I can’t speak for NY, but…
In Los Angeles I used the busses, subway, and trains for two to three years going to work. For one year it was an hour each way riding 2 trains. After that, it was 2.5 hours each way switching between busses and trains five times.
While I truly appreciated the Metro, it was often not fun. Usually everything and everyone was fine. But, at times I’d be riding with drugged up dangerous acting people. Other times just super annoying people. Sometimes the trains would be packed shoulder to shoulder full of people. And sometimes, in the middle of LA, the train would stop, and say “everybody off” without an explanation, and everyone would exit the train and have to figure out where to go.
Once I was able to drive myself, I no longer had to worry about any of the issues I had before. All I had to deal with was traffic jams. Annoying, but I did feel safer.
Yeah, but LA has a shitty public transport system.
Take a look at any major European city. Subway systems with a train interval of 2 minutes that get you across the whole city in 40 minutes max.
I’ve never almost died on a bus.
Driving is the highest-risk activity that the average person engages in on the average day.
It’s dangerous, stressful, time-consuming, and expensive. I also think it is a significant contributing factor to our sedentary lifestyles and expanding waistlines. I’m resentful that the decision to go with automobile-based infrastructure was decided before I was even born and that I’ve never had a viable opportunity to vote against it.
What I really hate is that driving is a privilege. But not needing to drive (i.e. walkability, bikeability, and good transit) are also privileges. Fucked either way it would seem.
There never was a vote to make it legal or illegal. And it was widely hailed as a great idea at the time. It was considered the best way for large cities to dig out from under the literal mountains of horse shit they were drowning in and that was polluting the ground water and killing children and adults alike from disease. Plus it gave people far more freedom to move about faster and father than they had by foot, horse, or train. Like it or not, the internal combustion engine has given you, personally, everything good and bad that you have at this very moment in time.
But, like most great human ideas, there are always unintended consequences no one sees until they happen.
Actually, there was a lot of push-back. People weren’t too happy that suddenly great big hunks of metal were hurling through public spaces at lethal speeds – but the car manufactures had money, so the press and the politicians sided with them.
check out Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter D. Norton
Section 1.5 and 1.6 of this article is another great write up if you can’t commit to reading a book
Sure but now it is holding us back we need a nationwide high speed train network we are stuck in the 1930s while lots of other countries are in the 2030s
All of human history has been us solving problems only to create newer, bigger, more complicated problems.
I actually like driving for the most part, and I think that I’d like it even more if people who weren’t forced to drive weren’t driving, and if the people driving were well-trained and medically cleared as safe to drive.
If we had those things I could do a hundred miles an hour on the highway everywhere. It would be awesome.
I think that I’d like it even more if people who weren’t forced to drive weren’t driving,
I actually don’t mind driving so much as I mind driving in heavy traffic. Driving along on an empty road, or lighter traffic at least, isn’t so bad.
But society pretty much forces everyone to drive. Even people who don’t want to drive or are simply bad at it.
Now imagine if everyone you met on those low-traffic days knew how to zipper merge, and were intimately familiar with the idea of “keep right, pass left.” And their cars had to be maintained perfectly to even be on the road.
This training and maintenance is why some sections of the Autobahn have no speed limit.
Being a pedestrian in proximity to a driver might be riskier, unfortunately. Most driving safety standards - including vehicle and infrastructure standards too - do not adequately protect people outside of vehicles.
It’s the reason I don’t bike, even though distances are reasonable. I consider using an unprotected bike lane next to a busy 45mph stroad to be a matter of when (not “if”) I’m involved in a collision that could cause serious injury or even a fatality. All it takes is one driver with their face in their phone.
The average person only owns a fraction of a car, but I do believe that existing on a street either inside or around cars is the highest risk an average person is being subjected to on an average day.
Keep in mind that only a small number of privileged people own a car, but everyone has to deal with them and are subjected to their risks.
Either way you risk a possibility of being rear-ended.
In a train? That seems very unlikely though not impossible.
I used to be a big fan of public transport, but after covid it went to shit in my country or rather, it went to shit in my part of the country. Pretty sure it is still great in Copenhagen. Those lucky bastards.
As an American who visited Copenhagen post-covid, the public transport is amazing.
