Agreed that it's not as pleasant as having a car to yourself (I ride the NYC buses and subways everyday), but I think we could solve a lot of the people issues with proper policing rather than outright isolation.
Chances are if you make more "quality of life" laws you'll either have some schmuck causing trouble when enforcement is nowhere to be found, or they'll be used as excuses for cops to pad their stats by arresting first and asking questions later, with most of the punishment hitting minorities, as tends to happen in the U.S.
The problem is cultural. Another poster here mentioned Japan, where busses are pleasant. After all, that is a place where "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down." If we really want public life on par with Japan or Europe, change has to start with each and every one of us. No government program or well-funded startup could ever do it alone.
I have ridden SF public transit of all kinds. MUNI buses are the worst, and it's not because of things that could be solved with policing. The worst part is the super high variance in door-to-door times, even if you try to plan your life around bus schedules it's bad.
If you have to take multiple forms of public transit to get where you are going, good luck. A 40 minute drive can easily be 2.5 hours on public transit if everything goes perfectly.
Also the average speed of SF MUNI buses is 8 mph, probably among the lowest in the nation. If I'm going any distance less than a 30 minute walk, it's probably going to be a better idea to walk than take the bus.
