Public transit doesn't work if cars still have priority. A bus with 50 people in it should have a higher priority than 20 people in cars. Have dedicated bus lanes for moving vehicles, not just decidated places to pull over at stops. Change traffic light patterns so that they preferentially give buses the right of way, so that 50 people in a bus aren't waiting on 3 people in cars on the cross street.

Once you make public transit be the most convenient, people will take public transit. At the point, public transit expands, typically with more frequent buses/trains on a route. And that makes it even more convenient, because you no longer need to plan ahead to catch the hourly bus.

And where does this leave drivers? Even better than they were at the start. Every bus on the road means that 50 fewer cars on the road. That reduces traffic congestion far more than any amount of counter-productive road expansions that ignore induced demand.

> Once you make public transit be the most convenient

And public transit will never be convenient as long as human operators are needed because convenient public transit means a train or bus every 5 to 10 minutes at most, and that labor is extremely expensive.

And if you have to wait more than 5 minutes for public transit, especially in less than ideal weather, you are going to prefer a car. And once you have invested in a car, you are going to balk at the taxes need to provide public transit that has 5 minute intervals.

You also need Tokyo like density to make those rapid transit intervals make sense.

I'm all for public transport arriving every five minutes, but you realize you don't have to chance it, right? Those vehicles keep a schedule. Just be there a minute early.

Not my experience with NJ transit, MTA, and BART. Especially buses.

I learned to build in huge volatility for travel times, having a car was incomparably more convenient than relying on buses.

> Those vehicles keep a schedule

You clearly haven't used KC Metro. (Though like this thread is pointing out, not exactly their fault we don't give them dedicated lanes).

I will never take public transit, until I am sure I will not be stabbed in it (or catch Covid). So far no city in USA created this secure feeling. I don’t care what color the traffic lights are and how many bus only lanes there are. I suspect I am not the only one.

On the NYC public transit system (subways and busses), there is 4 to 6 felonies per 1mil rides per year. That means, if you ride the public transit system twice a day, every day... you will, on average, be assaulted once every 274 years.

In comparison, the US as a whole has a violent crime rate of 369 per 100,000 per year (2019). Or about about an average of 271 years for you to be a victim of violent crime. NYC has a slightly higher violent crime rate of 404 per 100,000 (2020) and is fairly safe as far as US cities go.

In other words, the risk of violent crime rate by being a heavy user of public transit in the largest city of the USA is about the same as the overall violent crime rate of the USA as a whole.

A felony would probably be for infliction of a life-threatening injury. I was punched in the face several times at the Broadway-Lafayette stop and the charge for the assaulting party was a misdemeanor. Still didn't make for a pleasant commute.

Pretty sure (without researching this at all) that you're more likely to die in your own car crash than to be stabbed in public transit OR die in a public transit crash, combined.

Which US cities have you lived in where the chance of being stabbed on public transit is meaningfully higher than the chance of being stabbed in any other public place?

SARS-CoV-2 is endemic and you will be exposed to it occasionally regardless of whether you take public transit or not.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/vinay-prasad/94646

NYC had this feel in my experience from 2005 to 2015. Manhattan (central park and below) and the subways were basically Disney world with alcohol.

Public transport doesn't work if you have to wear a mask to ride it. People on the margins between wanting to drive or get transport will switch to driving because of the inherent discomfort and dehumanization of being forced to wear a mask.

Remove all COVID-era restrictions from schools, workplaces, and transport, and systems will go back to functioning normally.

Sometimes I swear I'm the only person on the planet who doesn't mind wearing a mask. When you say dehumanizing though - what exactly do you mean by that? Genuinely curious.

I'm with you. Wearing a mask seems like not a huge deal (though I should note that folks on the spectrum may find the experience really unpleasant, and we should do what we can to support folks who aren't neurotypical.)

Try different masks, different styles. There's several different patterns for masks and finding the right one for your face helps a lot.

I think Japan's public transit is a good example of this not being the case, trains work, run on time, and people are fine with mask restrictions.

Public transit is working great in Taipei and masks have been mandatory for almost two years.

I own a car and use public transportation. Having to wear a mask has never come even close to factoring into which I take. Having to deal with all the traffic and terrible drivers though? That factors in heavily.

Being on the other side of a bus or train from someone, both wearing masks, allows way more of a humanizing connection than being in a completely separate car bubble.

When someone is talking about a decade long trend, they probably aren’t talking about something driven by masks and Covid.

People wear masks to save other human beings' lives. How is that dehumanizing?

People wear masks because otherwise they can't do basic things they used to do.

Alright, I grant you, at least half of humanity wouldn't voluntarily wear a mask even to save the lives of their own family, as we've seen time and again. But the purpose of the masks is to save lives, like wearing a seat belt, or not drinking and driving. Sure, most people would rather drink alcohol while driving without a seat belt. But we don't allow it anyway.

That's not dehumanizing. It's the epitome of humanization. It's about civility, compassion, kindness, and overcoming cruel dispositions and rude habits to become or be made more humane.