I& #39;m undecided if coronavirus is going to shift people away from public transit to private vehicles in the long run, but I& #39;d be willing to bet quite a lot it will be trotted out frequently by status quo types as an excuse to oppose transit expansions and bus-only lanes.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of elected officials in this country—and, hell, many in our major transit-dependent cities—have long been susceptible to the implication that mass transit is undesirable and unhealthy. This will only make transit& #39;s recovery that much harder.

The density debate w/r/t coronavirus has also been fascinating to watch, because it echoes many of the same talking points as the anti-density arguments from back-to-nature types responding to the perils of the slums in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

As with anything else, be wary of anyone claiming there is a single cause. It is not transit& #39;s fault, or density& #39;s fault, or whatever. But you can damn well better believe people who didn& #39;t like those things will latch onto those explanations for their own unrelated ends.