I've always felt safer taking mass transit than a cab, especially if I'm alone. The movie "The Bone Collector" freaked me out on cabs. With mass transit, there are almost always several other people on the platform/train with you, even late at night. Also a conductor on the train, usually at least one transit employee in the station, and often police in the stations. Obviously in this story the police were not helpful and part of the problem, but I feel like with multiple witnesses, stuff like that is less likely to happen.