Ditching the auto.....Cities with the highest percentage of commutes by mass transit

[marmar]

from CNN Money (last year, but quite relevant now):


Top 10 commuter cities
Where the most residents commute to work on buses, trains and light rail.
City State Public transit users % of workers

New York NY 1.87 million 54.6%
Washington DC 94,260 37.7%
San Francisco CA 124,738 32.7%
Boston MA 80,141 31.7%
Philadelphia PA 139,247 25.9%
Chicago IL 293,703 25.3%
Baltimore MD 48,252 18.9%
Seattle WA 51,259 17.0%
Oakland CA 27,114 16,5%
Portland OR 34,195 13.3%

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/13/real_estate/public_transit_commutes/index.htm

[Bob Dobbs]

1. I ride a bike 5 miles each way on my commute.

I got rear ended by another bicyclist that broke the axle on my rear wheel last week and while waiting on the replacement wheel to be delivered have had to take light rail, which is really pretty fun and relaxing, it just takes longer.

Denver is developing some good mass transit infrastructure, it, like most of the country, is just a few decades behind the need.

[Aloha Spirit]

5. I bet the light rail is a pretty ride in Denver!

Biking is probably nice too huh.

Here in Boston you can't really enjoy the commute.
Potholes, buses, car doors, jaywalkers, kamikaze bikers, crazies...quite the adventure when you put it all together.

[Bob Dobbs]

18. Most of my bike ride is on the Cherry Creek Trail,

only a mile in the urban downtown. So it is a great ride. I extend blessings to each of the homeless people I see under the bridges on the CC Trail, so it is a spiritual experience, as well. Since the trail is below street level, down by the creek, you see no mountains, but have the running water to create a zen calming experience.

The view of the mountains from light rail is wonderful, as you would expect.

I love Denver.

[jaksavage]

2. My favorite thing in NYC

The subway!!!!

[liberal N proud]

3. Would have thought Chicago would have been higher

In this area, mass transit is virtually non existent in comparison to some of those cities.

Three cities I try to never drive in:
New York
Washington DC
Chicago

[marmar]

4. Way too many people try to drive in Chicago....

.... but I think the combination of gas prices and the city's efforts to reduce traffic are changing that.

[Sanity Claws]

6. I thought Portland OR would have been higher

It has great light rail.

[Indenturedebtor]

7. We're going ot move to Boston if we can ever get out of this stupid house n/t

[Blue_Tires]

8. it is telling that Atlanta is not on the list

since they can benefit the most from public transit with their super-suburbs and exurbs...for years during the cheap gas days, Atlantans happily had the longest commute to their jobs

[Clark2008]

24. Are you kidding?

We don't have public transportation (to speak of) in the South.

[Blue_Tires]

26. MARTA?

I took it almost daily as a college student in Atlanta 10 years ago...Last I checked, it was still running...

[JeanGrey]

31. It runs in A very small area, sorry. Millions of people live

outside of Atlanta. Marta needs to meet us, not expect US TO MEET Marta.

[burythehatchet]

58. MARTA has been kept out of the suburbs by redneck legislators that don't

want inadequate black men to be able to carry their big screen TV's back to the hood.

[Blue_Tires]

67. +1

[JeanGrey]

75. Delete!! Hit the button twice.

[JeanGrey]

76. There are many reasons why, that is only one of them.

I actually hate driving and if I could've taken a bus or train to work I gladly would have..... when I was growing up we didn't even own a car. We lived in the city, and we went everywhere by bus and we walked a hell of a lot. Back then if you were within the city limits you didn't get schoolbus service, you took the city bus (which ran on overhead wires) or you walked. I walked a lot. We lived about 20 city blocks from school. This was in Cincinnati, Dayton area and boy it got cold.

When we were in Florida recently for medical treatment I rode my electric cart to the drugstore, the grocery store, and the local fast food joints. In Florida there are many sidewalks and bikepaths that makes this possible. This is something that could be done easily here, just allocating a few feet for those kinds of vehicles. We live about one mile from Publix, Walmart, drugstore, video store, etc, and I could easily take my cart but I would be run over!

[Rosemary2205]

46. snort

In my case good luck getting a lift bus to get me anywhere near my home or job. Though I did manage to ride a lift bus that was half a mile from my job to the train station, took the train as close as I could to my house, which isn't very close, then another bus about 6 miles from my house where my car was parked. One way took not quite 3 hours - mostly sitting around waiting. Driving takes 35-45 min.

