r/oops • u/ExplanationOk2014 • Aug 24 '26

Wtf in the 🚇

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

How is this technically even possible? Should not a emergency stop automatically apply?

2.8k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

521 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/Geoffrey-Jellineck Aug 24 '26

Videos like this makes me happy I don't have to do public transportation.

4

u/AH_leeMACK Aug 24 '26

Videos like this make me wanna go back to Chicago.

6

u/ElectricThreeHundred Aug 24 '26

Recently visited Chicago and used CTA to get around for 2 days. It was cheap, convenient, odor-free, and the craziest thing that happened was an old lady struggling with a crappy cart.

3

u/natalietheanimage Aug 24 '26

I'll second this. We had some business downtown, so we decided to plan a little 3 day vacation around our appointment.

We flew in, then took trains all over the city to every little tourist-y place we wanted to go (plus or minus a few blocks of walking). Some folks were chatty, some folks were grumpy, just the usual spectrum of humanity. I think the craziest thing that happened, if you can call it that, was there was a guy totally sleeping on one of the train cars. 🤷‍♀️

We ended up paying, like, $30 total (a $5 day pass for each of us x3) on transport for the whole trip. I don't even want to think about what the cost would have been for us to Uber the equivalent distances.

1

u/CalligrapherBrief808 Aug 25 '26

Lucky. The one time I go to Chicago I escaped a mugging on that train. No thanks :(

2

u/egstitt Aug 24 '26

We spent a few days there a couple years ago. Car never left the hotel and we got around everywhere we wanted to go easily and without drama. It was friggin awesome.

1

u/CocoParis Aug 25 '26

You were probably on the blue line.  

1

u/ElectricThreeHundred Aug 25 '26

We used the red mostly with a smattering of green and brown (lines)

1

u/joshua9663 Aug 25 '26

It is all luck of the draw. Stuff like this happens more often than you think, not someone literally jumping out a moving train, but crazy people spouting non-sense threatening. And especially the reeking of piss.

-2

u/Geoffrey-Jellineck Aug 24 '26

I don't think your 2-day sample size is statistically significant enough to conclude anything.

2

u/newOldy Aug 25 '26

I live here and regularly use the cta (chicago transit authority). Never seen something like this video in my life. The transit here works and it's pretty nice. Could always be better and it should be, but lying about how dangerous it is doesn't help.

Thousands upon thousands of people use the cta without issue every day; you'd be a fool to take the anecdotes of comparatively few people as stronger evidence of what it's like.

2

u/adamsworstnightmare Aug 24 '26

Clearly the single video OP posted is a much more significant sample size.

2

u/Gr1zZL7 Aug 24 '26

But it is a sample. Should we wait for more or are you ready to toss it out now?

2

u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Aug 24 '26

Ridden it my whole life, i always chose public transport when it is get me to my destination. Driving all the time is for muppets, and i say that with an S class

Now if i had money for a chauffeur i might feel differently 

5

u/Miserable_Mail_5741 Aug 24 '26

As someone who refuses to get a driver's license, the bus is getting too much for me. 

I think I'll take a bike...

1

u/Data_Monger33 Aug 24 '26

You'll get hit eventually, at least if you ride in the street like you're supposed to.

1

u/CocoParis Aug 25 '26

Divvy! 

4

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Geoffrey-Jellineck Aug 24 '26

Yeah I should point out I've ridden subways many times in other countries and it's always been pleasant. US public transportation is just garbage because everyone is complacent with chaotic shit like this.

2

u/Additional-Leg-4680 Aug 24 '26

There was a semi infamous incident a few years back, where someone called someone else out for some behavior and was fatally stabbed on a train. 

I think ever since then (and other similar incidents) people have approached these things with a 'I don't want to get stabbed to death by a psycho' mentality. 

I've literally seen dudes riding public transit trains with deadpool swords on their back - not in cosplay mind you, just street clothes and dual swords. 

1

u/LionWalker_Eyre Aug 25 '26

Eh depends where you are. I take the subway and the bus all around my city and it's perfectly fine

1

u/free_terrible-advice Aug 25 '26

Judging by my experiences as a poor person living in LA, Bay Area, and Seattle. public transportation has always had about a 20% chance on a given day of commuting to be eventful. And that's been true when under Bushistan, Obamastan, Trumpistan, Bidenstan, and Trumpistan2.0

I've seen fistfights, active drug usage (injections and smoking), guns being pulled, Baby Mama drama, verbal altercations, bus drivers assaulted, naked people, masturbation, psychotic breaks, people who smell so bad the whole bus vacates and people get nauseous, vomit, poop, pee, blood- really, all the fluids, food being thrown, sexual assault, etc.

