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Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

Those reasons are similar to why Americans aggressively dislike public transportation. A single digit percentage of experiences are horrible (or worse).

Trapped in a small space with sometimes psychotic, violent, smelly, modestly insane people. Somehow the proponents of public transport haven't figured out that's undesirable. It's not at all remotely worth the risks, unless you have no other good options.

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You're not objecting to public transportation, you're objecting to the public. The people on the bus or the train are not any different from the people at the supermarket or at the park.

Many Americans, like myself, are ok with being around people in a city. But you're right that there is a group of fearful suburbanites who would rather sit in isolation miles away from the cities they drive to than risk catching a whiff of B.O.

I take busses, Bart and Caltrain every day in SF and San Jose, and I'm in Seattle a week per month and use busses and trains there extensively, and I've never been attacked by psychotic violent people.

Public transportation varies widely in the US. A few places have great subways and commuter rail, but most don't. A few places have reliable bus service that has enough capacity utilization to actually save pollution and money, but in a lot of cases bus service is supported only as a means of getting low wage workers to their jobs. In many many places on-demand rides are the only plausible thing that would reduce private car trips.

I wonder why, as someone outside of the US and supportive of public transport, we don't encounter that.

Perhaps it could trigger some other reflections?

I've faced way more danger and discomfort from crazy drivers on the road than crazy people on a bus.

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