If you’ve wandered onto social media in the last week, chances are good that an algorithm seemingly designed to reward snuff films served you a video of a gruesome killing. Among the clips is footage of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska being brutally, fatally stabbed on the Charlotte Light Rail by Decarlos Brown Jr., who faces both a first-degree murder charge and a federal charge for committing an act of death on a mass transit system.
Over the past few days, the right has sought to capitalize on Zarutska’s horrific murder, arguing that Democrat-controlled cities are hotbeds of violence and lawlessness and using it as further evidence of the wisdom of the Trump administration’s decision to dispatch National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Boston in the name of law and order. In the case of the murder in Charlotte, the right has zeroed in on a particular target: public transit. “The problem is a lot of people, unlike the rich liberals, they can’t ride Uber, they don’t have a vehicle, they have to take public transportation, and public transportation has become an epidemic of violence and homelessness across the country,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. Those same liberals, Duffy said, “hate cars” and “want us all to ride public transportation.”
Duffy’s argument isn’t subtle: Use mass transit, and you’ll get yourself killed. There’s just one problem: He couldn’t be more wrong. According to one recent study, car travel is 10 times as deadly as travel by mass transit. Another report from the nonprofit National Safety Council finds that, for every 100 million miles traveled by passengers, rates of car deaths were 17 times greater than deaths from train travel, and 50 times greater than deaths from bus travel.
Respectfully, both are scary.
I don't think anyone who rides mass transit has any illusions of safety about doing so. I didn't start carrying a self-defense mechanism until I became a regular transit rider and had a close encounter with a very mentally unwell homeless person.
I don't generally feel unsafe on public transit, though I have almost maximum privilege
I used to be that way, but had a madman get in my face once and had to defend myself with just my hands, so I always have a means of defense now.
@FlashMobOfOne @jjjalljs I take transit more than I drive because I care about the environment. I've had a few uncomfortable encounters with unwell or overentitled people on transit. I've had many more encounters where my life was actually endangered by reckless drivers while driving (and that's not even counting all the drivers who've almost killed me while I was walking or biking).
Yeah, I think cars are more dangerous but they're more impersonal. If someone almost runs you over or almost crashes into your car, you don't usually make eye contact. You might not even see their face. But if someone makes a scene at you on the bus, they're going to be right there.
Humans are emotional creatures, so the one time a guy yelled in our face will stand out and feel more important than the thousand times a car almost right-turn-on-red and hit us. We might not even notice some of the car danger- Someone driving while looking at their phone realizes at the last moment the light is red and they stop, but you're just crossing the street. No idea you almost died. No emotional impact.
Depends on the area I guess