Right? Oh noooo I missed the metroooo. 🤭 2 minutes until the next one arrives?! Whatever will I doooo? 😜 And that is just the metro. Ignore the busses and trains which are also plenty and usually on time. Those lucky, lucky bastards.
Meanwhile in my neck of the woods: 💨
I could go into my public transportation horror stories, but I think it’s better to conclude my comment with the fact that my boyfriend and I, who were both big fans of public transportation, ended up buying a car because we literally had no other choice.
my boyfriend and I, who were both big fans of public transportation, ended up buying a car because we literally had no other choice.
As a car guy, this breaks my heart. Because you probably bought something reasonable and practical and egg-shaped.
Nothing that stirs your passions. Nothing you look back on in the parking lot and think “I can’t believe that’s my car.”
As someone who thinks cars can be an art form, forcing people who don’t want cars to buy cars dilutes that art. Like making amazing designers make ads for bottled water or something.
Cars should be like horses are now: Beautiful and running in a field. Cared for as cherished pets. Not resigned to bumper-to-bumper traffic, waiting for someone who hates driving to attempt to merge with a “Please let me merge before I cry” bumper sticker, herding the semi who’s just trying to do their job and not kill someone who should not be driving.
Yeah man! It was even white like an egg too because we couldn’t afford a color xD
I will say that for my boyfriend’s part, I think our little egg car has brought him a lot of joy because he has more time and energy now that he doesn’t have to get up at 3.30 in the morning to get to work at 8.00. He likes nature too so he goes on several trips in his spare time to places he wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise, so if it is of any solace to you, our goofy little car has done some good to us. We even talk more because he started calling me on his commute home from work to chat about our day. During the public transport days, there was none of that because he was totally wiped out from being on the go since night time and into the afternoon where the only train or bus home would be home in our city around 18.00 or even 20.00 some days. For years our relationship was good morning and good night on week days because of how fucky public transport is and this was before covid too xD I feel like our car gave me back my boyfriend so I can’t hate on it too much even if it is ugly and boring to look at.
But yeah, I appreciate your love for cars. I really feel your passion through your words. To me, cars are just a vehicle that takes you places so it’s nice to hear someone else’s perspective and having them remind you that cars could be more than just four wheels that drives you around.
Right? Plus they’re clean and well-lit.
I’ve spent some time in North Jutland too - I don’t think I saw a bus or train. It felt much more like home in terms of needing a car.
Yeah, they don’t care about investing in public transport for us because we are too rural or some shit like that. It’s not like we don’t want to use it. We just get ignored while Copenhagen is the darling of the land lol. It’s the result of centralization politics for decades that drives people into the cities while smaller communities in the countryside are starved of options like public transport, doctors and even shopping facilities. It was a very systematic move on politicians parts and I have lived both in bigger cities and smaller towns and witnessed the centralization happen in real time and how the smaller towns have been slowly strangled to death. It sucks. It didn’t used to be like this.
As an American, I hate busses and will drive over using public transport every single time.
I imagine in other places in the world, your public transport runs on time, is well maintained, and is clean. Here is such a hit or miss it’s anxiety inducing to the point the road is more relaxing and no, I can’t say public transport is safer given my personal experience.
You can’t generalize about public transport across the whole of the USA. It’s very variable between different cities, and some have pretty good systems.
You’re right, because I live in a city with one of the better systems, and I still would take a car over using it given the option.
You mentioned one of the better systems but still mentioned busses? All the more enjoyable public transportation I’ve been on in the US has been trains and subways. My bus experiences haven’t been that enjoyable, but not horrid either …except that one time I had to sit near the bathroom at the back.
Still, train/subway experiences in Chicago and New York/New Jersey/ Long Island were vastly superior to driving for me. There’s also a new line going from Orlando to Miami my sister has been using that sounds wonderful. Unfortunately doesn’t really reach where I currently am, greater Atlanta area. Unfortunately I have to drive most of the time for work etc, with no subway lines or when trains from my home to work, and the traffic is terrible at times.
I don’t want to give away where I live but yes, there are trains which are much nicer than busses and even pleasant in their own right at times. That said last few few times I’ve taken it, it’s clear it’s not as well maintained as it should be, the time has been off, and it’s not nearly as clean as it could be either.
It’s not really a choice for people. I get up at 3am and wait an hour for the bus just to be on time at 6am.
