Every year i read about a bunch of people dying horribly on the roads and being stuck out there in the middle of winter to the point that emergency services have to distribute water and blankets, as everyone crams onto the same 5 roads during christmas.
Meanwhile the worst that happens on public transport is being stuck for an hour or two on a relatively comfortable train that probably even has toilets.I have never in my entire life heard anyone in the US say public transportation is more dangerous than driving.
This is not a thing. We are all very aware that driving is incredibly dangerous.
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.
The fear of public transit is part of the racism and classism baked into our country.
Yeah, it’s kind of odd that Americans seem to be scared to have to interact with strangers. Internationally, the American stereotype is of being very friendly, the person who sits next to you on the bus and wants to have a conversation - which is sometimes a bit socially awkward in countries where we pretty much ignore each other. Maybe they’re different abroad? Or maybe we shouldn’t stereotype lol
It’s not about strangers == danger. I love in one of the biggest metros in the US and we have pretty crap public transport. The commuter lines from the suburbs are full of middle-income professionals, and nobody blinks about those. But transfer over to regular city lines, and it’s mostly low-income minority demographics, and people will immediately caution me about taking those lines to get to my office.
Yeah that sounds like a classism thing. TBF we have the same shit here too, and I bet most countries do.
It’s not entirely unreasonable either, I’ve lived almost all my life in inner city areas with all the problems they have. In fact, I’ve been part of the problem. I’ve been mugged, stabbed (crap stabbing, he wasn’t really committed. But I still gave him my stuff lol), stalked, beaten, hassled cos of my race, all sorts of shit. TBF some - but not all - of that was because I was engaged with that inner city life as a junkie crackhead and occasional runner. Lived much of my life like that.
But underneath that, people make community. There’s also lots of good people in those low income communities who will help you if you get in trouble, feed you if you’re hungry, just generally look out for a fellow human. I’ve had a genuine friendship with at least one very scary person. Most people, if they’re in their right minds, are pretty much okay.
I’d go so far as you say there’s more genuine community in low income areas than there is in suburbia.
Obvs I don’t know where you live and you would know much better than me what the risks are and what you’re comfortable with. Not encouraging you to step outside your comfort zone.
And it feels kinda facile to say ‘No war but the class war!’ But it’s also true that the wealthy want us to be scared of each other. They don’t want us to build community. And that’s one really good way of fighting back - just solidarity and acceptance with other people who might be different from us in one way or another.
Sorry mate, it’s evening here and I just wrote a slightly drunken rant. But after all the shit I’ve seen, I feel like most people are generally pretty decent. And we gotta look out for each other.
I definitely agree with your observations on community vs neighbors.
I do take the bus, thru those poor parts of town as it’s the only bus route that stops at my office (cheaper real estate, near an airport). There is definitely a need to be more alert and guarded in those areas, but not because of classism. It’s because in the US poor == less access health care and mental care and food security. So there’s a higher likelihood that a person who smells like piss asking for free bus fare is experiencing some mental issues that may lead to a dangerous situation. I don’t think we need to fund better security or add express routes to bypass neighborhoods. I think we need to provide a stronger social safety network to reduce the number of people walking around with mental issues and desperate economic situations.
More likely the Americans who travel abroad at all are just a different type of person. As far as I know there are plenty of Americans who will never even leave their home state, some barely leave their own town. Those are the people who have never seen a Muslim and still think they are all terrorists. Those are the people who think entire cities are constantly on fire due to evil leftists. The people who travel abroad are rarely like that, because they know better.
In other words, we meet the sane ones when they’re visiting our countries.
Yeah, in my experience regardless of country the people who want to travel are not the same ones that want a regression to isolationist BS. Especially with the US, where going to another country on holiday is not a casual thing (like with the massive influx of tourists into the spanish coast in summer, for example), the people who are there are generally are the ones that want to be there and are curious about other cultures. I don’t know if that 1:1 correlates with being “nice” or “sane”, but it certainly sets people up for not being intolerant and that’s a big part of not being a jerk.
Also I was curious and looked up the figures on travel rates. According to these rigorously validated sources (i.e. “they looked pretty good to me”) it looks like:
11% of US citizens have never traveled outside of the state where they were born. [1]
27% of US citizens have never been outside the country[2]
29% of US citizens currently live in their home town[3]
(source 1) (source 2) (source 3)This is in a surprising contrast to the EU demographics, where:
37% of European citizens have never been outside their home country[1]
(source 1)(I could find no sources for the other statistics for Europe, I’m sorry!)
Important Note:
There are other commonly cited surveys (from far less reputable research groups than Pew, it really should be noted. One of them is literally just an ad for an AI language-learning app) which put the amount of americans that have never left the country closer to 40% (forbes) or 42% (preply) so ymmv with these numbers. Personally, I trust pew over Forbes or some slop factory, but for transparency’s sake I felt I should include them!
It is extremely frustrating how often reading into “why are things like this in the US” leads to racism as the explanation
Do you really think at this point it’s racism? It’s not. Racism, trans, gays, blah blah blah exuse… They care about money. They would murder any person any time for money
The current federal administration has literally implemented objectively racist policies
I agree
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.