In the 2nd case - if the bus schedule says they pick up at the park and ride lot at 6:12 am and you are standing out there in the rain at 6 you'll be standing there still at 7 because either the bus was really early and left without you or else it's sitting out on the freeway stuck in the same "parking lot" as all the cars.

And if you need to leave work at lunch good luck getting transport back to your car 20 miles away because the buses going back to the park and ride don't start until 4pm.

[JeanGrey]

77. Yeah, Marta could use a LOT of improvements.................

[RebelOne]

53. Atlanta metro area public transportation system sucks.

I live in Woodstock and work in Marietta. I would gladly take public transportation if it was available to me. No bus or rail service at all in my area. My round trip to work is about 30 miles. The nearest bus terminal is in Kennesaw, which is about 10 miles away. So it would not be worth it to drive that distance to catch a bus for a trip that is 15 miles.

[JeanGrey]

78. Ditto. I lived in Kennesaw and now Dallas and also worked in

Marietta, same thing. I'd much rather have an all electric car.

[KSinTX]

9. San Antonio is probably dead last

I bought my girlfriend a bus pass here thinking it would be a great way for her to get out and about the city while I was at work. Her second trip was to a mall I can drive to in less than 10 minutes in high traffic. It took her three hours to get there and I had to either pick her up on the way home from work or wait another couple of hours for her to get home. The bus system here is so jacked, you can't even think of using it to commute to work unless, as some who do so, you're willing to spend two hours getting to your workplace in the same city. We're not talking two hours from Boston to New York here.

Edit: fixed "you workplace"

[JHB]

15. Boston-NYC more of a 4-hour trip...

...even Amtrak Acela service is 3 1/2 hours, not that it affects your point.

A friend of mine some years back moved to the Bay Area (CA) and noted that BART and a lot of the bus services that connected with it almost seemed to go out of their way to NOT coordinate schedules, forcing anyone using them to either drive to the station or sit around forever waiting for the next bus or train. Anyone else have that sort of experience?

[KSinTX]

16. First, I must say if you run into a conductor named Mo, hassle him

He's my bro and is management on Acela. And I know he "claims" he's working those hours but aw for the crap of it complain! I promise you it's ALL HIS FAULT.

[Gormy Cuss]

17. Tell me about it.

It's still an issue with the smaller regional bus companies. Rather than time arrivals and departures to coordinate with BART they schedule so that one misses a train or bus by a couple of minutes.
The SF Bay Area has a great network of mass transit but the biggest problem that I see is the balkanized delivery. There are NINE separate bus or train fixed route carriers. Not only are the schedules poorly coordinated, the fare structures and transfer rules are all different and some commutes are a Rube Goldberg mix of transit systems.

I miss Boston's MBTA.

[knight_of_the_star]

49. Yeah I know

Would be nice if all the transit systems feeding into the BART were run by ONE group and you could get a bus pass for all of them, but I doubt that would ever happen.

[marmar]

29. And London to Paris, which is 50 miles longer than NY-Boston......

is less than 3 hours now on the sleek Eurostar.

[rainbow4321]

44. Dallas suburbs have to be the worst..

"Only 0.4 percent of Arlington, Texas residents"

See post #43...

[supernova]

10. DC only as 94K riders?

Seemed like more even when i lived there. :shrug:

[marmar]

12. I suspect there's a number missing, like 594K.....

n/t

[MountainLaurel]

13. Could be they are only talking about the District

As opposed to the entire Metro region, which would include Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia.

[supernova]

14. As well as York, PA

[MountainLaurel]

21. Good point

When I was working in Rockville, we had people coming in every day from Gettysburg and Hancock.

[matt007]

11. Baton Rouge and New Orleans sure arent

Anyone ever been to Baton Rouge? Damn. Years of republican rule and no planning lol.

New Orleans East and Metarie/Kenner are just as bad.

Louisiana gets a D- in my book.

[KamaAina]

20. The sad thing is, central New Orleans may be the only place in the South

that remains viable if gas prices stay up.

One local blog commenter described this as "an ace in the hole in our recovery".

But, as you mention, it is an "Old Urbanist", transit-friendly (or at least not openly hostile) island in a sea of sprawl. :(

[MountainLaurel]

22. Interesting

One of the things that drew Mr. Laurel and I here was the ease of getting around. He can walk to law school and I can bike or scooter to work. When we do use the car, we're 5 minutes from the grocery store, our hair salon, the public library, the pet store, and tons of restaurants and shops. We're maybe 15 from the malls and downtown, depending on traffic.

