The worse form of public transportation in the sense of intolerance and disrespect by far in America is by airplane, in which, citizens are essentially treated as suspects, when entering into the airport and while going through the airport security procedure, which allows governmental employees, at will, to search, screen, and pat-down whomever that they so desire. That is the norm in America, and the chances of it changing anytime soon are pretty much zero.
On the other hand, there are other forms of public transportation which depending upon your income level, and where you live, you may take on a daily basis or hardly at all, which consist of subways, buses, and trains. These public transportation agencies have different sets of rules depending upon the community and location, but all of them, in one form of another, are gravitating away from accepting cash payments on the spot, and instead, one must have already previously purchased a Metro card, or TAP card, or a ticket through various means to accomplish such.
Once all public transportation refuses cash on the spot, and instead insists that you have the proper governmental permitted access card or ticket to board these public transportation vehicles, than this essentially means that in order to utilize public transportation you must positively identify yourself at some point in order to get access to these conveyances. For many people, this might not pose a problem, because they don't see the inconvenience or the hypocrisy of having to identify themselves, probably because they are so use to doing it or have been conditioned to doing it on an everyday basis, but for the indigent and very poor, it is a major burden when cash is no longer accepted, while from a freedomfor citizens to simply access public streets, public facilities, and public transportation, this mandated insistence that all must be identified, is an unwelcomed and unnecessary intrusion upon the people's rights to simply get from place-to-place without having to identify themselves, and yet another negation of their freedom of movement.
In point of fact, all the types of identification and security measures that are currently conducted in airports are subject to being enforced in the very near future for all public transportation, to which, all this will be sold to the public as necessary for their safety and security. Certainly, the lines and screening as seen and done at airports won't translate completely for all public transportation, as the logistics of such can't be accomplished, but as long as the government has the right to stop any and all "suspects", search any and all bags, while making their presence known, this will effectively serve the same purpose as our current airport security.
Further to the point, when all must be positively identified, in order to board any sort of public transportation, than the government will have a database of pretty much exactly who and whom is on board at all times, making it far easier for the government to reconstruct events when something untoward happens. Some will applaud this, many will not care, but others will recognize it for what it is, an intrusion upon the sovereignty of the individual, with the governmental boot increasing its powerful pressure upon the citizen's neck.