Can’t do much and any job requires a license even if isn’t driving related - which instantly nullifies me if I use other acceptable forms of identification.
Public transport is definitely safer, just more eventful. It’s nice when you enter a train that smells like fecal matter with a lady just eating a whole rotisserie chicken on the other side. It just follows the same guidelines as other public spaces, don’t be a nuisance and make yourself small. It becomes entertaining to have these stories.
Some lady didn’t know to just shut up and complained nonstop about the shit on the floor. But then she made a comment about the lady and her chicken, it was small and innocuous. She then kept talking to the conductor.
However, that is how you get slammed after you got stunned by some airborne rotisserie chicken.
So it’s usually okay, just has rules like any house.
don’t be a nuisance and make yourself small
That’s the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard.
I’d rather risk death on the highway.
Mehhh I made bad choices and have to live with them, Pity me!
Depends on the bus / area.
There is real time bus tracking now in most places so you can see when things will arrive = WAY better for dealing with traffic (note traffic is a thing for cars as well)
I’m in Portland OR and of course a bus going through a bad area is more likely to have people who are “not ok” (addicts) but the vast majority of our busses are clean and climate controlled and filled with perfectly lovely friendly people.
And risk assessment is based on what is likely. My aunt smoked her whole life and never got lung cancer so my “personal experience” is that smoking doesn’t cause cancer. You see what I’m saying?
Cars are more dangerous than busses. Period. You might not like them for any number of perfectly valid reasons, and a specific bus in a specific area might be more dangerous - but the point of the post is that personal preference and accurate risk assessment are not the same thing.
Yes.
Didn’t know that but that’s cool and helpful.
Straight up I disdain the majority of humanity drug users or not and hearing poors talk about how bad their lives are is depressing as fuck. Put it this way, I hate the poor so much I hate the rich for making them poor.
On that note of personal experience yes cars are dangerous but in a car I have control and my driving can make it a lot safer or dangerous and so far, my driving is safer than most folks I know. Knock on wood.
Context to the subway?
People who don’t live here think it’s like The Warriors. They picture roving gangs of murderous criminals, live wires sparking everywhere, and insane people screaming Eldritch horrors. This is not accurate.
Okay, it’s not that bad, but it’s also not the kind and peaceful utopia people in this thread are trying to make it out to be.
In America the metro is seen as where there are lots of poor people and drug addicts and the rich people tend to prefer to buy fancy cars and drive them.
It’s kind of the same logic as to why america is one of the few countries where the poor people tend to live in the city center, but the rich people out in the suburbs.
Thanks!
It’s so much more than this, and it just seems like you don’t have any experience that you’re drawing from. My main experience is the subway in Manhattan (and trains from NJ to get there). You go from the chronically late trains in NJ, to the poor infrastructure in NY, and whether or not the train smells like piss, or there’s someone who I am desperately trying to to avoid making eye contact with, just ends up being the cherry on top of what was an unenjoyable and often unnecessarily long trip.
I’ve rarely had a subway that smells like piss. The last time I had a stench on the train was years ago. It’s not always “so clean I would eat off the seats” but the NYC subway is much better than people who don’t ride it imagine it.
Most of the people on the train are just people trying to get someplace.
Rode on the subway the first time last year. My wife has a super sensitive nose so her experience was a little different. But for the average person, I seriously doubt the subway is even that big of a deal like you said. It smelled my the mechanic shop my dad worked at. Grease and metal. And maybe we didn’t hit a rush hour, but it wasn’t all that crowded either. I was a bit bummed no one was break dancing. Stupid youtube always lying to me.
I think there were crackdowns on the “Showtime kids” (aka the kids that dance on the train). A lot of people have no soul and get cranky about them. I mean, they’re mildly disruptive and probably occasionally fuck up, but it’s also only a couple minutes, and sometimes it’s pretty impressive.
When I was a Fed in DC, I took the Metro to work. It was really nice. And a very pleasant time to myself on the train.
This is a gross simplification. Public transportation IS full of mentally ill people and the homeless, and lots of women feel unsafe on busses and trains. It’s not the rich who prefer personal vehicle transport; everyone does
Counterpoint, the highways are also full of mentally ill people and statistically it’s more risky to drive than take the bus / train.
