This is, sadly, a self-perpetuating problem. If a group of gangs boarded a train car in Seoul and robbed everybody, there would have been a full news coverage

This is, sadly, a self-perpetuating problem. If a group of gangs boarded a train car in Seoul and robbed everybody, there would have been a full news coverage for the next week and the opposition leaders would have demanded president's apology. Because such a thing is simply considered unacceptable. (Of course Korea has its own societal problems; gangs roaming in subway is not one of them.) In America, everybody knows that public transit is dirty and dangerous, so when such a thing happens, everybody just shrugs it off. Middle class people don't want these ugly stations in their neighborhood; if they have one, they don't want the politicians to waste money on nicer benches or a decent-looking wall. What's the point? It will be filled with graffiti the next week. So public transit remains underfunded, unsafe, dirty, and always late, and of course people point to that and say "See? We don't need more of these things. Let's build more highway."