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Quality public transportation is about much, much more than obnoxious, self absorbed millenials puking in the street at 3:00 a.m. and then expecting to hop onto an LRT train.
True enough. For me, it would be more about a late night jazz concert (I had to leave one in Cleveland, recently to catch the last rapid transit out of downtown)... I thought he analogy would work for millenials.
The T in Boston has its issues but I would bet it has a much higher percentage of choice riders than just about any transit system in the country outside of NYC.
While some upper, middle class might use the system to get to their entertainment destination (ie stadium) OR TO WORK, most who use the system are lower and middle-class. Both the Green and Blue lines go through some of the poorest neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I'm not sure what your beef is. Do you think a transit system should serve only one demographic. Should a transit system not connect stadiums?
You come off as though you've been on the Blue and/or Green lines, but I'm doubtful.
BTW, I'm not a huge fan of light-rail either, but you take what you can get in Minnesota.
That's the problem in this country. Everyone wants to segregate by class... If mass transit goes where you want to go and it's safe and relatively clean, why wouldn't you use it? Just because someone of a lower class does?
Regardless of actual ridership numbers, I think it is pretty clear that
The fact that more low income people in Cleveland or St Louis or Baltimore might use their rail out of necessity does not mean that they have better systems.
Say what!?
... anyway. I do think Portland is, perhaps, the best of these in terms of overall coverage. However they lose significant points in my book for its at-grade, in-traffic downtown section which really slows trains big time. St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Baltimore (partially per its heavy-rail metro line) gain points because of their much faster, grade-separated subway entrance into their downtowns.
System Length
1. Portland: 60 miles
2. Baltimore: 48.5 miles (33 miles L + 15.5 miles H)
3. St. Louis: 46 miles
4. Cleveland: 34. 3 miles (15.3 miles L + 19 miles H)
5. Pittsburgh: 26.2 miles
6. Minneapolis: 21.8 miles
7. Seattle: 20.4 miles
Ridership per mile
1. Seattle: 3,483
2. Minneapolis: 3,298
3. Portland: 1,995
4. Baltimore: 1,104 (724 L + 1,719 H)
5. St. Louis: 900
6. Pittsburgh: 811
7. Cleveland: 728 (379 L + 926 H)
System Length
1. Portland: 60 miles
2. Baltimore: 48.5 miles (33 miles L + 15.5 miles H)
3. St. Louis: 46 miles
4. Cleveland: 34. 3 miles (15.3 miles L + 19 miles H)
5. Pittsburgh: 26.2 miles
6. Minneapolis: 21.8 miles
7. Seattle: 20.4 miles
Ridership per mile
1. Seattle: 3,483
2. Minneapolis: 3,298
3. Portland: 1,995
4. Baltimore: 1,104 (724 L + 1,719 H)
5. St. Louis: 900
6. Pittsburgh: 811
7. Cleveland: 728 (379 L + 926 H)
Sacramento always gets overlooked but has a very efficient light rail system with continued expansion plans, and arguably greater accessibility than Cleveland or Pittsburgh. It already features higher ridership than those two cities; if they are listed, so too should Sacramento...
I didnt ride The T in Pittsburgh because I ran out if time doing so much other amazing stuff, but I did ride the RTA in Cleveland. It was cool, but very old trains, a lot were less than half capacity, rickety rail lines, but cool nonetheless. Sacramento's system is arguably stronger...
System Length
1. Portland: 60 miles
2. Baltimore: 48.5 miles (33 miles L + 15.5 miles H)
3. St. Louis: 46 miles
4. Cleveland: 34. 3 miles (15.3 miles L + 19 miles H)
5. Pittsburgh: 26.2 miles
6. Minneapolis: 21.8 miles
7. Seattle: 20.4 miles
Ridership per mile
1. Seattle: 3,483
2. Minneapolis: 3,298
3. Portland: 1,995
4. Baltimore: 1,104 (724 L + 1,719 H)
5. St. Louis: 900
6. Pittsburgh: 811
7. Cleveland: 728 (379 L + 926 H)
It looks like someone is mixing numbers on the Wiki site (but they did footnote it)... I knew Pittsburgh's T had not been reporting avg weekday ridership lately, just total for month and qtr. Not sure why, but their typical weekday ridership avg ususally is between 25,000 - 30,000. Note 4 in the Wiki explains it, they didn't have the avg weekday so they created an avg daily I assume just by dividing the quarterly total by number of days. Since the T's weekend ridership is quite a bit less, this brings the avg down for the T, from what the actuals likely are.
Also affected some other systems if you check the notes. But I'm not sure if they have higher or lower ridership on weekends in those systems, so can't say if it increased or decreased their weekday avg
Sacramento always gets overlooked but has a very efficient light rail system with continued expansion plans, and arguably greater accessibility than Cleveland or Pittsburgh. It already features higher ridership than those two cities; if they are listed, so too should Sacramento...
I didnt ride The T in Pittsburgh because I ran out if time doing so much other amazing stuff, but I did ride the RTA in Cleveland. It was cool, but very old trains, a lot were less than half capacity, rickety rail lines, but cool nonetheless. Sacramento's system is arguably stronger...
Yeah if you go by metros with less than 4 million people, these are the top 10 largest light rail systems in terms of weekday ridership(not including street cars)
1. Portland: 119,700
2. San Diego: 112,100
3. Minneapolis: 71,900
4. Seattle: 71,058
5. Denver: 67,500
6. Salt Lake City: 63,000
7. St. Louis: 41,400
8. Sacramento: 37,800
9. San Jose: 26,900
10. Baltimore: 23,900
system length
1. Portland: 60 miles
2. Denver: 58.5 miles
3. San Diego: 53.5 miles
4. Salt Lake City: 46.8 miles
5. St. Louis: 46 miles
6. Sacramento: 42.9 miles
7. San Jose: 42.2 miles
8. Baltimore: 33 miles
9. Pittsburg: 26.2 miles
10. New Orleans: 22.3 miles
ridership per mile
1. Seattle: 3,483
2. Minneapolis: 3,298
3. Buffalo: 2,641
4. San Diego: 2,095
5. Portland: 1,995
6. Salt Lake City: 1,346
7. Denver: 1,153
8. New Orleans: 914
9. St. Louis: 900
10. Sacramento: 881
score
1. Portland: 2.3
2. San Diego: 3
3. Denver: 4.7
4. Minneapolis: 5.3
4. Seattle: 5.3
4. Salt Lake City: 5.3
7. St. Louis: 7
8. Sacramento: 8
9. Buffalo: 8.3
10. San Jose: 9
*If a city didn't make it to the top 10 I placed it as 11.
Sacramento always gets overlooked but has a very efficient light rail system with continued expansion plans, and arguably greater accessibility than Cleveland or Pittsburgh. It already features higher ridership than those two cities; if they are listed, so too should Sacramento...
I didnt ride The T in Pittsburgh because I ran out if time doing so much other amazing stuff, but I did ride the RTA in Cleveland. It was cool, but very old trains, a lot were less than half capacity, rickety rail lines, but cool nonetheless. Sacramento's system is arguably stronger...
I agree. Sacramento has done a fine job establishing and expanding its LRT. It should definitely be on the list.
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