Superior Risk Assessment

Let's be real: they're terrified that they might be forced to be near poor people, minorities, gays, and mentally ill folk.
- 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.
  
  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
- 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.
- 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
  
  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

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.

I'm terrified of riding the nyc subway because I don't understand how it works amd I'll get lost.
- its really well designed and easy. with a smartphone, navigating the city is so easy I think a 10yo could do it. that said, my parents might have trouble, but only cause they get freaked out.
  
  I just looked at your metro map. As a San Diego resident, we need to step out game up. We barely have a trolley system compared to your subway.
- I grew up on a farm, basically the rural part of a rural county in a rural state. When I visited San Diego I got on a bus going the wrong direction (which isn't a thing I even realized you could do wrong). Ended up having to wait an hour for another bus in a sketchy part of town, at night, while in cosplay.
  Felt like that episode of SpongeBob where they get stuck at Rock Bottom.
  
  I live in San Diego (well, in east county) and it's particularly a mess here. The geography leads to no real structure, roads just sorta go where they can fit. This and a general lack of public transportation infrastructure means it's easy to get lost or take forever to get where you're going. Luckily it's pretty safe, as cities go. We have a lot of unhoused folks but they're just here for the weather. I'd rather be stuck downtown somewhere at night than out here in the rural SD area, buncha fuckin white supremacists are my neighbors
- Just use your phone now, use transit directions. It'll tell you exactly where to go. And if you go to the wrong place, you can always just go back
- Trains go either this or that direction. Get on the train that goes the direction you want. Get out of the train when it is where you want to be. Done.
- Also, you only pay when you enter the system, and it's a flat fee no matter how far you ride. So if you fuck up and get on the wrong train, just get out and get on the correct train. You don't have to pay again until you actually leave the system. (I think there are some stations where you can't change directions without exiting to the street and re-entering, but that's pretty uncommon.)

I ride the subway all the time and haven’t been murdered yet. AMA
- Ever seen something as cool as pizza rat?
  
  Rat wise, no, unless you want to count the inflatable
- So you are the one doing the murders then?

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.
- 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
  
  Then you are not giving the proper distance. If you experience this every time you drive you are probably the problem.
  
  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?
  
  If you're having near death experiences every single day, that has to be something you're doing wrong.
- ^^^
- I'm with you but driver's licenses are meant to help weed those out. I think they are likely rarer but not uncommon.

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
  
  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.
- 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.

Conservative men are terrified of everything. Perpetual fear and petty grievances are the cornerstones of the entire conservative ethos.

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.

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)
- 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
- 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
  
  Other countries are not so me centric as America is either.
  
  NYC is the only one in the US I'm aware of that goes 24/7. I know the Philly one doesn't.
- 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

Every time I get scared on a train, I just imagine a video of a train versus a car
- I imagine the fear isn’t so much about accidents as it is about interacting with crazy people or crime.
  
  Or getting on the wrong train and be carried away in the wrong direction and miss your appointment.

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.

I've never almost died on a bus.

Context to the subway?
- 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.
  
  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
- 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.

Either way you risk a possibility of being rear-ended.
- In a train? That seems very unlikely though not impossible.

Me and the boys boarding be like

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.
- 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.
- 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!

pssh. they're both easy.
- I remember going to NYC for a gig and I had a hotel in Manhattan and I got a lift from a coworker going to Long Island. That highway drive scared the shit out of me. He was changing lanes without signalling and weaving in and out of traffic.
  I was gonna tell my account manager about it but my account manager said something like, oh he gave you a lift? did you know he was too scared to drive on the highway until I taught him how?
  
  There are set of rules that everyone follows, so it's more like an orchestrated dance. If you don't know the rules, that's fair to be freaked out in those situations. In Seattle, we have drivers from all over the world with they're own rules, that's got its own issues. I think NYC does too, but most people from somewhere else get a ride from someone who knows the rules, like you, or walk or whatever.

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.

Where I live, half the year it's painfully cold outside. Then in the summer we alternate between unbearable heat (because we're not used to it) and torrents of rain recently.
We also don't have a subway system in any of our cities, have lower density cities because we don't have a huge population in general, and have better driver education than much of the US.
I realize it would be optimal for society for me to take public transit, but in these conditions I'd rather drive. And if I need to go somewhere close, walking is quicker than public transit (and in the winter, generates SOME heat. Standing around at a bus stop, not so much).
I promise if I ever move to NYC, I'll take the Subway when something is out of walking distance. I did when I visited. It was fine.

I hate being within arms reach of people so fuck your subways and your neurotypical ease with dealing with ridiculously overstimulating stress-filled situations
- If you're a regular subway rider or grew up riding one (such as my neurodivergent ass) you start to realize that you're just a person in a sea of people on the train. The anonymizing actually helps with my anxiety.
  
  For you maybe, and my worry isn't not being anonymous, it's getting stabbed again
- Subways are chill in other countries. The USA is insane.
  
  My fear of being stabbed again isn't 100% rational and won't just go away because I cross an imaginary geographic line PEOPLE are insane, just the U.S. has a higher concentration
- I'd rather you be uncomfortable in a subway sometimes than the entire world suffer from all the horrible things personal car ownership does.
  
  Or you know, buses and trains for people that can handle them, and cars for people who can't
  If you envision a world where no accommodation is made for those who struggle then you are not a person that should be in charge of anything
- I never thought I'd see this platform act like this towards someone with a disability, especially considering how many people here are likely on the spectrum.
  Honestly rotten behaviour.
  
  Dude is weaponizing his disability, go through his comments. He lives up to his name and goes off on just about everyone
  
  lemmy is going the way of reddit at a record pace and as usual the mods and admins don't care