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Americans are afraid of transit crime. Part of the negative image around public transit comes from the idea that it is dangerous (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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They don’t understand probability

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[–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I do think part of the issue is that you might not see actual violence on a train, but you might see some behaviour which makes you feel uncomfortable. Because you're in a carriage with maybe 100 other people, then the likelihood is less that you're in any actual danger, and far more that you've witnessed an incident which makes you wary. Meanwhile, there are several car accidents daily, but it's witnessed by maybe 20 odd people, and most people only see a slowdown of the road.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

    In TO there's definitely violence that's been seen on trains and street cars, but it's rare. As you said, uncomfortable situations are the common case.

    You're 100% right about the exposure to such inicdents vs car accidents. And that's amplified by how it's covered. One's still rare, the other has been commonplace for decades in the news. So yeah. The material conditions produce these results without much intervention.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    There was a parent who didn't correctly park her pram on a train platform, and sadly the pram went onto the train line, and one of the children and her husband died. This was a major news story, harrowing CCTV footage, a community in mourning. There was discussion on changing platforms to be safer, etc.

    Similar story with an SUV which reversed over a pram. No CCTV, the story was barely reported, largely local news. Similar scale of tragedy, and sadly the SUV story is probably more common, but the fact that it's common also makes it an invisible story.

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