Haven't run into anyone with a boom box on a train since the iPod was invented.
Of course not. I know that.
That was a "euphemism" if you will about the inconsiderate people you have to deal with on public transportation.
You say the trains are clean? Meh..... having worked at a maintenance base for a public travel medium (in this case aircraft) I rather doubt it. People said the jets were "clean" when they left Tulsa but, were they really?
At the end of the day you are still talking about putting large amounts of people in a confined space.
Deducing what I can about your personality from the post you have made on here eolesen (highly intelligent, ordered, logical, a bit arrogant) I think I can safely say your personal vehicle is 10X cleaner than any public transport you have ever used.
For the posters on this thread if you value public transportation that is fine. However it seems to me the people trying to sell you on it don't use it themselves. We had a politician here in Oklahoma basically tell us the reason our roads are so terrible is because we don't embrace public transportation and multifamily dwellings (apparently single family homes are too good for us and we should all live in apartments and the Oklahoma government would
NEVER misappropriate funds ). Sounds hypocritical coming from someone living in a mansion and getting drove around in a limo all the time.
So my question is why would you expect me, a person from Oklahoma, to forgo my personal vehicle in favor of public transportation and give up the privacy and security of my home to live in an apartment complex when you know damn well the politician trying to sell it to the people in my community is not willing to live that way?
I don't like public transportation, and yes I have used it in both Atlanta and Chicago, and I don't like the government trying to push me in that direction.
Again if you value public transportation that is fine however, I just don't see how you can justify making the tax payers subsidize a private company. It seems a bit hypocritical to me to hammer Walmart (who we all know uses the welfare system to subsidize labor cost) but give Amtrak a free pass. Why? Is it because Amtrak is UNIONized? Do you feel they have a better public perception? Can anybody answer me why Walmart and Amtrak are held to such different standards when they are both basically pulling the same scam on the taxpayers?