not only people arguing, assholes who drive dangerously aren't too likely to kill you if you took the train for your commute, but in a car you're always a few deciseconds away from death.

The NYC subway system is impressive, in a way. Imagine a system that has been brutally underfunded for an entire century and basically frozen in time with barely any extension since then. Yet they still manage to keep it running and (mostly) functioning. It doesn't surprise me that much of it relies on 100 year old technology. The money isn't even enough for maintaining everything, let alone, massive improvements. And yes, it is an embarrassment. There are other subway networks in the world that have a similarly long history and don't feel even remotely as neglected.

Comparing China might be a bit unfair with their wages and ... efficient way of handling property, environmental and other laws but there is no need to. Just have a look at Spain for example. They started 34 years ago with their first line. It is also interesting because they built the HSR in a gauge that is incompatible with the rest of the national rail network.

lol this is the issue. It's objectively not dangerous (or at least not more so than driving) but there are certainly some very uncomfortable situations that can happen. And I think a lot of people can't really tell the difference between "this is an incredibly weird and uncomfortable social interaction" and "my life is in danger".

hah, I'm reading this headline like "I've never accidently sat in a puddle of someone else's piss in my car though so there's that."

I've had a crazy person trying to prevent me from taking an exit.

I have been threatened and almost mugged but both were at night. I'd still ride you just need situational awareness. It's less a public transport issue and more my city sucks with dealing with mental health and homelessness.

I really liked Toronto when I visited, I almost want to move there but finding a tech job there seems tough as a noncitizen

I visited St Louis to attend a conference some years ago. I had a free morning so I decided to visit the botanic garden (don’t miss it if you go there!). So my European mind made me look at public transportation: underground to bus station, bus station to destination.

I have to say it was completely safe and I didn’t feel threatened at any time. But I noticed something:

I was the only white guy in the bus. In both trips.

I insist, there was no danger. The rest of people were minding their own business and were mostly people going to work or going home. Some of them gave me weird looks, not menacing, more like ‘who is doing this guy here?’.

So maybe the problem is something that ends in -cism.

Flying on a major airline is exceptionally safe. Regional airlines are quite a bit sketchier, and...vote for me for fascist diaper dictator in 2028 and I'll put a stop to this: Some Fuck LLC will get a contract from one of the majors and start operating their fleet of Beech 1900s or something painted with "Delta Connection" or similar livery while training crews and maintaining aircraft to nowhere near the standard of the brand on the side of the plane.

Pick him up with the train?

And Spider-Man movies. Always a bus or a subway that has to be saved smh

That shit looks, and to some degree functions, like medieval dungeons.

As criticism, this one kind of confuses me. I've taken public transit in the UK, Oslo in Norway and Istanbul in Turkey, and major transit hubs seem pretty similar in terms of design. Getting to the train platform from the airport to Oslo proper feels like taking the endless series of escalators to reach the Long Island Rail Road in Grand Central. The metro stations near where I was staying in Istanbul wouldn't have looked terribly out of place in the Bronx or Brooklyn.

The major difference was that the stations and vehicles outside of the US were kept much cleaner, and people actually showed consideration for one another while using it. People would queue up in a more orderly fashion, let others disembark before trying to rush in, and there wasn't anybody (aside from one kid in Oslo on the last tram for the night one day) blasting music or TikTok videos on their phones. Even on the occasions where I encountered homeless people in those systems, it was night and day between what you deal with in the US and what you see over there. That, and the systems were way more developed than what we have in the US. I don't just mean in terms of destinations or the sheer reach of the transit systems, but that you'll have cities with metros, trams, buses, light rail and inter-city high speed rail options all within (mostly, aside from the weirdness of the UK) a single system, giving you tons of options to get around.

In short, I'd be less worried about the apparently sinister design of the stations in an American subway system, and more concerned that you have to share that system with Americans.

It's very different if you're looking at NYC or high volume subway on East Coast v a smaller bus or subway station not in top tier city. The busiest subways trend to be nicer than small ones.

