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I still don't see what "transit access" is all about. If one million people per day are riding Metro, then it's clear that it's "accessible." What difference does it make whether a station is a park and ride or an underground station in a dense neighborhood?
You are missing the point. You are looking at the people who are riding the transit, not the people who are not.
I will use Chicago as an example (as that is the city I am most familiar with), either in this thread or another thread, there was talk of why the CTA has only ~2M riders, when the metro area has ~9.5M residents.
Lets compare that to the DC WMATA which serves roughly ~1.5M riders in a metro of roughly 5.5M residents. On paper the DC area has a significantly higher percentage of residents using WMATA than Chicago does with CTA, and while that is indeed true no matter how you slice, my entire point is that it is pointless to look at the entire metro area as a whole to determine percentage of riders.
The CTA barely leaves the 227 sq miles of Chicago, so why are residents of Dupage County (~1M People), Lake County (~700K People), Will County (~500K People), Southern Wisconsin, and Northwest Indiana being counted when saying more people should be riding the CTA since the metro has 9.5M people., when nearly all of them live no where near a CTA stop.
You are missing the point. You are looking at the people who are riding the transit, not the people who are not.
I will use Chicago as an example (as that is the city I am most familiar with), either in this thread or another thread, there was talk of why the CTA has only ~2M riders, when the metro area has ~9.5M residents.
Lets compare that to the DC WMATA which serves roughly ~1.5M riders in a metro of roughly 5.5M residents. On paper the DC area has a significantly higher percentage of residents using WMATA than Chicago does with CTA, and while that is indeed true no matter how you slice, my entire point is that it is pointless to look at the entire metro area as a whole to determine percentage of riders.
The CTA barely leaves the 227 sq miles of Chicago, so why are residents of Dupage County (~1M People), Lake County (~700K People), Will County (~500K People), Southern Wisconsin, and Northwest Indiana being counted when saying more people should be riding the CTA since the metro has 9.5M people., when nearly all of them live no where near a CTA stop.
Yeah, but there's still Metra, which basically has the same function as Metro in Chicago's outer burbs. I don't see what's so complicated about looking at the entire number of people who ride transit on a metro basis. That seems straightforward to me.
Yeah, but there's still Metra, which basically has the same function as Metro in Chicago's outer burbs. I don't see what's so complicated about looking at the entire number of people who ride transit on a metro basis. That seems straightforward to me.
There is nothing complicated about it, but what does it prove? The confusion might be my entire point has been strictly CTA, not Metra.
There is nothing complicated about it, but what does it prove? The confusion might be my entire point has been strictly CTA, not Metra.
Well, I thought the thread was called "Top 10 Mass Transit Cities," which is a bit different from the other thread that was about transit systems. If we're talking about transit cities, then ridership and transit share are absolutely relevant.
Well, I thought the thread was called "Top 10 Mass Transit Cities," which is a bit different from the other thread that was about transit systems. If we're talking about transit cities, then ridership and transit share are absolutely relevant.
OK but then I'll take it one step further, in my opinion if you are looking at transit share, one should look at number of people taking commuter rail into "downtown" area vs. number of people who drive into downtown area. Again, if somebody lives in Hobart, Indiana and works in Gary, Indiana they are driving, because first off, it would be stupid not to, secondly there is no Transit (most likely) to get them there, yet they are counted towards overall percentage. Metra along with other commuter rail systems are only useful for white collar office workers who work in the "downtown" of their city, it is pretty much useless for every other demographic.
My only point is that while maybe there is some relevancy to taking the number of overall transit riders divided by the total number of people (of all ages) the census says is in your Combined Statistical Area, Im just not sure what that relevancy is.
That is no more useful than finding density by total population of a city divided by total area - sure you will get a number, but it really is useless and doesn't tell the whole story.
OK but then I'll take it one step further, in my opinion if you are looking at transit share, one should look at number of people taking commuter rail into "downtown" area vs. number of people who drive into downtown area. Again, if somebody lives in Hobart, Indiana and works in Gary, Indiana they are driving, because first off, it would be stupid not to, secondly there is no Transit (most likely) to get them there, yet they are counted towards overall percentage. Metra along with other commuter rail systems are only useful for white collar office workers who work in the "downtown" of their city, it is pretty much useless for every other demographic.
My only point is that while maybe there is some relevancy to taking the number of overall transit riders divided by the total number of people (of all ages) the census says is in your Combined Statistical Area, Im just not sure what that relevancy is.
That is no more useful than finding density by total population of a city divided by total area - sure you will get a number, but it really is useless and doesn't tell the whole story.
Then they use Gary, IN local bus service. For the purposes of this thread, everyone in a metro area should count, even if they do not have access - just means the transit is lacking there (didn't someone mention an entire system for Chicago's suburbs??). Although I'm not sure if you are talking about CSA, in that case then judging this thread should be measured by a smaller unit like UA or MSA.
Then they use Gary, IN local bus service. For the purposes of this thread, everyone in a metro area should count, even if they do not have access - just means the transit is lacking there (didn't someone mention an entire system for Chicago's suburbs??). Although I'm not sure if you are talking about CSA, in that case then judging this thread should be measured by a smaller unit like UA or MSA.
OK so if they count, what does that prove? Is this just an exercise to establish we all know how to do simple division? There are very few instances where taking the total number of something and dividing it by the total number of something else really tells anything, it certainly doesn't tell me what the top mass transit city is. in addition, I would wager people in this thread would use MSA over CSA since many people go back and forth with them depending on what makes their city look better, if we were talking GDP, you could bet people would use CSA.
OK so if they count, what does that prove? Is this just an exercise to establish we all know how to do simple division? There are very few instances where taking the total number of something and dividing it by the total number of something else really tells anything, it certainly doesn't tell me what the top mass transit city is. in addition, I would wager people in this thread would use MSA over CSA since many people go back and forth with them depending on what makes their city look better, if we were talking GDP, you could bet people would use CSA.
Well if we are measuring best mass transit cities, and two cities are very close (Chicago and DC) but one has better service / transit option in the suburbs, then that would be the deal-breaker.
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