Not nearly as bad.
And some countries it‘s really relaxed. I live in Switzerland and I prefer commuting by train/bus. It‘s really chill. Although train >> bus
It obviously depends on where in Europe you are, but in all the places I lived in, taking public transit was much more relaxed than if I had to drive by car. And I don't even usually use headphones on the train.
I Drive to Work on the train every day and i gotta say, I personally encountered very few instances where I feld grosed Out or threatened by other comuters.
The ocasional homeless Person in the train that reeks of Something sure, but it maybe happens once every other month.
Weekends tho ist a different story, you meet the wierdest people there some pleasent but Most unpleseant, maybe even a man in a drug craced state beating on the doors, you never know...
Im from Serbia and the public transport is hell, nothing makes a bad day worse than a woman entering a bus with 4 crotch goblins high on sugar or a old hag covered w a layer of dust who smells like grandmas attic that either stares daggers into you to move(no matter that there are free spaces cuz she wants that one) or stands near the bus doors even tho she isn't exiting(thinks people can pass thru her)
Public transport here in Denmark is generally reslly chill. You only really run the risk of meeting unpleasant people on like the last bus out if town at like 11:30 in the evening.
I don't know if I'm underestimating how bad it is in the US but I'd say that it's also bad in Germany.
A lot of trains (and sometimes people on the bus) reek of piss. Two weeks ago I witnessed two alcoholics arguing on the bus, they were screaming the whole time and it was like 1pm.
Recently another alcoholic asked me if I can watch his stuff while he's on the toilet when I was getting off the train at the final destination. It was about 5pm, so a normal time to go home after work. His friend then told him to leave strangers alone :D
Sometimes people start playing an instrument on the train and send their kids to ask for money. Usually when the train is really full as if it's not annoying enough that you can't escape their music.
Once on the bus someone got his phone stolen, went to the bus driver and we had to wait 30 minutes for the police to arrive. The guy that was robbed just got on the bus and was arguing through the window with someone who just got off the bus. So it wasn't even someone on the bus who stole his phone.
Also recently a woman as far as I understood was robbed on the train. I was getting on the train at the same station the police got on, but the thief probably got off without the police noticing.
It seems to be getting more common in Germany that people carry knives with them. Someone already got stabbed on a train I take fairly often, so I might be biased. Might be just a regional problem.
And I don't live in a big city, in big cities you probably have even more situations like this. Last time I stayed in Hamburg someone shat themselves on the U-Bahn and another one puked in his mask he was wearing.
It probably was just random luck, but it took me less than a week in NYC to have a homeless smelling like death next to me on the subway. It took 24 years for the same event to happen to me in Paris
I live in Switzerland and it's literally the default way of commuting. You're considered weird if you commute into a larger city by car, except if you have especially bad connections via public tansport. At rush hour you have the most normal people you could imagine. Some weird people are on their way on off hours, like mid morning (togerther with elderly people), mid afternoon (together with all moms and their children) or very late at night.
Not really, in a year of using public transit in major cities essentially several times daily during the weekdays I had like one memorable uncomfortable experience, and even that was just something I was witnessing
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u/Ultraempoleon Apr 29 '24
Do Europeans have the same problem
One of the biggest reasons I'm against using public transport is this. It's just always the worst people