The Cities with the Best Public Transit (U.S.)

[SarahZ]

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3025623/the-cities-with-the-best-public-transportation-in-the-us?partner=newsletter#6

These are based on the Walk Score scores, which do not take reliability into account. These are based on frequency, type of route, and distance to each transit stop, i.e. how far you have to walk.

The top ten are:

1) New York City

2) San Francisco

3) Boston

4) Washington D.C.

5) Philadelphia

6) Chicago

7) Seattle

8) Baltimore

9) Los Angeles

10) Portland

 

[SarahZ]

 

[the_traveler]

Thanks! :hi: Just what I was looking for!

 

[SarahZ]

You're welcome. I figured I'd just attach the results since it had bike scores as well. I know we have a lot of cyclists on the forum.

It also helps me plan my goal of visiting cities with awesome public transit. I'm kind of bummed we never rode BART/MUNI while in San Francisco, and I didn't try the rail lines in Los Angeles either. So, this gives me a nice list of cities to hit. I'm sure future Gatherings will be held in some of them, so that makes it easier.

 

[brentrain17]

Thanks! Pretty much what I expected. What is the source of your info? Just curious.

 

[brentrain17]

ha ha never mind, see the web site now

 

[oregon pioneer]

I happen to like some of the features that they have in:

• Portland (OR): Every stop is assigned a number (even stops on different corners of the same intersection have different numbers). TriMet's Planner tells you the stop to go to by number, so you are always at the right place for the bus and direction you are going. And if you arrive at a stop and wonder how long before the next bus comes, you dial the phone number displayed on the sign, enter the stop number, and a recorded voice gives the next bus arrival in minutes. I tried it, and the result was correct -- the bus appeared right when they said it would!
• Seattle/King County Metro's trip planner covers multiple counties and multiple transit agencies. How cool is that, you can get from one end of Puget Sound to the other with a single trip planner?

As a public transit lover, I've used transit in cities from east to west. Here are a few more highlights:

• Some free ones: Savannah's Connect on the Dot, Baltimore's Charm City Circulator, and Island County (WA).
• Oregon's Tripcheck website has all kinds of info, including bicycle and road conditions, but they also have a page that allows you to find transit options to obscure little towns that you didn't even know had bus routes!

Does anyone else have any good ones? I'd love to learn about more fun ways to see cities using public transit.

 

[trainman74]

Portland (OR): Every stop is assigned a number (even stops on different corners of the same intersection have different numbers)...

Other cities may not be quite so "user-friendly," but they do have mobile websites or smartphone apps available that can tell you when the next bus is going to arrive -- I think the most common is nextbus.com, which serves a bunch of transit agencies nationwide. Here's what their smartphone display looks like:

 

[tp49]

In San Diego you can text the bus stop number to a number on the sign and get the time the next bus is to arrive. Have to admit I liked being able to do that.

 

[benjibear]

I am surprised Washington is not ahead of Boston.

 

[SarahZ]

I like the Transit Stop app (Chicago). It's pretty basic but shows everything I need.

The colored lines are trains, and the numbered lines are buses.







These are super handy when it's either raining or freezing (or both).

Also, I see I should probably charge my phone...

 

[afigg]

I am surprised Washington is not ahead of Boston.

There were a number of posts arguing about DC vs Boston transit today on the Greater Greater Washington blog on the Top 10 transit cities list. The methodology apparently includes transit to the metro region and Boston has an extensive Regional.rail system that DC does not. Although the DC Metro serves in part as a regional rail system with metro frequencies. For trips in the city and close-in urban neighborhoods, the T with the Green Line light rail and Silver line BRT reach more places than the DC Metro, so for that purpose, I would rank Boston ahead of DC for transit.

The top 10 list and scores, while this is hardly an exact science, has a gap between the top 6 and the rest. Which I think is the general consensus: the top city and metro region for transit is NYC, the second tier is Boston, Philly, DC, Chicago, and SF. Then the rest.

In the top 6, four have a number of rail transit expansion under construction or in advance planning with funding. For the other 2, Chicago is busy rebuilding sections of the L and planning on BRT projects, while SEPTA is getting a big boost in capital funding that will allow it to restore the system to a state of good health. With the expansion projects that are in the works, I can see Boston and DC residents arguing in 8 to 10 years that they should be ranked ahead of each other and SF.

