I greatly prefer to sit facing forwards - on my daily commute, I'll always take the forward facing seat if it's available (partly for the view and partly because I just find it disorienting, but I'm pretty prone to motion sickness).
As far as in a crash, rear facing is MUCH safer (you'll notice that most of the crew seats on an airplane face the rear). If you're in any kind of an impact or sudden stop, the force of your body stopping is absorbed by the whole body into the seat back. Facing forward, that force is concentrated on the seat belt (if there is one) or whatever you hit after you go flying out of your seat.