What harassment do you regularly experience when riding public transit? Someone trying to sell you loose cigarettes? Homeless people walking down the train asking for money? Musicians playing for tips? Crazy people muttering to themselves? Black Panthers handing out sandwiches to people in need? The Jehovah Witnesses standing in front of train stations with their posterboards? Street preachers telling you some bullshit about Jesus? Some of these are annoying I guess, but I'm not sure that's what you're talking about...

All of that, plus drug addicts, drunkards fighting, low life's and aggressive gang members, weirdos vibing you out, jerk's staring at your wife's tits.

There's a reason everybody tries not to make eye contact with anybody while riding public transit, it's like riding with a pack of feral dogs, one accidental glance can be taken as offense.

These are all problems that are avoided by driving in your own car, jamming out, relaxing in a perfect air temperature, or windows down for some fresh air, without looking for barf in your seat before you sit down.

Just about every single transit system in America is NOT used by investment bankers and lawyers. In Manhattan, yes that's common, just about everywhere else, no, that's not the reality.

Was your mom pistol whipped too? Scary.

This is so typically American. I'll never get this bizarre worldview.

"I'm not gonna ride transit bc I don't like drunks, lowlifes, and people staring at my wife's tits. Gotta run, headed to Panama City".

Again, people are HORRIBLE at risk assessment. There are more people staring at your wife at Walmart than on a train, where most riders have earbuds and are tuned to their phones or napping. I don't think I've had a weird experience on transit during normal business hours, anywhere, ever. And nowadays no one even looks at anyone; they're glued to screens.

It's 95% American!

Crawford, you should get out of your bubble and ride the Blue line (or whatever they're calling it now?) from Long Beach to DTLA at 11:30pm. Get out on some of the platforms in between.

Maybe take a bus through some really bad neighborhoods in the Southside of Chicago, get out and walk around after dark.

What a bizarre worldview.

No, but she had a gun put in her face by a scared teenager, and the idiot drove off with her car, from a Starbucks parking lot, in an affluent Midwest suburb, about 20 years ago.

Obviously not everyday behavior, though, for any mobility mode.

I've definitely had some weird transit experiences, but nothing that made me that uncomfortable in recent memory. Like, about a decade ago there was an older guy who used to take my neighborhood bus who was one of those "panhandlers, but with a home." He was on SSI and had an apartment somewhere. He never really hustled me hard, but I remember one amusing conversation with him where he was telling me "son, you gots to find yourself an older woman...they have all the money!" He also usually had an open can of beer tucked into his back pocket.

You clearly aren't riding the same trains/buses that I am. Usually it's just people trying to get to work or wherever else they need to go. The tourists tend to be more obnoxious than anyone else. Oh and the suburbanites going to Cubs Games. They are the worst. Friday and Saturday night there are a lot of drunkards. But better they are on the train than on the road...

There's also road rage. I don't think I've encountered train conductor rage.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marcus-...etails-emerge/

And random drive by shootings. Hard to shoot at a train that's speeding along in the subway tunnels. This just happened this morning, btw. No shootings on BART today as far as I know.

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/loca...-city/2647716/

We're not talking about suburbanites taking a train to a baseball game, or college kids going to school, or investment bankers with ear buds.

There's a reason why many public transit numbers are in decline in many cities of America despite rail extensions, it's because people feel more comfortable in cars (that includes uber and Lyft).

There was a poor student who was hit by a stray bullet on a train here, but it's much more common for people to get hit by stray bullets on the expressways.

plenty of professional people ride the bus in chicago.
plenty of professional people do it in new york.
plenty of tech workers ride the light rail and cal train in silicon valley.
the blue line to long beach from dtla is pretty mild, camelback is just scared of regular working LA city people.

Plenty of the 5% of Americans that use mass transit.

5% is generous, btw.

Riding the bus in Memphis is not the same as commuting from the Upper Westside to Lower Manhattan at 8:30am.

People who can afford cars ride transit when it's more convenient, whether or not there are unsavory characters is such a non-material factor driving transit ridership. The vast majority of American cities do not have the geographic constraints or traffic that Manhattan does and have spent half a century or more building their cities around cars. As such, transit is rarely a time-saver or more convenient. Make driving a car less desirable, and transit number increase.

I've ridden transit all over the US and in other cities around the world and there are some sketchy ass people riding them and they aren't tourists.

I used to be a regular transit rider and I can assure you that wasn't because I can't afford a car. As a matter of fact, I own 2 cars and 2 motor scooters. But I keep 3 or the 4 (all but one scooter) in AZ. In SF, it was always more convenient to just jump on a bus and when I did so I rarely needed to transfer--most of the time I could catch a bus or LRV that took me within a block or two of my desired destination.

I do miss that. But as I've repeatedly said, I think a crowded transit vehicle may be one of the most risky venues there is for covid. Most of the time in SF you've got somebody else's face within 18-24 inches of yours, often several peoples'. And the ventilation is typically poor. If the windows are open, they are only open a few inches and there's not much air movement in and out of the vehicle. So I'm not riding right now.

Most of the busses in SF are a lot like commuting on the Manhattan subway: All seats taken, people packed into the standing room like sardines.

But the other bad part is that plenty of people board the rear doors and don't pay and these are the most unsavory element: The unwashed, the criminal, the folks you do NOT want to sit next to you. I've never been assaulted but I have had a guy get on with a pit bull that preceded to try very hard to get at the groceries I was bringing home.

At the Richmond BART station they get hit by stray bullets from the street below. ON transit vehicles, it's more usually stabbings and those are not rare on platforms either.

Now that I've spent a couple days in London, It's far exceeded my expectations....

Some masks on public transit, but many people with no masks.

Very few masks on the sidewalks.

Everything feels pretty open and normal here.

Thank god.

No it's largely because of sprawl-inducing public policy that makes high transit ridership nigh impossible. But it's besides the point of this thread, except somehow you think public transit is dangerous but COVID isn't...

Ha. I tried that once in 7 years of living in Memphis.

If you have other options, I'd recommend those be taken.