I think people fear violent death more than they fear accidental death. If american cities want more people to ride public transportation, they need to clean up public transportation. If you’ve been outside of the US you see how countries with far fewer resources than us do a lot more with their public transportation.
They’re cleaner, less noisy, and the police will actually do something about antisocial behavior on the trains. Until we have something like that in thr US, I will avoid taking the bus
You know what really “cleans up” public transportation? More people riding it than just those who have no other choice. I grew up in Boston, lots of people rode the subway, I never felt unsafe. Now I live in Phoenix, the bus system sucks so bad I couldn’t even tell you what it feels like to ride one because I never have, anywhere I want to go would take at least 2 routes if not 3, with nearly an hour wait at each connection, I could seriously ride a bicycle there quicker, and have, even in 110°+ heat, at least in my younger days- damn near gave myself heat stroke last time I tried which was ~5 years ago… I have at least ridden the light rail, which isn’t terrible, but doesn’t run very frequently, and isn’t that close to my house, and doesn’t go that many interesting places… I could take the kids to the science center, but it’s a bit long for them to walk to our nearest stop, about a mile and a half… There’s a park & ride, but at that point, we might as well take the car…
Broken glass, fire, impalement, road rash, and being thrown around like a rag doll… thinking highway death isn’t violent is just a very fortunate lacking in imagination.
I think control has a lot to do with it as well. We feel better when we’re in control and on a subway you are most definitely not in control of the vehicle, or the people inside it. Regardless that it’s statistically safer than driving. I think people feel safer driving because they feel in control. Drivers can choose the route, who is in their vehicle, and when to stop. Those are things that we feel when we assess risk, even if it’s counter intuitive.
Well it’s also way more convenient to drive in most places. Public transportation in most American cities doesn’t work well
That’s a very stretched definition of “full of”.
Pre-pandemic I rode the subway to work every day. I’d see a handful of clearly unwell people on the train a week. I’d also see thousands of seemingly put-together people in that time. Is a milk jug full of milk and one jellybean full of jellybeans?
I cannot speak authoritatively for women, but my understanding is most of the danger comes from men. Not mentally unwell people, not the homeless, just regular men. Being unwell or desperate doesn’t help, but it’s not the only source of danger.
Furthermore, not everyone prefers personal vehicle transport. Maybe people prefer mass transit for a variety of reasons.
Let’s be real: they’re terrified that they might be forced to be near poor people, minorities, gays, and mentally ill folk.
Their “News tm” is constantly telling them cities are hellholes full of junkies and murderers and murderous junkies.
Most of them have no clue how the world outside their pickup truck windows works.
Bingo. I’ve talked to many of them online and it always boils down to this. It’s never that they’re actually in any danger. It’s just they feel scared. They drive their big trucks because it makes them feel safe.
Meanwhile puny me rides the subway daily.
They’re weak, scared, and pathetic. Too xenophobic to interact with anyone or anything outside their coddled circles that might make them feel “”“uncomfortable”“”.
Might surprise you, but on feeling scared: I once heard that a slim majority of SUV drivers were women. In some ways it makes sense - if they’d normally be vulnerable walking the streets alone, a less vulnerable vehicle gives them a feeling of safety.
It’s not a surprise. There’s some good analysis of vehicle advertisements, and one of the big emotions they push with SUV ads is the feeling of being safe in a ‘bad’ situation.
Fear based advertising (in general)
Article that is often quoted about fear in advertising
That’s nice, no medication I’ve found yet lets me ride public transportation without constantly freaking out from human proximity but I bet it is just so pleasant to have a normal brain
One of these things is not like the other
Which one is the one you’d single out?
or they could be, like me, mentally ill folk who really cannot handle being forced to be around other people
But generalizations are fun aren’t they!
You arent the main character bruh
That is an extremely callous thing to say.
No it isnt lmao. Cheer up buttercup 😘
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I didnt say get over yourself, you literally just made that up
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No, I think that’s a fair summary of your attitude.
No, I think thats a fair summary of your attitude.
Everyone is the main character of their story.
His story is other peoples stories are the same as his story.
Every single conservative man is mentally ill?
EDIT: to anyone reading this, the person I’m replying to is very clearly a troll. Just read their post history. Do not engage! (:
LOL
Possibly…
His username is angry autist, just BTW. Bit of a hint there.
