24 ms·

Most people in the USA are too shy/prudish to say it but I think this is a conversation that needs to be opened: Americans are so resistant to public transport

Most people in the USA are too shy/prudish to say it but I think this is a conversation that needs to be opened: Americans are so resistant to public transportation because the public seriously sucks to deal with. There will be no popular utilization of public transit until we implement strong economic safety nets and extensive support/mandatory detention of people that are mentally ill. Those problems are much harder to overcome while maintaining an American standard of personal liberty than even the complications surrounding building rail. As a native of San Francisco and the surrounding area I have tried for decades to utilize public transit. The infrastructure isn’t great, but it’s also not terrible or anything. But in years where my job/living situation have me using public transit every day, my rate of exposure to human excrement or someone who wouldn’t even be aware that they physically harmed me was greater than once a week. In phases of my life where I’m driving everywhere that rate is practically zero. That stress takes a toll on my health that I have a natural instinct to avoid.

stetrain 2y ago
You aren't wrong, although your comfortable car ride also includes huge amounts of risk of personal injury, we just tend to not think about that until it happens. The lack of other places for people to go often leaves public transit facilities as a place for homeless people to congregate or seek shelter. The US also tends to treat public transit as welfare transit in general. A transportation option of last resort for those who can't afford a car, where the primary goal is being inexpensive, instead of being the best and most efficient way to move around a city for all citizens. Transit stations in the US also generally don't have revenue-generating amenities like food, coffee, or shopping. This makes them money sinks instead of revenue sources that pay for their own cleaning and security etc. “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation.”

stetrain 2y ago

You aren't wrong, although your comfortable car ride also includes huge amounts of risk of personal injury, we just tend to not think about that until it happens. The lack of other places for people to go often leaves public transit facilities as a place for homeless people to congregate or seek shelter. The US also tends to treat public transit as welfare transit in general. A transportation option of last resort for those who can't afford a car, where the primary goal is being inexpensive, instead of being the best and most efficient way to move around a city for all citizens. Transit stations in the US also generally don't have revenue-generating amenities like food, coffee, or shopping. This makes them money sinks instead of revenue sources that pay for their own cleaning and security etc. “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation.”