4 ms·

Depending on which city you live in, the other passengers can be a threat to your life. For that reason alone I don't think public transportation will ever be

by ronnier 11y ago

Depending on which city you live in, the other passengers can be a threat to your life. For that reason alone I don't think public transportation will ever be very popular in the US. It might work in a few places, but most places the threats of random violence just isn't worth it.

thrownaway2424 11y ago
People who drive in cars are far, far, far more likely to perish in "random violence" than are people who ride the bus.
servercobra 11y ago
I'd be willing to be far more people (even proportionally) die driving than from muggings on public transit.
hackuser 11y ago
I find this fear of city denizens exists almost exclusively in people in rural areas, who spend little time in cities. People in cities generally are pretty cool about any risk and used to rubbing shoulders with all types. Also, having spent a lot of time with those people, they know the risk is very small. (Of course both groups are self-selected to an extent.) To go off on a tangent, but it's ironic that gun control is the same way: People in much safer rural areas insist guns are necessary for self-defense; people in higher-crime cities generally favor gun control.
- WildUtah 11y ago
  "I find this fear of city denizens exists almost exclusively in people in rural areas" I saw Deliverance, a documentary about life in rural America, and have the same worries about that part of the country. I don't want to squeal like a pig.
IkmoIkmo 11y ago
Total homicides (i.e. ANYWHERE in the US, not specifically on a subway which is probably a tiny fraction below 1%) are roughly double the total deaths in motorised traffic accident. So I'd say it's a safe bet to take the subway over a car. There are other threats of course, pickpocketing etc... but threats to my life specifically on a subway would be a total non-concern for me.
- WildUtah 11y ago
  You mean, the total homicides (the violent crime ones) are about half the rate of motor vehicle deaths. Actually closer to a third. It's about 10-15k homicides v 40-50k car crash deaths per annum in the past decade.
  - IkmoIkmo 11y ago
    > You mean, the total homicides (the violent crime ones) are about half the rate of motor vehicle deaths. Actually closer to a third. Whoops yes I accidentally flipped it around incorrectly weakening my own argument :p > It's about 10-15k homicides v 40-50k car crash deaths per annum in the past decade. I'd still say it's closer to double though, there haven't been as few as 10k murders since 1965, and as the population was much smaller then (about a third smaller) the rate of homicide per capita wasn't much different from the average of the past decade. Meanwhile car deaths haven't been 50k since 1980 so 10-15k and 40-50k would include numbers going back 3 to 5 decades. For 2005-2015 though the motor vehicle deaths average about 11 per 100k[0], for murder it's about 5 per 100k.[1] [0] http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm (top absolute values, bottom per capita values) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_i... (doesn't include 2014 and 2015 but they're estimated at roughly the 2013 numbers. Notice the substantial dip right around the recession, I wonder how much of the drop can be explained by fewer miles driven rather than improved safety).

by ronnier 11y ago

thrownaway2424 11y ago

People who drive in cars are far, far, far more likely to perish in "random violence" than are people who ride the bus.

servercobra 11y ago

I'd be willing to be far more people (even proportionally) die driving than from muggings on public transit.

hackuser 11y ago

I find this fear of city denizens exists almost exclusively in people in rural areas, who spend little time in cities. People in cities generally are pretty cool about any risk and used to rubbing shoulders with all types. Also, having spent a lot of time with those people, they know the risk is very small. (Of course both groups are self-selected to an extent.) To go off on a tangent, but it's ironic that gun control is the same way: People in much safer rural areas insist guns are necessary for self-defense; people in higher-crime cities generally favor gun control.

WildUtah 11y ago
"I find this fear of city denizens exists almost exclusively in people in rural areas" I saw Deliverance, a documentary about life in rural America, and have the same worries about that part of the country. I don't want to squeal like a pig.

IkmoIkmo 11y ago

Total homicides (i.e. ANYWHERE in the US, not specifically on a subway which is probably a tiny fraction below 1%) are roughly double the total deaths in motorised traffic accident. So I'd say it's a safe bet to take the subway over a car. There are other threats of course, pickpocketing etc... but threats to my life specifically on a subway would be a total non-concern for me.

WildUtah 11y ago
You mean, the total homicides (the violent crime ones) are about half the rate of motor vehicle deaths. Actually closer to a third. It's about 10-15k homicides v 40-50k car crash deaths per annum in the past decade.
- IkmoIkmo 11y ago
  > You mean, the total homicides (the violent crime ones) are about half the rate of motor vehicle deaths. Actually closer to a third. Whoops yes I accidentally flipped it around incorrectly weakening my own argument :p > It's about 10-15k homicides v 40-50k car crash deaths per annum in the past decade. I'd still say it's closer to double though, there haven't been as few as 10k murders since 1965, and as the population was much smaller then (about a third smaller) the rate of homicide per capita wasn't much different from the average of the past decade. Meanwhile car deaths haven't been 50k since 1980 so 10-15k and 40-50k would include numbers going back 3 to 5 decades. For 2005-2015 though the motor vehicle deaths average about 11 per 100k[0], for murder it's about 5 per 100k.[1] [0] http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm (top absolute values, bottom per capita values) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_i... (doesn't include 2014 and 2015 but they're estimated at roughly the 2013 numbers. Notice the substantial dip right around the recession, I wonder how much of the drop can be explained by fewer miles driven rather than improved safety).