Outside of the top 6, LA and Denver both have multiple rail transit lines under construction with aggressive expansion plans and should at least get higher scores in a few years, perhaps with Denver breaking into the top 10. I am somewhat surprised to see Baltimore that high on the list given the disconnected nature of the 2 rail transit lines, although the Charm City circulator buses are a plus. The Red Line LRT will be a big step forward towards a proper rail transit system in Baltimore.

With the light rail, streetcar, and BRT projects that are under construction or in advanced planning, the list of US cities with good transit systems should be more respectable and longer in 5 to 10 years. More car free places to visit on Amtrak!

 

[FriskyFL]

And not a Sunbelt state anywhere to be found on this list. Guess Atlanta will have to suffer a few more snowpocalypses to wake up & smell the 21st century.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Amtrak Forum mobile app

 

[Ispolkom]

In San Diego you can text the bus stop number to a number on the sign and get the time the next bus is to arrive. Have to admit I liked being able to do that.

Chicago has the same system. While I've never found the information given to be particularly accurate, it does give you something to do while waiting for the bus.

 

[trainman74]

Chicago has the same system. While I've never found the information given to be particularly accurate, it does give you something to do while waiting for the bus.

In my experience a couple months ago, the bus arrival times given on the mobile version of the CTA website were spot on. Although you can sometimes see arrival times slip later, presumably when the bus doesn't make a light or is otherwise caught in traffic.

 

[seat38a]

I think LA is spot on. When growing up, there was NO trains or really any usable public transit. Now, you pretty much have trains every 30 min to an hour to the suburbs and also, pretty much a train ticket (Metrolink) will get you on the Metro, OCTA for free. Even down south in San Diego where I have to go weekly on business, I take Amtrak and then the trolley. LA can use more improvement but when compared to where we came from, its a 10000% improvement. Also, if you use google map, it will give you the route with public transit also with when the next bus or train is expected.

 

[MattW]

And not a Sunbelt state anywhere to be found on this list. Guess Atlanta will have to suffer a few more snowpocalypses to wake up & smell the 21st century.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Amtrak Forum mobile app

No question there, but the governor just made a comment that more transit wouldn't have helped. :angry2:

Well, given that this is the second snowpocalypse within his tenure, I doubt he'll be a two-termer.

 

[BCL]

San Francisco is variously served by over a half dozen local and regional transit agencies. MUNI is the one owned/operated by the City and County of San Francisco. There's a reason why the biggest rider advocy organization is called "Rescue MUNI". They're also served by regional agencies such as BART and Golden Gate Transit/Ferry, as well as various local services such as SamTrans, AC Transit, and SF Bay Ferry that connect to transit hubs.

While they've got theoretically good service if you base it on their published schedules, MUNI sucks. They're rarely on time, you're lucky if they don't just bypass you at a stop, and there are now issues with private buses illegally (soon to be legally) using their bus stops and forcing actual public buses to either wait or load/unload in a traffic lane. They also have issues with drivers calling in sick and an overly generous contract that requires operators be paid in the top 3 of all US transit agencies.

I was in NYC last year, and you can count on the subways for good coverage in Manhattan and that the line you need will arrive in less than 8 minutes.

 

[jis]

And not a Sunbelt state anywhere to be found on this list. Guess Atlanta will have to suffer a few more snowpocalypses to wake up & smell the 21st century.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Amtrak Forum mobile app

No question there, but the governor just made a comment that more transit wouldn't have helped. :angry2:

Well, given that this is the second snowpocalypse within his tenure, I doubt he'll be a two-termer.

Pardon the expression, but having watched his performance over the last week or so, I have arrived at the conclusion that he is not exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Actually he has been pretty clueless as far as doing any reasonable analysis of what hit him goes IMHO, for way beyond what is reasonable. The fact that he should have shut down things instead of worrying about how it will look on his resume seems to have alluded him for the longest time. He had plenty of warnings that he chose to ignore, sort of like NJTransit during Sandy. Actually the Emergency Management guy did say that he made a mistake in delaying action on the warnings to late morning of the fateful day.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

And not a Sunbelt state anywhere to be found on this list. Guess Atlanta will have to suffer a few more snowpocalypses to wake up & smell the 21st century.

No question there, but the governor just made a comment that more transit wouldn't have helped.

Well, given that this is the second snowpocalypse within his tenure, I doubt he'll be a two-termer.

