I feel the opposite. If I need to get somewhere then private transport feels like control: I have to own and maintain a car, pay insurance, watch the road carefully, etc. Public transport, in contrast, feels like freedom. But I know this is not the common belief.
I guess it's something cagers just learn to live with.
The characterization of this as "slavery" is beyond ridiculous.
I'm also not sure what personal freedoms you think don't exist in Europe or Asia where such well-designed transit networks exist. You can still have a car, you just don't need to have one.
It doesn't have to be like this. It didn't used to be like this. It might take a few years, but eventually the new generation/ Progressive experimentation with 're-imagining' criminal justice will come to an end. At the moment, those unhinged folks (where I saw an almost aggression just days ago at 845 am) aren't behind bars, a few years ago serial criminals would be either in jail in and out, or in prison being punished for a crime. Today they're.. just about everywhere but.
That's just a fact of the situation. Now we can discuss the morality of putting people behind bars, etc. And have a reasonable conversation. Meanwhile the cities are unsafe, and NYC has an unemployment rate of 8 percent because office workers would rather be remote, and that hurts the economy.
I think you have this backwards. Public transport gives freedom to many many people who are unable to drive (can't afford a car, too young to drive, too old to drive, etc.). In the US if you can't afford to drive your freedom is vastly curtailed precisely because we do not have effective public transport in most cities.
Moreover what you call freedom is only freedom for those with enough money. Instead of heavily subsidising car/motor travel we should invest that money into making it possible for the next generations to continue living on this planet. That's not going to happen with more and more cars.
The idea that allowing private citizens to carry guns on public transit will make things safer is completely insane.
All these politicians that rant about second amendment rights still don't allow guns into their rallies, because people shooting guns in an area with even a relatively small number of people is NOT a recipe for safety.
When I ride public transport or have a driver — I feel relatively more lethargic than when I ride the motorcycle (and to a lesser extend driving a car.)
> it is to massively double down on improving public transit
Why? Private transport represents freedom, public transit represents control. Furthermore, getting public transit to a level of perfect will cost tens of billions of dollars and for what benefit? To have cities and towns shut down each time there is a transit strike, a superstorm, or the government decides we should stay home?
Cars, motorcycles, bicycles, scooters — those work. Let’s make that better. I definitely don’t like spending my time sitting next to strangers of an indeterminate mental status in a temperature that isn’t of my own choosing going to a destination that isn’t necessarily the precise place I want to go. I want to interact with strangers as little as possible.
Raise the fares to $20 (and enforce it) and perhaps I’d consider riding public transit. But after my experiences with the BART and piss-soaked, rat infested NYC subway stations, no thank you. If I want thrills hanging out with a bunch of psychotics waiting for an excuse to push you onto the tracks, I’d rather BASE jump the Met Life building instead.
For a young single person carrying nothing more than their Manhattan Portage satchel to some hipster haunt in Brooklyn, public transport can be great. For people with stuff to carry, small kids, wheelchairs, or mobility issues, or tight schedules, not so much. Add the safety aspects to it and public transport becomes less attractive — unless of course they start allowing those with firearms permits to carry on public transport. But even then, not sure why people would want to give up point to point freedom for public options.