> in Philadelphia/New York/LA/SF/Seattle/Portland public transit is pretty disgusting

In New York right now. Subway stations are dinghy. But the cars themselves are fine. Hop on the Metro-North or LIRR and they're on par with European cleanliness standards. (If not behavioural.)

Dingy/dinghy is a great one for the Eggcorn Database!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40720548

If you think the cars in NYC are clean, look under the seats. LIRR and Metro-North are OK, but also not exactly clean.

European trains are far cleaner.

In LA county the newer lrt is fine. The old purple and red car trains though are disgusting even when they are clean. Theres usually a constant unpleasant background smell, halfway between stale cigarette and old puke, the cars are usually hot as hell causing everyone to sweat, and sometimes the already quite poor and noisy ventilation is off entirely in the traincar. It also doesn’t help that the aesthetic is beige and brown 90s style, which makes it even more dirty looking than the newer grey and stainless interiors. Most of the stations are overdue for a power washing. Especially down in the tracking thats full of trash and pee. Its not bad enough to be a deal breaker to me even with the occasional tweaker actively smoking some rock, but still its not pleasant.