In my defense: I’m stupid.
Add a little nuance to your argument and I’ll engage
Also you didn’t parse the sentence correctly, I was specifically referring to MY mental illnesses
Add a little nuance & good faith to your conclusion on my initial statement, and I’ll engage, too! Maybe you should re-read things to nake sure you’re not misunderstanding something.
— Sincerely, someone who is also struggles with mental illness, including severe anxiety & agoraphobia.
Nothing in my statement said conservatives, you made that up out of bad faith so why are you demanding good faith now?
Why cripple myself with rules you refuse to follow?
…did you not read the text of which this entire post is about, or…?
Um, that’s not my post. That’s not even from lemmy.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Me and the boys boarding be like
I’m more terrified of driving a car in a city than on a highway. In a city one small mistake can mean killing a child or something. On the highway I can go at a moderate speed in the right lane without distractions.
Either way I prefer rails tho
Already afraid of this on an e bike.
Saw a mom walking on the road (next to a perfectly available sidewalk) with her small child following her 2 meters behind her.
Fucking hell if that kid randomly ran to my side, I would have hit her.
I hate this shit so much
I saw a car hit a teenager on a bike the other day. Dragged the kid a bit and then just sped off.
Somehow the kid seemed fine. Got up and rode off after a moment.
This was in Brooklyn, by Barclays center (a very crowded spot). Fuck cars and double fuck irresponsible turds that would drive off after nearly killing someone.
In my state, statistics show that there are more fatalities on rural roads than in metro areas… and 80% of us live in the metro areas.
My car is 900kg with a straight-through muffler. No kid is going under it. Just don’t drive a tank through school zones.
straight-through muffler
I hope you throw a rod through the oil pan.
If you don’t like it, I’ll take it off.
but there’s crazy people on the subway
You don’t think there’s crazy people on the highway? And on the highway they’re controlling a 2 ton killing machine in a sometimes stressful situation.
I’ll take the crazy guy yelling in the corner of the subway then see what he’s like behind the wheel of one of those huge pickup trucks during traffic.
I’m with you but driver’s licenses are meant to help weed those out. I think they are likely rarer but not uncommon.
Yeah like what the fuck? Every time I drive on a highway I encounter at least one potential life-ending moment, where if I hit the breaks one second too late I’ll die. This is absolutely a trillion times worse than the slim chance of getting a subway car lit on fire lol
If you’re having near death experiences every single day, that has to be something you’re doing wrong.
Then you are not giving the proper distance. If you experience this every time you drive you are probably the problem.
If you can’t conceive of a situation where you need to slam the brakes due to external factors despite following the recommended 2-second following distance, you’re ignorant of the depths of bad driving. Have you really never been cut off before?
I would go so far as to say that if you’re not noticing at least a single example of dangerous driving nearly every time you leave the house, you’re probably not aware enough to be a safe driver.
I would go so far as to say that if you’re not noticing at least a single example of dangerous driving nearly every time you leave the house
Dangerous driving, not slam the brakes every time lol
Every time? No. If it happens every time, you’re the problem. This shit is outta pocket. Or you live in thunderdome.
Just a fairly normal North American city, actually. So yeah - thunderdome.
Dear diary,
I met mad max today, great driver, very aggressive.
Sometimes it’s “just” a dead girl hit by a speeding SUV a couple blocks away from their school. Even something as simple as a bit of extra speed has a remarkable influence on life or death. Both in avoiding and mitigating harm.
Not as exciting as Max Max, but nice movie reference.
Brakes, not breaks.
And no way are you driving safely if that happens every day.
I only drive safely on the days I choose to drive - and yet, I somehow still always see unsafe driving every day.
Also those scary moments are fun. Maybe that’s just a me thing though.
Every time I drive on a highway I encounter at least one potential life-ending moment, where if I hit the breaks one second too late I’ll die
What highway is this?
Fury road.
^^^
Conservative men are terrified of everything. Perpetual fear and petty grievances are the cornerstones of the entire conservative ethos.
