Comments

1
Rode my car this week into work and I got to work on time, home on time and didn't have to dodge bullets.

You want people to ride the bus: make the bus experience BETTER than the one they have in their car.
2
@1, I hope you and T.C. Elliot's wife never encounter anyone like Dinh Bowman on your drives home from work.
3
I would argue that buses are safer than cars because their drivers are more properly trained, and they're less likely to crumple like a tin can in an accident. Being in a car just gets you away from other people and only for so long.
4
nice catch, Charles.

@1: that's never going to happen. you can (theoretically) get a blowjob in a car - a bus can't ever top that.
5
I have to agree with you on this one, Charles. That is a dumb statement. The victim was targeted and was not random.
6
In the grand scheme of things, I'd say people isolating themselves in their car bubbles is dangerous. In your bubble you're not engaging in healthy interaction with strangers. Your isolated car takes you from your isolated neighborhood to your isolated work area. Isolation is very effective in causing mental illness and xenophobia. Do your brain a favor and ride the bus, walk around.

And of course, cars are killing people every day - you're a lot safer on a giant bus. It's cheaper to ride the bus, too - no gas, no repairs. It's healthier for the environment. If it takes a long time, read a book on the bus. Guns are scary, and we need gun reform, but chances are very small you are going to have to 'dodge a bullet' on a bus, especially compared to dying in a car accident. I am not afraid to ride Seattle buses.

There is a lot Metro needs to do to optimize their network. Hopefully with more rail being built, Metro will eliminate redundancies and restructure the network to accommodate for transfers. This will make transit better for everyone.
7
So people that ride the bus and drive a car have competing ideologies?

Is it politically correct to have a bus ideology when public transportation is convenient, but have a car ideology when you want to make special trips, like going camping?

Is a temporary car ideology acceptable in emergencies (or running late for a flight) even when public transpiration is convenient?

What are the ramifications of breaking a bus ideology?

These are not snarky questions as they are on topic and run parallel with Charles's philosophical constructs.
8
@5: killers can still target someone particular, and hit a bunch of others as collateral damage. Or like the Renton cinema ammosexual, they can just fondle their gun in a public place and manage to shoot someone they don't even know.
10
@6: what about bus bubbles? people isolate the living fuck out of themselves on the bus - books, headphones, no eye contact. and I don't blame them one bit, particularly women.

there's drawbacks to every mode of transportation.
11
A friend of mine safely drove through one shooting (shooter on one sidewalk, target on other, friend in street in between). A few years later, the husband of another friend died in the same scenario.
13
So T.C. Elliot's wife is completely traumatized by seeing someone shot, and never wants to return to the scene of that trauma again? What kind of husband would say, "Tough shit. You're still taking the bus."? Buying a car is the appropriate thing to do for the most important person in your life who is now terrified of the bus. A life lived in fear is no life at all.
14
She'll get over it.
16
Charles Maude clearly has never had to ride the E bus home from work after midnight. The bus, and the bus stops on Aurora are crazy dangerous.
17
Mr. He-Man better get used to a car payment and an additional $250 or so a month for parking - at least if wifey works downtown.
18
Yeah, clearly guns are the problem. Not the people who think it's perfectly reasonable to put on a mask and murder someone in a crowded public place. Because that kind of person would be a non-violent sweetypie if they weren't hypnotized into a life of crime by an inanimate object.
19
โ€œIโ€™m going to have to buy a car,โ€ Elliott said. โ€œMy wife is never going to ride the bus again.โ€

Someone was struck by a car crossing the street. I'm never going to cross the street again.
20
Are we certain that Charles Mudede's columns aren't some sort of randomized Plinko game with stereotypical Progressive phrases on the bottom instead of cash prizes?
21
I love you Stranger...but. ..what? I'm a working journalist. I can't crawl inside this reporter's head but ... neither can you. I think you're over assigning meaning to this. People say all kinds of things...this guy made this comment. It's his view and not the journalist's. It's not wrong to report it. Reporting something doesn't necessarily mean the reporter agrees. Or disagrees.
22
I used to ride the 132 from South Park to Seattle Central. Never got shot, but many days I wished I had. What a dreary fucking ride. Now I ride a motorcycle. Fuck buses and cars.
23
Yeah, I think it's really important to be overly critical of someone worried about the life of their spouse. Especially if such in the heat of the moment type comments can be used to further your own personal obsession.
24
One person got shot on a bus. I wonder how many people died or got seriously maimed in car wrecks the same day?
25
Googling the guy mentioned, TC Elliott, it appears he's a bit a of badass. If we can't get people like this to ride on a bus, then maybe we start thinking about how fucked-up our tolerance/acceptance of crappy behavior has gotten us. https://www.seattlesaracensrugby.com/new…
26
@24 And if your spouse was sitting next to that one person, you too might say things that weren't fully nuanced.
27
They chose the bus over a drive-by shooting. That's progress if you ask me!

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