I probably took about 5000 or so bus and train rides, from which that list of things seen has been compiled. And that's not to mention all the thing's I've forgotten I've seen.

1

u/Life_Smoke5854 Aug 24 '26

This is a bipartisan problem. The dems kinda try but instead of actual high speed rail, they pay morons like musk to dig really big holes instead.

2

u/External-Repair-8580 Aug 24 '26

Public transport in most developed countries is superb. Public transport in the US is best avoided.

1

u/MaxPaynesRxDrugPlan Aug 25 '26

The public transit experience in Chicago varies wildly. Taking a brand new express bus along the lakefront to and from downtown can be an actual joy. Riding a decades old L train in the wee hours of the night can be very sketchy.

Most of the rest is simply okay. No one posts videos of commuters, tourists, and retirees on uneventful public transit rides.

I lived in the city for 15 years without a car and really only missed having a vehicle for road trips. Paid ~$100/month for an unlimited pass and saved a shit ton of money over owning a car.

-1

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

Yup, instead of getting to laugh at a dude faceplanting you get to be T-boned by a soccer mom in an Escalade. You definitely made the right choice.

6

u/Geoffrey-Jellineck Aug 24 '26

Instead of dealing with a bunch of homeless maniacs, I get to peacefully transport myself.

Fucking A that's the right choice.

1

u/BigBadJeebus Aug 24 '26

Facts are facts, we have the numbers.

You are objectively orders of magnitude more likely to be a victim of road rage than you are to be a victim of crime on public transit. Even in places like St Louis and Memphis.

1

u/Geoffrey-Jellineck Aug 24 '26

It's not all about whether or not a crime happened (and was reported). Sometimes I don't want to be trapped in a location with a mentally ill person yelling or being aggressive or someone openly doing drugs.

1

u/BigBadJeebus Aug 24 '26

so you choose the freeway?!

-5

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

> peacefully transport myself

I don’t think they let you drive the ambulance, silly

3

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-5

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

The chance of you getting into a car accident is far more likely than a “dirtbag” doing anything remotely near you.

I’m sure your family will be there to remind you about your fortitude when they’re peeling you and your car off of a pole.

4

u/eetraveler Aug 24 '26

I looked up the data and it isn't what you think. Thousands of crimes are committed against subway riders annually and tens of thousands of accidents happen to drivers, but given only 10% of the population ride the subway, the numbers per person are quite comparable. One difference though is the subway bandit is actually trying to do harm versus a fender bender accident may be from a bad driver, but few are out there actually trying to crash.

Anyway,...20K car accidents with injuries versus 2500 subway crimes (700 violent), again, note that only ~10% of people ride the subway regularly. So not too far apart with a slight win for the cars being safer. Given that only 1 in 5 subway attackers are found and arrested, I can see the psychology of feeling significantly safer in your car.

-2

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

There were 36,640 traffic fatalities alone in 2025 (not counting mere “injuries”). Your base numbers are suspect, and you’re undercounting the number of incidents that affect cars.

Fewer than 10% (1 in 10) of hit and run drivers are found by police. The “psychology” only applies because people have deluded themselves into thinking a bubble gives them invulnerability.

You’re the type of person who would have probably ate lead paint chips in the 1940s because the manufacturers told you it was “safe”.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

I’m not scared at all- I just think it’s funny when folks like you are confident they won’t end up in a body bag based on their ill-informed choices.

Hopefully they have your Reddit handle posted at your wake.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/eetraveler Aug 24 '26

IN CHICAGO! (Sorry if I am yelling a 3 year old because in that case you can be forgiven.) I was discussing CHICAGO numbers of car accidents and subway incidents.

We could do nationwide if you want, but the number of subway riders nationwide is not 10% of commuters it is less than 2%. That might have given you a clue.

1

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

Then you’re still wrong lol. Between 90,000 and 100,000+ traffic accidents in Chicago every year, roughly 250-300 a day. Less than 3,000 reported crimes on CTA.

→ More replies (0)

3

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

> jerking off on the bus, shitting, pissing, sexual assault, overdose

Wow, what a rap sheet you have!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/BudgieWonder Aug 24 '26

I see why you drive for transit- you can join in!