I’m kinda germaphobic, and they never seem to clean public transit. Chewed gum everywhere, littering, bodily fluids. Like I’m sure 99% of people are normal, but just 1% of dumbasses ruin it. NYC, Philly, I’ve seen it all. I heard people say other countries such as Japan has clean public transit, not sure why the US can’t do the same… 🤔 (I bet the politicians stole all the funding)
My ideal transport would be getting launched out of a cannon, then I deploy a parachute after the GPS notifies me when I’ve arrived at the destination. Patachute deployed, I land on the roof, like a boss. 😎
Great for introverts too. 🫠
(So until public transit is fixed, I rather be fired… out of a cannon)
Other countries actually clean, sanitize, and maintain their public transit including trains and metro. They do this by shutting it down for a few hours in the early morning/ late night
NYC is the only one in the US I’m aware of that goes 24/7. I know the Philly one doesn’t.
Are they maintained or just shut down for a few hours?
Other countries are not so me centric as America is either.
Cleanliness depends a lot on culture
Odds are they are American and if you haven’t noticed our culture is pretty hell bent on rejecting civic duty
If only we could replace the plane ride before jumping into the sky. I once did the math in my head for how fast you’d have to be shot out of a cannon to reach typical jumping height, and it was a doozy. Disregarding air resistance, it approaches the speed of sound… and since we know how much air resistance matters in skydiving, that method is just out.
I’m actually curious now. Wingsuits can get a glide ratio of 2-3:1, right? The US census reports average commute time around 26.8 minutes, which (and I’m really spitballing here), might mean an average of 8-20 miles. Even with the wingsuit, that would mean having to get up above 20,000 feet AGL for the shortest distance. Now you’re talking about supersonic cannon speeds, AND are at a height where they start recommending using oxygen bottles.
Alright, all that was using the idea off getting shot straight up and then gliding from the top. Let’s plug in some horizontal firing. The most efficient horizontal distance is achieved at 45 degrees, not considering air resistance. It looks like you’d be fired at just under 800mph, or 355 meters/second if you like metric, with a horizontal/vertical velocity of 562 mph each. Travel time is about 51ish seconds.
None of that really makes sense without air resistance though. The fastest speeds for a skydiver just cross 300mph, or 450 ft/sec. The record right now is 527.77km/h, and you cannot deploy the parachute at those speeds without injury or death. So that means our 800 mph initial velocity would have to be far greater so you could get as far as possible before air resistance brings you down to terminal velocity. It also takes time for a parachute to deploy (5-10 seconds), which really throws a spanner in the works for timing. I’d also love to imagine the air traffic patterns as people are willy-nilly shot around metro commuting areas.
Hmm. I seem to love mixing imperial and metric measurements.
Fully agreed but even clean as a whistle I am not comfortable being around that many people ever
I ride the subway all the time and haven’t been murdered yet. AMA
So you are the one doing the murders then?
Ever seen something as cool as pizza rat?
Rat wise, no, unless you want to count the inflatable
I’ve done both.
Safest place in the subway is at the front of the first car near the motorman. Second best is the front of the second car. If there’s trouble you can move to the first car [with the motorman easily] and have two doors between you and the troublemaker.
Public transport is directly correlated with ridership numbers. When using public transport is the best mobility option, then everyone from all backgrounds will use it and that leads to less bullshit being done.
The numbers are pretty early but the congestion pricing in NYC has apparently already led to less crime in the subway.
The latest Climate Town vid is great.
You also shouldn’t use your phone if you’re right near the doors. It’s too easy for someone to grab it and exit the car as the doors close.
The fact that this kind of thinking is necessary makes me so sad and angry for you.
It’s really sad, but for perspective, take that crime of theft, multiple it by tens of thousands up to millions of times larger, and you have the CEO’s, the oligarchs, the billionaires, the POTUS.
We know how to fix this - it starts with holding their biggest crooks accountable, then making sure everyone has their basic needs met, social trust gets restored as people are no longer desperate.
Yeah, but having your phone stolen is much more immediate and tangible.
You’re awesome, just thought I needed to say that.
Yeah. On my city’s light rail I can literally leave my phone charging next to my seat when I go to the bathroom and no one will take it. In fact it’s common for people to do that.
Our public transit doesn’t have bathrooms or phone chargers :(
The only trains I’ve been on with both were inter city trains but regional trains usually have bathrooms too. It’s just the subways and similar that haven’t had bathrooms in my experience.
Ya’ll have a bathroom on your light rail? Are we still talking about simple metro systems are is that not a full-blown “train”(I put it quotes because they’re all trains, but you get the idea).