It's a very common thing. People are programmed to think it here. I heard someone mention a bus and 3 other people immediately piped up to agree they would never ride a bus because they would get stabbed/its far to dangerous. Fox news did it intentionally.

Must depend on where you are. I hear it constantly in the South and Midwest. They're shocked and horrified when they learn about our coworkers who take the local light rail for their daily commute.

Plenty of stereotypes, especially in TV and movies, paint public transportation as populated by the poor and downtrodden, and therefore anyone out of their comfort zone on a bus or subway is a target for mugging or worse.

It’s just classism and racism.

And IMO also it would be highly unlikely that the average person would understand that driving is indeed more dangerous, at best most would only parrot the statement back.

I’ve never heard the transportation it’s self is dangerous but the people you will be forced into sharing a small inescapable space could be. Equating car accidents to being assaulted is comparing apples to oranges. No one is going to assault you or sexually assault you in your car, do drugs in your car without your consent, make your car smell horrible, piss in your car, etc. for your average driver, all those things are completely possible and more on public transit.

Agreed. Nobody thinks public transit is dangerous. If anything I would say upper class people like to say it’s for the poors. Generally everyone in my life has been jealous of other countries with better public transit.

I fully believe driving is safer (less likely for anything to go wrong) but more likely to get me killed.

Meanwhile Australia is like "Hold my beer, cunts" while it drinks the anti-migration, pro-mining no revenue coolaid.

There are lots of drug users, and lots of gun shots, and yes even in schools

But I feel you're vastly underestimating the size of the US.

There's a lot of nuance. I've lived in a major west coast city for years and I never heard any gunshots in public. Drug users are sometimes visible, it seems to be less common in recent years but you can see it at times. I suppose it depends on what you mean by "drug users", cannabis is legal in my state and its pretty common to see in public but no one really cares about that, to me "drug users" means hard stuff like fentanyl.

Violent gun crime is a real problem and it is much worse in other parts of the country. Most of the time it isn't random. There are still mass shootings and random violent crime. I assume Taiwan is much safer. I've never been robbed or witnessed any serious violent crime in my 30+ years living here.

Meh, close ‘nuff

I’d rather Tanner the angry meth head was on a bus than behind the wheel.

Tanner being babysat by police and bus drivers and a problem of public transportation. They're a problem of intentionally weakend social services. Tanner should be given access to the health and social services he needs to get better.

Those issues aren't intrinsic to the situation, the solutions are rooted in better social services and education, so people aren't struggling with untreated issues to begin with.

I almost puked while this 40 something yr old Asian women across from me on the subway methodically peeled skin off of her bare feet.

I also wonder if there is a perceived danger when being around unknown people in an urban setting. People from the suburbs and rural areas may not be used to being around so many people.

I’d still rather someone flip me off from their car than have some guy grope me on the bus

Driving being more dangerous is also about the other people on the road with you.

Sure but if someone tells you your child is 70x more likely to die using one mode of transportation vs the other... One could call it child neglect to choose to put them at risk.

The 70x includes the other people on the bus.

That’s a long winded way of saying it, but I agree with you. If you’ve ever been alone and in a scary confrontation on public transit, it’s enough to make you never want to take public transit again, let alone bring your kids along on a trip downtown.

“Statistically it’s safer” doesn’t change anyone’s emotions around what’s actually happened to them. It just makes them think “cool, cool, so I’ll be in that stat as the outlier. Hope they point that out at my funeral.”

Even rural US public transit isn't that bad, be more skeptical of the propaganda.

It probably wasn't real crack, he was trying to rip you off with fake drugs. Real, decent crack sells itself - no need to approach strangers who could be an off duty cop. Not that this makes it any better lol

You didn't read the article, much less the snippet OP provided, includes acts of violence, not just collisions.

Yeah nah what you're describing is not a normal subway. Why is the USA such a shithole country?

You're scared of a scenario that exists in like, 1980s movies and in your head.

In other words: You sound like a Republican.