Simply put, the New York Subway system is the best thing to happen to transportation since the invention of... not the wheel. It's better than the wheel. It's the best thing to happen since the invention of legs.
I've been dependent on public transit for a while now, assuming that your definition of "public transit" includes bumming so many rides off your friends that you know you'll never be able to pay them back for it ever. (No, really, I've bummed so many rides off a couple guys in particular that I almost went into medicine or law, figuring if I saved their lives or kept them out of jail at some point down the line, we would finally be square). But even if you don't include the abuse of those who have their own automobiles, I've still got a fair amount of public transit experience from using the bus to get to and from school for a couple years.
Here's what I've noticed with other forms of public transit: they're lame. Mainly this is because none of the ones I'm familiar with besides the subway run 24/7. In San Francisco and miss the last BART train back? Tough. Find a motel. Went downtown for an adult beverage or four? Tough. Call a cab or a friend who owes you (possibly because you've given him countless rides). Just bit into a brownie only to realize you have no milk? Tough... although that really has nothing to do with public transit. Let's move on.
Buses, the public transit that I'm most familiar with and is probably the most common, also have some more problems. First, they make me hate everyone I see. Every passenger is someone who may pull on that cord and make us stop. Every man or woman on the street is someone who might stand at a stop and make us stop. Every driver of a car is contributing to the traffic that's slowing us down. And the physically challenged? That's the worst part of all. Anything that can make people despise the disabled is a problem. Yet who among us can claim they don't get frustrated whenever they have to wait for that stupid ramp and lift? Also, buses are known to have things on them that nobody likes, like your classmate's vomit, bombs that make explosions when the bus goes less than 50 miles an hour, and Keanu Reeves.
The subway, on the other hand, is glorious. It's cheap. It runs all the time. It makes the city more "green" (as in energy efficient, save the world, save the cheerleader, all that good stuff) and it makes every other city green (as in envy, jealousy, "I want to go to there"). It's convenient. But what I think I like best about the subway is that everyone (with the exception of the physically disabled, who are better than the rest) is equal on the subway. All kinds of people take the subway. Supposedly Mayor Bloomberg himself rides the subway into work. It's him, it's wall street executives, it's tourists, it's students, it's the homeless, it's Joe the Plumber (not the actual guy, like what John McCain meant when he told a crowd "You're all Joe the Plumber!"). And standing there, holding onto the germ infested support bars, all are equal. It's like Denny's at 3 am; nobody is better than anyone else.
Okay, I lied. That's not what I like most about it. It's the whole being a cheap, fast, and convenient way to get around town thing. Seriously, there's a train like 3 blocks from my place and from there I can get anywhere in the city. It's great.
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