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Comment by rorykoehler | Hacker News Reader

I've spent a good deal of time on Parisian public transport and have no idea what you are talking about. This includes many trips to less desirable neighbourhoods. The worst I saw was constant pickpockets. Do you care to elaborate?

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Sure, had a transfer between buses at night. Some sort of gang warfare was going down. People chasing after each other, throwing bottles and fighting. I'm going to assume was some sort street gang clashing, because thats exactly what it looked like.

I don't see how that's a problem with the transportation system.

You remind me of this tired old joke. The doctor proclaims, "The surgery was success, but unfortunately the patient is dead!"

From my perspective, I only care about getting from paint A to point B in a safe way that doesn't kill me. Avoiding ware zone bus stops in-between counts, since the bus stops are part of the transportation system.

After reading your comment I found a report on the relative safety of public transport and individual cars [1]. It concludes that in the USA there are up to 60x fewer fatalities per billion passenger miles on public transport (20x for commuter rail, 30x for urban rail, 60x for bus). It also claims that crime rates on public transport are decreasing despite increasing passenger numbers and are lower than for individual cars (crimes include road rage, car theft etc). The results of crimes to individual drivers are apparently also more costly (e.g. a stolen car rather than a stolen phone).

Obviously I've only seen one report, but it may be that the perception of cars as being safer is incorrect.

[1] - https://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/JPT17.4_...

That's probably true that its safer to be in a bus than in a car. But I can point out two things that this study did not take into account, that does not provide a complete picture.

1) The people that die running to get the bus. Or people getting run over after exiting.

2) The increased chance of getting transmittable diseases like the Flu, or now COVID.

I think the point is that your perception and reality are maybe divergent. You're not in danger if you watch a gang fight unless you are caught in crossfire which is exceedingly rare in France due to lack of guns. It's unpleasant yes (I've been there with rubber bullets from riot cops) and will get your adrenaline pumping but it's not really dangerous.

> Some sort of gang warfare was going down. People chasing after each other, throwing bottles and fighting.

This sounds like a drunken brawl more than a gang fight.

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