Sunday Poll: Which mode of public transportation do you think is the safest in St. Louis?
Today’s poll is about perceptions so it doesn’t matter if you ride public transit daily, frequently, rarely, or never. It also doesn’t matter if you think all public transit is unsafe — today’s question is: Which mode of public transportation do you think is the safest in St. Louis? So if it helps you it can also be read as Which mode of public transportation do you think is the least unsafe in St. Louis?
The poll choices are:
- Bus (MetroBus)
- Light rail (MetroLink)
- Tie/equal
- Unsure/no answer
These will be shown in random order in the poll — located in the right sidebar.
— Steve Patterson
Where are the airlines and Amtrak? Taxis? School buses? And “safe” for the users or the other users on the road? “Safe” in the waiting areas or on the vehicles? Injuries versus deaths? Accidents per vehicle mile travelled? Deaths per million miles travelled? Statistically, public transit, in any form, is far safer than private vehicles (professional, trained operators in larger vehicles versus poorly-trained, over-confident, potentially distracted, potententially impaired operators in smaller, lighter vehicles). Personally, I perceive all of Metro’s services to be equally “safe”, even though I have growing concerns about personal safety, both at stops and on vehciles, but I still choose to drive myself, the vast majority of the time, because it’s far easier (even if it’s less “safe) – direct, far quicker, no schedule, no waiting, and I get to control my personal environment – temperature, tunes and passengers! Concerns about personal safety aren’t keeping me from using Metro more, it’s the maddening schedules and the extended time it takes to get from Point A to Point B!
You’re going to force me to include the phrase “of the following” in every poll aren’t you? I seriously doubt anyone takes Amtrak from Kirkwood to St. Louis to Alton.
Harland Bartholomew’s 1947 for 35 airports in the region so we could all fly from place to place never happened. https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/archive/1947-comprehensive-plan/airtransp.shtml
There’s a difference between public transportation and public transit . . .
Yes, there are many online forums for such a diabete — this isn’t one of those. Want to have that debate? Go to http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/29315-public-transportation-or-public-transport
Here’s another: http://grammarist.com/usage/transport-transportation/
If I wanted to make an issue out of grammar, I would have mentioned “safest” (it should be “safer” – there are only two options presented). My concern with precise language, in the polls, is that you use the “results” to extrapolate other conclusions, when you present the results, later in the week – the problem of compounding assumptions. I may think that Metrolink is safer than Metrobus (or the other way around), yet I may also think (know) that airlines (also “public transportation”) are safer than either B-State option. I guess that leaves me with “unsure/no answer” as my only option.
Maybe this can help you http://lifehacker.com/how-to-stop-over-analyzing-every-conversation-1639253515
I’ve taken Amtrak to St. Louis from Alton…just the once, and can’t even really remember the circumstances that required it.
But I remember being almost excited as it reminded me of a local heavy-rail system (akin to Chicago’s Metra), which would be wonderful in connecting the region using existing right of ways AND would give renewed used to our Union Station.
I actually feel less safe walking to the station than taking the station. I’ve never felt threatened on public transport here.
My walk is from Soulard to the stadium when I go to the train. Too many overhead freeways and not enough front porches or eyes on the street.
Yes, the walk to/from stations and/or bus stops can be the least safe part of a journey.
I used to make that walk tbatts. Do you ever take the bus instead? Or take the pedestrian brudge over the highway? It takes longer but is much more pleasant. I tried for years to get the SRG interested in improving the walking environment from downtown to Soualrd, but they weren’t interested, neither was the City. Hopefully Coatar will care about pedestrians, but from what I’ve seen and heard so far seems like another car slave.
I hope he is interested in doing that.
Thanks for the tips. Quite often I am arriving at the last train of the night.
It would be interesting to know the injury rate of riders (or others) per miles travelled on Metrolink versus bus. And then how these compare to vehicle traffic. There is the occasional bus accident and maybe a rare safety incident on Metrolink (do we know if there has ever been a serious vehicle-train incident at a crossing?) but I think it is safe to say that deaths or serious bodily injury have been very rare occurences.
Firstly, I both live and work in the city. I use both bus and light rail regularly with no hesitation, so I voted for tie. However, this question brought up some thoughts
Speaking as a recent immigrant to the area, one of the major differences I see here from the east coast (NJ, MD and VA) is a constant focus on how unsafe the city is (with the unspoken rider ‘for affluent white folks’, like myself)
Some examples include:
1) obvious uniformed security at the front door of every retail store, even in the suburbs.
2) signs everywhere telling you to hide or don’t leave valuables in your car
3) this poll (although I do appreciate the positive wording of which is safer, rather than which is more dangerous, the underlying ideas are the same.)
Based on my observations and crime rate statistics, I don’t believe Saint Louis is markedly more dangerous than any other major city in the country and certainly not enough so to warrant the prevailing attitudes I hear. However, I do believe the atmosphere of fear creates an echo chamber where isolated incidents are focused on and fear (mostly of poor, black people) grows disproportionately, which leads to greater overall racial tension, which has exploded spectacularly in the past year.
Excellent observations, I did the poll as an excuse to discuss the prevention/obsession with safety — on Wednesday.
I don’t agree with this chart, but I’ll add it to the discussion: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-07/auto-analyst-the-remainder-of-my-career-will-be-focused-on-this-one-chart