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Looks like Snuggah is on the move to troll yet another thread. Let's see, he created his account a week ago. Odds are, this isn't the first account he's made on this forum...
Looks like Snuggah is on the move to troll yet another thread. Let's see, he created his account a week ago. Odds are, this isn't the first account he's made on this forum...
I would go with Miami. Public transit in that city and metro area is bad.
Considering it's growing pretty fast and can be considered a World Class city, it's severely lacking when it comes to mass transit. Especially when compared to cities like Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
I'm surprised folks are so hard on Miami. I'm not saying it's great, but it's far from horrible. It has a 2-branch heavy rail system -- the newest (short) branch opened 2 years ago, connects to a multi-modal hub at Miami International airport -- which includes a new terminal for TriRail, the fairly busy commuter line traveling the length of the metro area (an expansion plan has TriRail expanding to the Florida East Coast Line which will serve South Florida's downtowns, including Miami's and will double TriRail's length and efficiency), a 1.2 mile people mover directly to the air terminal and the new Rental Car center. The HRT carries heavy traffic, esp at rush hour and esp south of downtown... Downtown, the HRT connects directly the People Mover, the largest, most successful of the 70s/80s experimental, driver-less cars that circulates passengers all over Miami's downtown, both north and south of the Miami river -- connecting back with the HRT at Brickell, which is the entertainment, restaurant center of Miami and home to a huge high-rise apartment/condo TOD neighborhood that is growing by leaps and bounds ... South Beach is Miami Beach, which is really a suburb across Miami Bay. And if there's a more fun public transit line than the amusement park ride-like PM, I don't know it -- and it's Free! The RTA also has a BRT extending south from the Dadeland Metro Rail terminal to Homeland. The bus system is also pretty extensive and frequent.
So I think Miami, which is really a small, dense city (420,000 pop, 12,000 per sq/mi) at the base of long, huge sprawling (linearly at least) metro area, has a better-than-average transit system -- certainly by American (low) standards. Miami has no business being anywhere near a worst-transit list; no freaking way.
Fact is, unless a city has an exceptional bus system in terms of frequency, electric (trolleybus) propulsion (San Fran, Seattle), and traffic separation, as in BRT, a major (1-million plus) simply cannot have even a "good" public transit system without rail. Buses lack the capacity, speed and operational advantages/flexibility (ie no "bunching" units that we see on signal-less bus lines) that rail has. Rail takes transit to another level, there's really no debating this. So what may seem to you as an obsession with rail, really only takes into account the sheer fact that rail is needed on some form by every major city to effectuate transit flow and influence high-density, pedestrian-friendly development. Buses alone simply won't do and humans just don't psychologically connect with buses the way they do fixed transit, like rail.
True. Seattle for years has had an efficient and dependable transit system without having heavy rail.
But Seattle has long had the 2nd largest trolley bus system and, for some reason, given the wires I guess, people tend to see them as more permanent than regular diesel-powered buses. Also too consider the fact that in 1989 or 90, Seattle built the unique (1.3 mile/5-station) Metro Tunnel, that bundled the core trolleybus lines underground -- which operated as a de facto rubber-tired subway that relived transit congestion in Seattle's busy, happening downtown. Of course, the tunnel now hosts Central Link LRTs and buses and, upon further LRT expansion, the tunnel will become all-LRT... Btw, Seattle also has had the 2-stop monorail to the Space Needle and an expanding streetcar system in/around downtown.
Does that mean Seattle has a worst public transit system? Or does it mean that people in Portland just prefer using public transportation more compared to Seattle?
Seattle has a slightly higher per capita transit ridership than Portland, so the latter statement is false.
Quote:
I could imagine a city having an excellent public transportation system but not many people wanting to use it because they would just prefer the convenience of their car. I can also imagine a city having an awful public transportation system but having a high ridership due to not having the income to afford a car or they are just community minded and would prefer using a system that benefits the environment or whatever other reason they want.
An excellent transit system with few riders is unlikely, without many riders coverage and frequency of transit is likely to be weak. However, high ridership can often just reflect that driving is inconvenient (for example, high parking costs for downtown jobs). The awful public transit systems with high ridership only exist in large cities in poorer countries.
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.
Note Houston's proposed changes to its bus network. A big difference just from reorganization:
lol. What major city doesn't have buses that go everywhere? What's even funnier is that your making excuses for Houston. It's pretty pathetic that a city of 6 million people has only one rail line.
San Francisco Metro Area probably has the worst public transit ever, considering that it is one of the larger cities on the west coast. The commuter rail "BART" doesn't even go faster than cars, and doesn't even go into Silicon Valley. Muni, San Francisco's metro public transportation, is very slow, and very overcrowded. Muni runs at an average of 8 mph due to the many unnecessary stops it makes. Also, the muni trains are very dirty inside.
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