[KamaAina]

19. As I recall, Pittsburgh has about a 22% ratio

this study covered only the top 50 cities in terms of number of workers, so the 'Burgh may have been edged out by the likes of Arlington, TX.

Similarly, Jersey City, NJ, also around 20%.

[LeftinOH]

23. And those are (for the most part) among the most accessible, visitor-friendly

cities in the country.

[JeanGrey]

25. I don't want to live in the city. We have to do something for the

rest of the world that doesn't live in the city (nor wants to)

[NuttyFluffers]

28. small towns with bush taxi and buses. that's the rest of the world.

also rural train stations. that's all the options available. might create something with zeppelins or kites, but yeah, that's about it. oh, and dray animals.

[JeanGrey]

30. No hon, it isn't. I live in a suburb of Atlanta and we aren't "small town"

bushes. There are millions of us who will not live in crime ridden polluted cities just for public transportation. We actually LIKE that our children can play outside in fresh air without worrying they might get snatched or something worse. We like having yards for our dogs, we like gardening, and many other things. Get a clue and get public trans OUT of the cities and into the suburbs and you'll get something, but otherwise, it ain't working.

[NuttyFluffers]

32. read it again. those are the means of public trans out of cities.

and they've already been in use all over the world, as anyone who has visited outside of america has seen. unless you can create a different form of rural public transit the world has yet to see, those are your options. so, hon, either get to inventing or learn how to integrate these ideas to save as much of your rural lifestyle as you can. i could care less about your opinions about cities or your countryside, but if you want solutions that's the palette you have to work with. studying how the rest of the world copes should be a very high priority right now, otherwise without viable alternatives there will be a crisis of migration to urban centers.

[JeanGrey]

33. Once again, it isn't happening. People will NOT move to the

cities just because of public transportation. So to solve this problem, public transportation has to come to US. I would gladly take a train or bus to work IF there were on available, see?

[taterguy]

34. Mass transit requires population density

It's part of the whole "mass" thing.

Trains and buses in the middle of nowhere are outrageously expensive and inefficient. (And how many of your neighbors are going to tolerate railroad tracks going through their yards)

If you want to live in the suburbs, fine. Just be aware that your transportation costs will be higher and that the lifestyle you choose fucks up the environment and leads to oil wars.

Enjoy your yard.

[JeanGrey]

35. I will. Enjoy your noise, pollution and CRIME. You can have it.

Not to mention your housing costs which will far outweigh my gas costs. Not to mention your taxes, etc

[taterguy]

36. Automobile exhaust is a major source of pollution

If pollution is a concern of yours then why not do something about it?

Or are you only concerned with pollution generated by others?

As for your other points, there's no major crime in my neighborhood.

I doubt very seriously that my house payment is more than yours but you'll just have to take my word for it since we'd have no way to prove it.

Have a great day.

[JeanGrey]

37. Look, there is no point in this. Your idea that all of the people

in the world are going to gravitate towards the cities is simply silly....you do know this isn't going to happen? You really want a world where only the east and west coast has people? We need a transportation SOLUTION for everyone. The sooner we get it, the better.

[taterguy]

38. Abandoning unsustainable lifestyles is silly?

Whatever.
And ever.
Amen.

Keep Rocking the Suburbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUkiFLURt38

[JeanGrey]

40. It is not. We need transportation that ALL CAN use.

Answer: Vehicles that run on electric, on battery, on anything but gas. Because you aren't going to find an America where the heartland is empty, anytime in your lifetime.

[taterguy]

42. You're avoiding the issue

Do you, or do you not
Rock the Suburbs?

ps: When did Atlanta become the heartland? Did I miss a memo?

[JeanGrey]

79. Yes I love the suburbs! The last time I looked that wasn't a crime

and I don't know why you keep insisting that it is. I live about 40 miles from Atlanta in one of it's many widespread suburbs. I do NOT want to live in Atlanta, thank you. It has high taxes, crappy plumbing, crumbling infrastructure, ridiculous housing prices, smog, crowds, and all the rest.

There is nothing wrong with realizing that alternate fuel sources MUST be made and made fast. There are no other options.

[Selatius]

56. You need mass transit buses. The further people live from work, the more buses you need.

The most efficient way in terms of costs to pay for transit buses is if the transit buses are run as a public service. This eliminates profit mark-ups private companies invariably tack on to costs of operation.