It’s like halfway between a train and a tram and it goes partially underground.
I think light rail is the right name?
To me, a light-rail is something that operate within a municipality. Like, it’s for commuting and isn’t too intense, but differs from a subway because it is not strictly underground. Having a bathroom in a light-rail setup would be like having one on a metro whereas having a bathroom on an inter-city train makes a whole lot more sense.
Meanwhile:
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/04/two-teens-stabbed-in-bronx-subway-station-robbery/ (yesterday)
https://pix11.com/news/local-news/manhattan/woman-raped-inside-nyc-subway-station-nypd/ (Mar 17)
Sure, crime has gone down recently in the subway to pre-pandemic levels, but there was still shit like this regularly pre-pandemic too. Definitely wouldn’t leave your anything alone on the subway in NYC.
Also afaik (been a while) there is no bathroom for you to worry about leaving your stuff, people just piss in the subway cars themselves.
See the thing about transit crime is that it’s such a huge deal that it hits the news so hard when anything like that happens.
Meanwhile how many people have died driving in the last month? It’s such a huge number that it’s not even worth reporting on, it’s just “normal”. Fear is in the eye of the beholder.
I’ll take my chances on the extremely rare likelihood that something happens to me on the subway vs the probability that I’ll be maimed or killed while driving.
I think in reality “rape” is just more of a news story than “car crash.” Really seems obvious to me, actually. Car crashes happen by accident, rape and stabbing takes intention. People being intentionally run over also happens to be a news story usually, fwiw. “Crime” just sells more than “accident.”
Like, a mechanic at your local shop losing a finger is a rare possibility, but unless you live in a small town where it was literally the only thing that happened this week it won’t even be on your local news at 11 either, but if his coworker chases him around the shop and cuts his finger off you bet your ass it’ll be covered by the tri-state area.
In any case I never claimed car crashes were a myth, I claimed that “crime has dropped to pre-pandemic levels” means there’s still plenty crime, as there was pre-pandemic. You saying you’d leave your phone plugged in on the subway and walk to one of those “bathrooms?”
Interestingly, a not-insignificant number of sexual assaults by strangers happen in parking lots, apparently because victims are often alone, and there’s nobody else around. But those don’t tend to make the news.
I’m saying you can’t call one mode of transportation “unsafe” while completely ignoring the elephant that is the dangers of driving.
Now find all the deaths on the highway in the last month :)
I’m not claiming that there’s not more deaths on the highway, that’d be crazy considering the highways span the entire country rather than the NYC metro area and also carry more people than the subways, so like, simply by raw numbers “duh.”
the highway network in the United States had a total length of around 4.2 million statute miles. One statute mile is approximately equal to 5,280 feet.
NYC subway length: 248 mi (399 km) (route length) 665 mi (1,070 km) (track length, revenue) 850 mi (1,370 km) (track length, total)
Yeah 4.2 million miles compared to 248 miles? Again I’m required to say “duh.”
Conversely, though I never claimed The Highways were paragons of safety, others claimed the Subway is, when in fact the crime is simply “back down to pre-pandemic levels” which is to say “very much still there, but better, sure.”
So compare the deaths per mile traveled, per time travelled, per person who uses each as their main mode of transport, whichever metric you think would give a good representation of the relative risk of taking the subway versus driving on the highway
Try New Delhi
It is sad. It wasn’t always like this. When I was growing up I could walk anywhere as a kid and every adult on the block had their eye on me. A lot has changed in NYC in 40 years.
My brother in Christ, NYC was fucking wild in the 80’s. How are you even comparing?
It was, but neighbors were more aware and vigilant. People spent more time outside in the streets in residential areas, and knew their neighbors. I remember walking with my sister to get Italian ices when I was no more than 10 years old, and every other building had neighbors out front waving hello. We also couldn’t do anything we shouldn’t be doing without someone yelling from across the way. Now the same neighborhood seems lifeless and desolate. People just stay inside and mind their own. It’s just not as communal as it used to be.
You should read “Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs, because it talks about this. Basically, having more people on the sidewalk makes for healthier, safer, neighborhoods. Having everyone drive instead of walking is really bad for pretty much every metric we care about- safety, the environment, economic activity.
I will. Thanks for the recommendation!
