Forget overcrowded, safe would be a huge step in the right direction.
The only places public transportation ever remotely worked would be Europe (before the invasion from Islam and Africa) and Asian countries. Hmm, I wonder what the common denominator is....
In most places in the US, it's a gamble. And I certainly wouldn't take it at night, anywhere. Not to mention highly inefficient, as expensive as driving and typically a huge inconvenience and that's before you factor in the crazies and criminals.
In Europe, villages have been within an hour's walking distance, 5 miles, from each other, for 1500 years. Market towns are one ore two day's walk, 20-40 miles.
In the US, once you get away from the East Coast, towns grew up around railroad watering tanks, 20 or thirty miles apart, or intersections of rail roads and deep rivers.
Think about that, as you get farther west, and Leftist stupids tries to sell "Public Transportation" as population control.