I’d kill for a local light rail. I’m so sick of driving.
I’d kill for a local light rail.
Look at the dangerous people who take trains. This is why we need a 1.5 ton
safety blankettruck to keep us safe.1.5 ton truck? What kind of pinko commie BS is a 1.5 ton truck. Son in 'merica the trucks start at 2.5 tons, unless you’re driving one of those rinky-dink soda can things made by “Toyohta” or “kneesan” or whatever. 1.5 ton truck, what a joke…
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.
In my experience people tend to operate in their own bubble when they are driving. Most people are fine and still have enough empathy to not be assholes, but some kinda treat it like they are the main character and will endanger everyone else with their vehicle. I don’t see this as being any different than being in close personal contact with other humans. If anything, being in your own person bubble of a car can remove you from the shared environment and make people more willing to be reckless and dangerous.
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 think when it’s thoroughly planned out it’s amazing. The problem is budgeting and stipulations on how long thy have to spend the money; If they had more time to figure out how to make rails better and redo infrastructure in a way whet wit can make a little more sense people wouldn’t complain as much. Blowing out lanes and making sidewalks bigger to scrunch in lanes and making it one car lane and one bike/bus lane that’s not a good infrastructure option.
I’m for public transportation but there has to be coherent planning not just fuck all we have money let’s do this one part while we can and hope it works out.
I fully believe driving is safer (less likely for anything to go wrong) but more likely to get me killed.
I love driving and I know you’re wrong.
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Meanwhile Australia is like “Hold my beer, cunts” while it drinks the anti-migration, pro-mining no revenue coolaid.
Yes, but the automobile industry does not want you to know that. The same auto industry that made crossing the road at any non-90° angle a crime.
Public transit isnt generally dangerous.
It just generally sucks. Depending on where you have to go and the public means to get there, it can take hours to get somewhere that takes 15-20 minutes by car.
Almost as if its intentionally designed to encourage car ownership.
…only because it has other Americans on it.
You are afraid of public transit because of inflated crime statistics.
I am afraid of public transit because I was late for the bus in kindergarten and got run over chasing it.
We are not the same.
As a Taiwanese, I have a perception that the US is dangerous, with lots of drug users and gun shots, and even in schools. Is that stereotype or fact?
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
Personal experience and thus anecdotal I know, but the light rail line I used to take for work has had issues to say the least. A coworker ended up murdered in one of the more secluded stations two years ago. I’ve personally had a taser pulled on my face only to find out the guy was trying to sell it. All the cars reek of piss and I’ve seen someone having a mental health crisis try to peel off the thin padding off one of the seats.
I really want public transit to work but it does require a firm hand to keep people in line and safe in such enclosed areas. It’s one of the few venues I’d actually welcome some increased security and fare enforcement in.
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.
Everyone banded together and threw her off at the next stop, right?
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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.
I’d rather Tanner the angry meth head was on a bus than behind the wheel.
Totally agree but i dont want to be on the same bus as him… My last trip to the states I spent a few days in Chicago. The place I was staying was just outside the city but we chose it partly because it was very near to the rail station for easy trips into the city. The very first train trip we took had someone huddled in end of carriage with their jacket over them smoking meth. They coukd barely get off the train at the end of the line. The last bus trip I took in my home town, there was a fight when a group of drunk 13 year old girls didn’t like the way someone looked at them. Appalling language and behaviour followed and bus driver didn’t do anything about it.
Im totally for public transport the problem is people are shit and i generally dont want to be around a good chunk of them.
The “danger” comes from the same video of the same crackhead having a public meltdown, so now people believe there’s hundreds of crackheads on each public transport vehicle.
Statistical analyses indicate that motorists face roughly 500 times more crime than transit passengers when accounting for exposure (trips, miles, or hours). While the types of crime differ—transit riders are more susceptible to theft of personal items like wallets or phones, whereas drivers face higher risks of vehicle theft, vandalism, and road rage incidents—the overall risk of victimization is far lower on public transportation.
I wondered if the type of crime, in-person vs not, explains the perception.
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
it is, but its quite inadequete in many parts of the country. and quite limited in well “funded” areas. also the distates for HSR. also covid made people forget how to drive safely.
I’d rather have some dude freak out at me on the bus than behind the wheel of a multi-ton death machine
Safe depending on how the bus driver feels that day. Safe depending on how that Uber driver feels that day.
Also some Uber drivers have this fucked up mindset like cab drivers used to have, that because they’re doing a job they have some kind of priority over traffic and sometimes try to cut traffic or speed.
Busses I swear your safety with how the driver may be is dependent on how their mood is and you know what no one thinks of, is your safety isn’t guaranteed with other passengers. There’s always, ALWAYS!!! One ride a week that will have some crazy ass fucker in it.
The train is more like, I hope the weather doesn’t derail this and how the fuck is the weight limit not exceeded.
When in reality the only vehicles that genuinely have any priority in any traffic setting are the Ambulances/EMS Vehicles, Police/Law Enforcement Vehicles and Fire Trucks.
Other than that it’s not so bad, I don’t mind it.
