What metro over 1 million has the worst public trasit system? (population, metropolitan)
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Whether you like it or not, rail is an important factor when it comes to comparing transportation between cities. Pretty much every major city has bus service.
Sure rail is important but it's not the only mode of transit. Yet you look at this thread and all that is discussed is rail. A city can function quite well without rail.
There are other factors when comparing cities like the hours of operation of public transportation, how many stations are accessible, daily ridership, how efficient are the routes, wait time at stations.
Just because there is rail doesn't exactly make it better than a bus route. Some of the planned rail lines in Houston are absolutely ridiculous and I'd much rather see them improve the bus efficiency than just lay rail just for the heck of it. The point should be to improve transit. Not just have rail. Houston will never have enough rail laid to be efficient enough to warrant the eventual cost. Attempting to service 600 sq miles with rail will be impossible for Houston. But improving bus, Park and Ride, and HOV lanes will greatly help Houston improve mobility. That's where Houston's focus should be. Not trying to be like Dallas and laying down a bunch of light rail which is only servicing a fraction of the daily commuters.
Sure it's fun to ride the rail Downtown but for practical purposes I'd much rather use my car in a city like Houston.
It takes me 15 minutes to get to work using my car. Why would I bother with public transportation when the weather is Houston can be quite miserable most of the time. Of course over 285,000 people use public transportation in Houston daily and that's about how many people would use it even if we had as much rail as a city like Philly. People hear enjoy using their car for it's convenience. Were just not a dense enough city to need a rail system like Philly. So what we have in Houston is efficient for a city that is so sprawly and cultured in a car mentality.
For people using public transportation in Houston it works just fine. For those not using it I doubt they are waiting for a rail system like the northeast cities and then they are going to give up their trucks and cars and use it daily.
When you start to criticize rail transit, try to remember that most cities in the U.S. have little to none...so to say put Atlanta on a list of the worst is ridiculous.
Sure rail is important but it's not the only mode of transit. Yet you look at this thread and all that is discussed is rail. A city can function quite well without rail.
There are other factors when comparing cities like the hours of operation of public transportation, how many stations are accessible, daily ridership, how efficient are the routes, wait time at stations.
Just because there is rail doesn't exactly make it better than a bus route. Some of the planned rail lines in Houston are absolutely ridiculous and I'd much rather see them improve the bus efficiency than just lay rail just for the heck of it. The point should be to improve transit. Not just have rail. Houston will never have enough rail laid to be efficient enough to warrant the eventual cost. Attempting to service 600 sq miles with rail will be impossible for Houston. But improving bus, Park and Ride, and HOV lanes will greatly help Houston improve mobility. That's where Houston's focus should be. Not trying to be like Dallas and laying down a bunch of light rail which is only servicing a fraction of the daily commuters.
Sure it's fun to ride the rail Downtown but for practical purposes I'd much rather use my car in a city like Houston.
It takes me 15 minutes to get to work using my car. Why would I bother with public transportation when the weather is Houston can be quite miserable most of the time. Of course over 285,000 people use public transportation in Houston daily and that's about how many people would use it even if we had as much rail as a city like Philly. People hear enjoy using their car for it's convenience. Were just not a dense enough city to need a rail system like Philly. So what we have in Houston is efficient for a city that is so sprawly and cultured in a car mentality.
For people using public transportation in Houston it works just fine. For those not using it I doubt they are waiting for a rail system like the northeast cities and then they are going to give up their trucks and cars and use it daily.
Unless your city has bus rapid transit that rivals Brazilian cities like Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro then your not really going to see a huge difference between major cities in the US when it comes to bus service. Los Angeles may be an exception since it has arguably the best bus-rapid transit system in the country. You keep on making excuses for Houston. We all know Houston has a lot great things going for it but good transportation isn't one of them. It's the largest city/metro area with the worst mass transit.
The thing about a bus system is that it's subject to traffic. With rail you can generally bypass traffic. so yes having a rail is a factor, whether people want to admit it or not. I never thought too much about it, but when I used Seattle mostly bus based transit I found myself stuck on 405 way too often
Unless your city has bus rapid transit that rivals Brazilian cities like Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro then your not really going to see a huge difference between major cities in the US when it comes to bus service.
Yes, you would. You could bus service with poor coverage and low frequencies. Or good coverage and high frequencies.
Yes, you would. You could bus service with poor coverage and low frequencies. Or good coverage and high frequencies.
That may be true but every major city has bus service. Regular bus service is nothing special. Rail service on the hand is not available in every major US city even though it's an important factor of mass transit that includes various modes of transit such as subways, commuter rail, light rail, heavy rail, etc.
Seattle, on this site at least, is generally regarded as being relatively good with public transit yet it's rail system is just a single line and minimal but carries about the same amount of people as Houston and less than Phoenix. How many people on here are going to say Phoenix has better PT than Seattle because it has a longer LR rail system that carries more people?
Seattle, on this site at least, is generally regarded as being relatively good with public transit yet it's rail system is just a single line and minimal but carries about the same amount of people as Houston and less than Phoenix. How many people on here are going to say Phoenix has better PT than Seattle because it has a longer LR rail system that carries more people?
Seattle also has 2 commuter rail lines. Seattle clearly has better mass transit than Phoenix.
That may be true but every major city has bus service. Regular bus service is nothing special. Rail service on the hand is not available in every major US city even though it's an important factor of mass transit that includes various modes of transit such as subways, commuter rail, light rail, heavy rail, etc.
From a user perspective, there is a drastic difference between good bus service and bad bus service. Rail is nicer because it does need to deal with traffic, but if it's just a route or two it may just be a small piece of the bigger picture.
That carries a whopping 10K per weekday, about as much as a heavily used bus line. The light rail systems of Houston, Phoenix, and Seattle are all fairly similar in size and usage currently yet look at how differently people on here view Seattle. Perhaps it's because of their strong bus system and rail isn't the end all be all when it comes to transit.
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