However, you're going to have to levy taxes to support transit buses going way out to the countryside. It could be in the form of hikes in property taxes or sales taxes to support the buses or state income taxes..

The best solution in terms of keeping down costs is that the federal government pays for the buses and their routes, since everybody pays taxes into the federal government achieving economies of scale on costs. This avoids hiking up local property taxes and so forth.

The problem is local and state governments would want control over buses that would essentially be federal property, and there would be another states' rights vs. federal power argument to hash out all over again.

[JeanGrey]

80. But buses run on fuel - usually diesel, which is poluting and

expensive. The solution is alternate fuel cars. Once we have more battery/fuel cell cars, the cost of gas and pollution is just a non-point. I don't see this as a bad thing.

In the meantime, as I've said I would gladly take a bus if it were available. It is really a shame - we built a railroad that criss crossed a NATION and we act like we don't know how to deal with this when the real truth is we have allowed the car manufacturers and the oil companies to squash and get rid of every alternate fuel running cars when we've had plenty of good designs. That is coming to an end, and not a moment too soon.

[JackRiddler]

39. You have a skewed view of city life.

Crime is everywhere, but usually not at rates as high as people imagine. Sounds to me like you've insulated yourself from "dirty" city life and have a very skewed view of it.

Nothing causes more pollution than automobiles, sprawl, overdevelopment, over-consumption. In the US, energy consumption and waste volume per capita is higher for suburbs than cities, so actually you are probably more responsible for pollution than the average city-dweller; but perhaps your ideal is a gated community that gets to dump its shit in some far-away place.

Unfortunately for your suburban dream-world, this period of history in which cheap energy could be wasted on the scale of suburban development appears to be near an end.

[JeanGrey]

41. You'd be wrong. I grew up in a major city, Cincinnati, and I lived

for eight years in mid town Atlanta. I PREFER the suburbs. I wanted to raise my children where they could breathe clean air, where they could fish, and romp in the woods. Heck, I like doing those things. Where all we hear at night are frogs, and crickets, not sirens, and sometimes screaming. To each his own, and I am not alone.

[JackRiddler]

47. I like those things too.

Actually, I should have said: you have a skewed view of city dwellers. What makes you think these nice things you describe are not desired by many of them?

Bottom line, automotive transport may be forced on most car drivers but it consumes more resources and destroys more nature like the frogs and crickets you prefer than does city life. It is unsustainable and suburban life will adapt accordingly by remodeling transport and design.

[JeanGrey]

50. That is all I ever said. But you were indicating that all people

would have to abandon the country and move to the cities. That isn't happening. We need a transportation solution for everyone, not just city dwellers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

48. Reality check

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3373256

So yes, the burbs as an UNSUSTAINABLE way of life is coming

I am sorry.

By the way, your yard, would make a wonderful small field to supplement your food supplies

[JeanGrey]

51. It ain't happening, dude, sorry to disappoint you.

And for your info, I already have a huge garden.

[taterguy]

52. My lungs are reasonably healthy right now

However, they're not going to stay that way unless I change my behavior.

I guess I'll just wait until they create a healthy cigarette.

My pleasure is too damn important.

[JeanGrey]

55. So what kind of answer do you want to that?

You cannot FORCE people into the cities, it simply isn't happening.

[taterguy]

59. Who said anything about Force?

I was merely pointing out certain realities and suggesting that you react in a sensible, rational way.

If you'd rather live in a delusional fantasy world that's fine.

I don't appreciate the fact that you're ruining a lot of things that I hold dear but there's not much I can do about it is there?

[JeanGrey]

60. I believe that you have just about gone over the top.

I am not ruining ANYTHING for you. How smug you are! You arrogantly claim that everyone is going to adhere to what YOU want and live where YOU want them to live. Do you not see that this is impossible? Do you really see a world where only the left and right coasts are full and crammed of people and all of the heartland is empty?

We need renewable energy sources for ALL people. The solution is NOT crowding the cities with millions more of people.

[taterguy]

61. I like clean air. I don't like oil wars

Sorry.

ps: Some coastal states are quite nice. I've heard good things about Georgia. You should check it out!

[JeanGrey]

62. We ALL WANT those things. If we had told the oil companies

to screw off thirty years ago and put the technology for electric vehicles out there then we wouldn't be in this mess.

And I live in Georgia. Northwest of Atlanta. And it is VERY nice. Crickets and all that.

[taterguy]

63. We're in this mess because people drive too much

It's really that simple.

