> I missed the part where this has anything to do with saving time.

If you make cities more concentrated without balooning them with parking lots - everything's closer. If you restrict cars - there's less traffic jams, which makes commute faster.

> If feels like a big stretch to say public transit reduces crime. I wonder if there’s actual data to support this notion.

US has much higher crime levels than other developed nations. It's also the most car-dependant of them.

People often think public transport creates crime, because criminals use it to move (like everybody else). But public transport mainly lets non-criminal people to move, which reduces the number of criminals overall.