Public transit simply does not work if people have the option of cars. Public transit did not fail, society’s leaders (and hence society itself) optimized for individual cars. There is no possibility that both can coexist.
Public transit also requires dense living.
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.
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.
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.
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 learned to build in huge volatility for travel times, having a car was incomparably more convenient than relying on buses.
Remove all COVID-era restrictions from schools, workplaces, and transport, and systems will go back to functioning normally.
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.
Try different masks, different styles. There's several different patterns for masks and finding the right one for your face helps a lot.