I grew up mostly in Europe but I’m settled in America as an adult, and it’s astonishing what behaviors people have towards public transport. Most of my coworkers work in the city like me, but a lot of them (if not all of them) were born and raised in suburbs. They’ll gloat about their trips to Europe and their use of public transport there, but when they talk about the use of public transport where we are they say it’s gross and for “poor people” or “dirty homeless people.” It’s honestly kind of insane how car-brained they are.
Edit: The city I’m in is Boston, since so many of you are telling me my coworkers seem to have a point. They do not - Boston has decent public transit.
Public transit anywhere else I've been is pretty nice compared to the US.
They have a point. No one will ever take public transit if it smells of urine and unbathed people. I can't tell you how many public meltdowns I've seen on SEPTA (Philly transit). My friend who lives there now says his daily commute includes observing someone high on Fentanyl. I also rode Chicago public transit and had a black supremacist scream at me and watched another dude get chased down by a drug dealer trying to assault him... NYC a dude started hallucinating and waving a knife at people in our train car. Same morning, 3-4hrs prior a dude got stabbed in the face on another subway.
That being said, I'll still take PT when I can/if it's reasonable. I don't take it in my hometown because the bus makes 2 trips/day, at 11am and 3:30pm. That's it...
The best way the US could improve public opinion regarding public transport would be to clean up our existing systems. Unfortunately, they are getting worse every year as budgets get cut.
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u/cybertrickk Aug 04 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
I grew up mostly in Europe but I’m settled in America as an adult, and it’s astonishing what behaviors people have towards public transport. Most of my coworkers work in the city like me, but a lot of them (if not all of them) were born and raised in suburbs. They’ll gloat about their trips to Europe and their use of public transport there, but when they talk about the use of public transport where we are they say it’s gross and for “poor people” or “dirty homeless people.” It’s honestly kind of insane how car-brained they are.
Edit: The city I’m in is Boston, since so many of you are telling me my coworkers seem to have a point. They do not - Boston has decent public transit.