Nom speaks the truth. I'm all of my years in insurance I've had a number of clients die in car crashes, never lost one to a plane crash. linkage: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/how-risky-is-flying.html
That risk still doesn't change the fact that public transportation still makes you wish you were in a fatal car crash instead.
Yeah I'd probably feel that way too if I lived in one of those area where public transportation consists of three horses and an oft-broken rickshaw.
I've been living in London for about six weeks now and the weirdest thing I've seen was a large bikie looking guy at an underground station with a large wound in the back of his head and blood all over the back of his shirt. He and everybody else at the station seemed happily oblivious to this. In general though, I'm fine with public transport. I've never been to LA though.
I take metro north from CT into Manhattan pretty much every day (writing this on the train now). Aside from some douche bag occasionally spilling coffee (or beer, if it's the evening), the ride is fine. The seats are comfortable enough, the train is generally clean, and service interruptions are pretty rare. To be honest, my favorite part of NYC is that there's a train that takes me out of it every day. I love this train. That said, I totally avoid the subway. I've walked from grand central down to flat iron (about 20 blocks) in everything from driving rain to subzero temperatures to avoid taking the subway. There is nothing redeeming about it. It smells like piss (and worse), people are constantly belching their craziness all over other passengers--it's just awful. I've switched to taking cabs or Uber if I have to get anywhere that's too far to walk. I've reached that point in my life where I'm fine paying a premium if it means that I can have some modicum of comfort and control while going from a to b. It beats watching a sweaty guy drink an entire gallon of milk and then almost vomit for 5 stops while another woman stares at her feet yelling about the apocalypse.
Three unarmed guys take down an attacker armed with a rifle, handgun & knife on a French train yesterday While not exactly the same situation, it's food for thought.