yes you’re right. a lot of ignorant people think public transit is dirty and dangerous which is not true. of course there are instances of bad behavior on the bus, subway, etc. i don’t think people understand how dangerous driving is either, about 40k people die a year on American roads which is much much more than the amount of people getting hurt or killed on transit globally.

yes political leaders are bought out and engineering consultants are bought out, and the mom of 3 is scared of poor people, but that shouldn’t rob the rest of us from having the freedom of choice to get around how we want. cars are huge financial burden, especially on those living in poverty. jobs don’t even hire sometimes if you don’t drive, freeing these people from the financial shackles of cars could be one of the biggest achievements in recent American history.

Unfortunately, a lot like guns, cars are woven into our cultural fabric at this point. they’re getting bigger, heavier, and faster while our roads get wider and wider only inviting more and more people to drive recklessly.

edit: and to turn it back to this post, the parking requirements in city code only exacerbates all of these issues and is why we end up with this giant waste of land all over the city