Pardon the expression, but having watched his performance over the last week or so, I have arrived at the conclusion that he is not exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

From what I've seen Atlanta appears to be competing for the title of world's largest monument to mindless sprawl. Blaming generations of shortsighted single minded governance on one person would appear to be counter to the evidence. When Texas was hit with wildfires and our severely slashed budgets prevented us from dealing with them effectively our governor took charge of the situation by hosting three days of government sanctioned prayer. And it worked! No, it didn't actually do anything to save lives or to fix our self inflicted budget cuts or to contain the fires themselves. But it did change the media focus from reality to spirituality long enough for the federal government (and taxpayers nationwide) to come to our rescue and save Texas from our own incompetence. BTW, thanks America! We may have some absurdly ineffective politicians here in Texas, but our moronic governor is hardly a unique snowflake. Nor is our borderline psychopathic junior senator. As nutty and clueless as they may be I'm hard pressed to separate their publicly stated views from those of average Texans. We are governed by these sorts of people because the pool of potentials is full of them and the process which elects our politicians favors these traits. I would be genuinely surprised if Georgia was any different in that regard.

 

[Nathanael]

The top 10 list and scores, while this is hardly an exact science, has a gap between the top 6 and the rest. Which I think is the general consensus: the top city and metro region for transit is NYC, the second tier is Boston, Philly, DC, Chicago, and SF. Then the rest.

LA is sometimes placed in the second tier (and I would put it there), but apart from that, yes, this is the general consensus. LA has been rising fast in the rankings, with an extensive and pretty reliable "Metro Rapid" bus grid, a quickly-expanding rail system... and consistent sidewalks.

The third tier is a bit fuzzier; Seattle and Portland usually rank near the top of it. Cities without urban rail don't make it into the third tier, but some of the cities with urban rail have done such an awful job at the other aspects of urban design (...Atlanta) that they don't really make it into the third tier either. Nobody likes to get out of the subway to find that there are no sidewalks.

 

[trainman74]

...and consistent sidewalks.

L.A. does have a good amount of sidewalks, but many of them are in poor shape (mainly due to tree roots) -- a 2012 estimate was that 4,600 miles of sidewalks in the City of Los Angeles are in bad condition. Here's an L.A. Times column from earlier this month about the issue.

 

[George Harris]

San Francisco as No. 2? Are they talking the city itself or the region? If the city itself, then I would go for San Francisco as No. 2, if the region no way. It would be several steps down. It has a conglomeration of services by multiple agencies with minimal cooperation. The only regional service is BART, which does not go across the Bay to the north, and Caltrain, which only goes down the peninsula. You have Muni, in the city itself, then there is Golden Gate Transit to north bay points, Samtrans to the south as far as Palo Alto, VTA in San Jose and north up to Palo Alto, AC transit in the East Bay, and there may be others I have forgotten.

Now, when you go to Market Street, you have every form of urban transit in or under the street except horse cars. On the street, you have diesel buses, electric buses, and streetcars. Under the street you have the Muni light rail one level down and BART two levels down. While not exactly on Market, you do have the downhill end of the Cable Cars, and off the Oakland Bay side, ferries. If in the city itself, all is well and living carless is not only feasible it is a good idea, but going out of it is another story, they you must plan and scheme to manage it at all.

 

[SarahZ]

San Francisco as No. 2? Are they talking the city itself or the region? If the city itself, then I would go for San Francisco as No. 2, if the region no way. It would be several steps down. It has a conglomeration of services by multiple agencies with minimal cooperation. The only regional service is BART, which does not go across the Bay to the north, and Caltrain, which only goes down the peninsula. You have Muni, in the city itself, then there is Golden Gate Transit to north bay points, Samtrans to the south as far as Palo Alto, VTA in San Jose and north up to Palo Alto, AC transit in the East Bay, and there may be others I have forgotten.

Now, when you go to Market Street, you have every form of urban transit in or under the street except horse cars. On the street, you have diesel buses, electric buses, and streetcars. Under the street you have the Muni light rail one level down and BART two levels down. While not exactly on Market, you do have the downhill end of the Cable Cars, and off the Oakland Bay side, ferries. If in the city itself, all is well and living carless is not only feasible it is a good idea, but going out of it is another story, they you must plan and scheme to manage it at all.

Since this was put together by WalkScore, it's San Francisco itself. If they had included the Bay Area, they would have done separate entries for San Jose, Oakland, etc. In fact, they may have, and those cities may not have made the Top 10. WalkScore simply takes into account frequency, type of route, and distance to each transit stop, i.e. how far you have to walk. They don't track reliability.