Even when transit is available, people are less willing to use it when they are concerned about their personal safety.36 When the effort to travel to transit seems daunting because of fear of danger, people will default to the easier decision to drive. But research suggests that transit isn’t dangerous. One of our own studies examined what happened

Knowing that they could no longer rely for safety on brakes and signals, the operating authorities responsible for the subways responded to each major disaster by placing more and more of their reliance on caution; trains crept where once they could have safely speeded, and ground to a halt at the slightest possibility of danger ahead.