[JeanGrey]

69. No, we just need alternate fuels. The US is a huge land mass,

people are always going to need transportation. If we had electric or battery powered cars it wouldn't matter HOW much we travel.

I'd gladly take any bus or train IF there were one available. There aren't.

[taterguy]

73. I finally figured it out

You're just pushing the "Drive as much as you want" thing so that sea levels will rise with the ensuing global warming. You're looking forward to the day when your nice suburban Atlanta home is beach-front property.

Great plan.

I'll miss Savannah though.

[JeanGrey]

74. I'll just assume you are joking since battery/fuel cell cars do not

pollute, do they?

There have been many plans for electric and battery cars that have been squashed. It needs to be stopped. And it will be, I would imagine within ten years the gasoline engine will be WELL on it's way out if not gone entirely. We have no other choice.

[taterguy]

84. So what things have you done to bring about fuel cell cars?

Other than posting inane comments on the Internet?

[MadHound]

54. I would put my lifestyle and carbon footprint up against yours anyday of the week,

And twice on Sundays, so please stop assuming that those of us who don't live in the city are somehow more polluting than thou.

No, I don't have mass transit, but I have twenty acres on which a grow a lot of my own food(how does that produce, meat and what have you that travels a thousand miles taste? My produce travels a few dozen yards, my meat all comes within a mile radius). I heat with a woodstove that has a catalytic converter(which captures over ninety nine percent of the upstack pollution. What kind of pollution are you giving off from your electrical/gas/oil generated heat?) As far as electrical generation goes, my 350 Kw windturbine is a lot less polluting than whatever your coal/diesel/nuke plant is generating. And since all of my irrigation water is coming from a cistern, powered by another windmill for my drip irrigation system, my water energy costs are as low as yours, if not lower. As far as transportation goes, well, there's the diesel tractor that runs off the biodiesel I make(which is less polluting than gas). Granted, I have a '98 Honda and '98 Nissan truck, but once I've run those into the ground, I will be moving over to diesel engines for both truck and car. Meanwhile, I get by with a 2005 Bajaj scooter(55-60mph, 100mpg) for my thirty four mile round trip commute.

Please don't assume that because people live further out in the country that our carbon footprint is larger than yours. Many times you will be mistaken. More and more people out here are utilizing their land area for lowering both their costs and carbon footprint. And frankly, when shipping in those vast quantities of food each and every day becomes unfeasible(and remember, virtually every single city usually has, on average, only a three day supply of food within it's city limits), massive urban life is going to be unsustainable. Modern cities have far and away outgrown the carrying capacity of the local food supply, and thus are going to be unsustainable when food can no longer be transported in. Whoopsie!

Meanwhile, we country folks will quietly go about being stewards of the earth, and living a sustainable life style, thank you very much.

[NuttyFluffers]

64. good, i invite you to petition your county planning commissioner

or start a for-profit bush taxi shuttle service. if there's enough people like you perhaps you can take the ideas from the rest of the world and save your lifestyle. best of luck.

[JeanGrey]

70. We need alternate fuel cars - electric, battery, etc.

The solution is not going to be an en mass rush to the cities, I'm afraid.

[Tesha]

65. If the population is too sparse, there's no point providing you with any public transportation.

Move to a slightly more dense area or expect to need a horse
in the next few decades.

Tesha

[JeanGrey]

71. No point? That is silly. Once we have alternate fuel

vehicles it doesn't make a bit of difference.

[Tesha]

72. Alternative fueled vehicles *AREN'T* "public transportation".

And they still need to get the energy from somewhere
with which to make their "alternative fuels".

Nuclear fusion won't show up until about 2050 and
America doesn't really seem to be embarking on a
course to provide the huge investments that will
be needed for wind or solar, so the only other
raw energy feedstock available is nuclear fission.

Frankly, I'd rather we switched back to horses than
go down the nuclear fission road. But knowing how
America does things, nuclear fission (with its
attendant waste and proliferation problems) will
probably be our answer.

And people *JUST LIKE YOU* will have made it happen.

Tesha

[JeanGrey]

81. There were cars out there being built (that were squashed) that

ran on plan fuel cell batteries. If we had ran with that technology we'd be sitting pretty now. But we allowed the big three and the oil companies to get rid of it. That is going to end. Frankly you sound like one of those people that lives in a big city and resents the hell out of anyone that lives anywhere else.

[Tesha]

85. No, they ran on oil or natural gas via a fuel cell.

> There were cars out there being built (that were squashed) that
> ran on plan fuel cell batteries.

