Hey geniuses, cars are literally 100 times more dangerous than homeless people on the train.

I was coming home on the F train one evening when a scary guy walked in yelling. Everyone crept to the other part of the train car and then when the train stopped, everyone crept to the other train car. Before jumping into the other car I stuck my head in and asked if he needed help—at this point he was thrashing on the ground—and he screamed, “Fuck you bitch!”

I’m not trying to virtue-signal bravery here, I was far enough away to be in no physical harm, but to point out that, yes, sometimes there are scary people on the train and you go into fight-or-flight, which is extremely uncomfortable if you can’t fight and there’s nowhere to flee. Anecdotally, I think there are more now than before the pandemic. But the likelihood of being physically harmed? It’s not 0 but it’s a whole lot lower than the likelihood of getting hit by a car in the city.

One of the interchangeable attractive young white women on the View says her husband (?) doesn’t let her take the train anymore:

Griffin continued, “But two things can be true at once. Jordan Neely’s death was tragic, it was avoidable, I support those protesting in his name. The system failed him, but people also are not wrong to feel unsafe on the subways.”

While she noted that “some crime has gone down since 2022” and pointed to Mayor Eric Adams’ “efforts” in crime reduction, Griffin claimed the city is still unsafe: “Google rape on the New York City subway. There will be dozens and dozens of cases,” Griffin said. “My husband doesn’t let me ride the subway anymore because of the fear of threat.”

John McWhorter, too, says that unlike working class people, he can always Uber or drive his car.

No!

The only thing keeping the subway system teetering on the edge of usability is that rich people take it, unlike in other cities, where public transportation is for the poorest people or people with DUIs. In Southern California you have to drive to the nearest train stations. When I walk in the suburbs of Southern California, where my parents live, the only other people walking are collecting cans. My friend, who also doesn’t like to drive, and I gripe about how the pedestrian street lights take like 10 minutes to change because the streets are built to accommodate a million lanes of car traffic. Then there’s freeway traffic. I literally can’t believe that people sit in traffic for hours without starting a violent revolution.

Last time I was there I forced myself to relearn driving because I needed to for reporting trips in “Real America.” Now, I enjoy the open road as much as anyone (although I drive like 10 miles under the speed limit) But New York’s infrastructure, combined with aggressive drivers from every country on earth, make cars uniquely dangerous in the city. 124 New Yorkers were killed in the first half of 2021 (Eric Adams blamed the pandemic for that, but blames all other violence on bail reform). Car deaths spiked during the pandemic everywhere, but top 100 in normal years in New York. How many hundreds of people a year do scary homeless people kill on the train?

A lot of people have aired concern about the fact that it’s working class people that have to take the train. Everyone takes the train. But it’s true that I mostly take the train to get dinner or drinks in the city. Digital work is a life changer and most, if not all, digital jobs tend to fall to middle and upper middle class professionals.

But if you’re so concerned about working-class New Yorkers, more cars is not the answer. You can gauge exactly how wealthy a neighborhood is by how people drive. Not because of the people—drivers can crisscross all neighborhoods—but because of the shoddy infrastructure and street design. My old neighborhood in Queens was designed by a demented baby. Most of the streets jut out diagonally, so drivers making right-turns have like no visibility until the last minute. And if you’re very angry about a pothole you’re might be more likely to gun the engine. I’ve commuted by bike in 5 different cities. But a few trips from Queens to Williamsburg, which is the most direct way to get into Manhattan, were so terrifying I sold my bike. It was like a terrifying IRL video game where you have to evade pedestrians, trucks, cyclists, delivery guys going the wrong way, cabs, Ubers, etc. And all of that with the loud, creaky M train above you further electrocuting your central nervous system.

In Park Slope, meanwhile, people drive like in the suburbs. There are speed bumps everywhere. The visual distinction between residential and busy streets with businesses is obvious so drivers know where to not gun it in case a child or dog runs into the street. And I’ve never seen a broken street light, which are endemic in poorer neighborhoods.

Also, we, as a society, have just kind of decided that poor people don’t get access to nature. Prospect Park (I’m going to nerd out here) is like the scene in Metropolis of all the rich people frolicking above ground in the opening scenes. If I had the room for it I’d 100 percent get a bike because I could ride it in the park instead of in a terrifying video game challenge.

So exercise caution on the subway by all means! But please stop fearmongering! I now get a slight shiver of anxiety when I take the train, not because of anything that’s ever happened to me on the train, but because in my media world 9 thousand people and also Eric Adams are telling me the subway is dangerous.

About nine years ago I was at a party with some scion of Saudi royalty, who said he had a driver that took him into the city to his internship because he couldn’t bear to be on the train. Everyone looked at him like he’d said he helicoptered in the city. Now you see the sentiment in the New York Times and the View.

I’ve never even heard of a homeless person attacking, violently, a child on the subway but can think of two car fatalities involving small kids just off the top of my head.