No, they ran on oil or natural gas via a fuel cell.

I think you need to learn some basic physics so that
you will be able to correctly identify the various
energy storage media (including fossil fuels).

This is a common mistake that lay people make: they
think that electric cars run on battery power (or
fuel cells) without considering where those batteries
or fuel cells get their energy from.

Here's an important clue: Ultimately, the *ONLY*
true source of energy in the entire universe is
hydrogen fusion in stars (including our local Sun).
*ALL* other energy (including fossil fuels (AND*
nuclear fission) just represents star energy that
has been stored in some fashion.


> Frankly you sound like one of those people that lives
> in a big city and resents the hell out of anyone that
> lives anywhere else.

You may live wherever you wish, but don't expect me
to subsidize a train that runs through your town but
is only used by ten people.

Tesha

[JeanGrey]

86. Look, this is useless. Whatever YOU want and I want isn't going

to matter - we are going to have nuclear power and battery or electric powered vehicles. There is no point in arguing it.

And your "ten people" remark is stupid.

[n2doc]

27. When I lived in DC I could go weeks without using my car

The Metro was great. Seattle wasn't bad either, if one chose where to live carefully. I could get on an express bus and be downtown faster than driving my car.

Too bad that isn't the case everywhere.

[rainbow4321]

43. "Only 0.4 percent of Arlington, Texas residents"

Cuz the damn DART light rail goes no where useful, really...especially if you live out in the suburbs.
I live north of Dallas and for me to get to the facility where I work (next to downtown) I would have to drive to the light rail station near my house, take it half way (or further) to Dallas and then transfer from the light rail to a DART bus that drops me off near my clinic. One way trip is 1 hr per their website.

To do all that, I need to get out of my house roughly 40 minutes earlier than if I drive..the trip is a little over an hour whereas I can get to the clinic in my car in about 30-35 minutes....and I get to leave my house 40 minutes later than if I took Dallas' public transportation.

There is a bus stop near my house, it's about a 10-15 minute walk to get to it..then I could take the bus to the light rail station.


I'm still debating if I want to try the system or not..my employer pays for the annual DART pass (= $900 annual fee) but each morning as I scramble to leave the house I find myself wondering "can I GET out of the house 40 minutes earlier???"

[aikoaiko]

45. I rode the Orange Line "T" from Malden to Ruggles everyday when I lived in/around Boston

It was ridiculously inexpensive -- like 20 bucks for the month pass.

[Selatius]

57. Jesus, only 20 bucks for a month-long pass? We have no mass transit here where I live.

In Mississippi, car is king. Then again, so is sprawl.

[Tesha]

66. It's more expensive now: $59.00/month.

http://www.mbta.com/fares_and_passes/subway/

(They should bring back "dime time" -- anyone here old
enough to remember *THAT*?)

Tesha

[Gormy Cuss]

68. It's still a good deal at that price, but I always thought the cheap T passes should be the model

for other cities rather than seen as a defect in the system. Before they revamped the fare structure it was a no-brainer to buy a T pass rather than drive if one had the choice. Now if one needs a combo, the price is too similar to the gas cost and people convince themselves that driving is cheaper or worth it to avoid the hassle of mingling with *shudder* the unwashed masses.

Dime time? Nope. Predates my tenure in Boston. :D

[NYC Liberal]

82. I live in New York (couldn't guess by my username?)

and I ride the subway every day. Close to 1,000 miles of track. Anywhere in the city that I need to go and there's a stop nearby.

Plus, my company pays for my monthly unlimited MetroCard ($81/mo), so I can ride the entire subway and bus system, as much as I want, for free.

Love it.

[HughBeaumont]

83. America's problem - comparable cities/areas:

Cleveland (HOW RTA won Best Transportation System in North America is beyond me completely) - Metro area, approx 2 million:



PFFFFFFT. If you're a past-Cuyahoga County West sider (which isn't all that far from the city), you have to still drive 15-25 minutes to the nearest train stop. Weekend service is terrible, the busses disappear when it rains or snows, the Rapid pretty much only benefits East Siders and the Rapid only drops you off in one place downtown, which is nice if you work in Tower City, but crappy if you have to mud and slush everywhere else. Besides West Side Market and the Airport, the other stops are pretty much useless.

Now let's look at Hamburg Germany, which has about 1.7 million people:



Sad. There's a bus that stops by my city 3 times a day, but because I live 2 miles outside of Cuyahoga County, I'm charged 1.25 extra. EACH way.