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What are the most Urban US Cities that don't have a Subway/HRT or Light rail Transit system but should have or in desperate need of one? It's one City that comes in the Number 1 Spot for this and in my opinion was a major injustice the City never constructed one. "Detroit" I'm sure there are other cities that come to mind as well.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Antonio, and Cincinnati come to mind. Some of them have or are developing streetcars, I guess sort of a dipping toes in the water experiment for rail public transportation expansion.
Detroit has a streetcar, but it only goes up Woodward Ave for a few miles. It's definitely not for commuting though, more for tourists and locals who live DT, and up to New Center area.
Cincinnati is the obvious answer to me, since they actually have unused subway tunnels.
Indianapolis could certainly use one. A line roughly following their cultural trail would be great.
Your right Cincinnati surely needs one. That street car they just constructed is just not enough for a City/Metro it's size and the way the city is made up, looks more of a HRT type of city than Light Rail. Another big one is Nashville, but I guess they have finally got there plan and package in order, just up to the Citizens to approve it next year!
Agreed with the cities mentioned so far. Luckily, some of these have halfway-decent bus systems.
The biggest problem would be with those cities with neither light/heavy rail nor a decent bus system. Detroit definitely fits that description, as does Arlington, TX. Other cities which in my experience have subpar bus systems and no rail transit include Richmond, VA, Memphis, and Tampa-St. Petersburg (in fact that describes a number of Florida tourist destinations such as St. Augustine, Key West, West Palm Beach/Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale)
Agreed with the cities mentioned so far. Luckily, some of these have halfway-decent bus systems.
The biggest problem would be with those cities with neither light/heavy rail nor a decent bus system. Detroit definitely fits that description, as does Arlington, TX. Other cities which in my experience have subpar bus systems and no rail transit include Richmond, VA, Memphis, and Tampa-St. Petersburg (in fact that describes a number of Florida tourist destinations such as St. Augustine, Key West, West Palm Beach/Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale)
You think Palm Tran is substandard? Oh boy, you should have been around in the CoTran days of the 1980s. Some of the routes only ran two days a week!
I lived on one of the main north-south spine routes, yet it ran only once an hour, during daytime hours, Monday through Saturday. I actually used it to commute to a part-time job after school, and I had to be very diligent (i.e. a clock watcher) to make sure I didn't miss the last bus home.
Not that you could set your watch by it, or anything. One time, the driver pulled over and admitted that she didn't know the route, and could someone help her? I sat down behind her and guided her through the whole route, going past my own stop to the end and then riding back down. Another time, the driver decided that he wanted to check out the offerings at a motorcycle dealership, so he just pulled over, left his bus with passengers aboard, and did some window shopping for 10 minutes or so before climbing back aboard and resuming the route. If I didn't think I'd have gotten arrested for stealing the bus, I would have just hopped in the driver's seat myself and took off.
So yeah, things are a lot better there now. And also, both West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale have Tri-Rail. And they'll be getting Brightline soon. The transportation picture in South Florida is a lot better than it was when I lived there.
You think Palm Tran is substandard? Oh boy, you should have been around in the CoTran days of the 1980s. Some of the routes only ran two days a week!
I lived on one of the main north-south spine routes, yet it ran only once an hour, during daytime hours, Monday through Saturday. I actually used it to commute to a part-time job after school, and I had to be very diligent (i.e. a clock watcher) to make sure I didn't miss the last bus home.
Not that you could set your watch by it, or anything. One time, the driver pulled over and admitted that she didn't know the route, and could someone help her? I sat down behind her and guided her through the whole route, going past my own stop to the end and then riding back down. Another time, the driver decided that he wanted to check out the offerings at a motorcycle dealership, so he just pulled over, left his bus with passengers aboard, and did some window shopping for 10 minutes or so before climbing back aboard and resuming the route. If I didn't think I'd have gotten arrested for stealing the bus, I would have just hopped in the driver's seat myself and took off.
So yeah, things are a lot better there now. And also, both West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale have Tri-Rail. And they'll be getting Brightline soon. The transportation picture in South Florida is a lot better than it was when I lived there.
Was there a couple years ago, and the buses in WPB/PB ran very infrequently then. Maybe they've improved in the last 4-5 years? Hope so.
And yes, both WPB and FtL have at least one Tri-Rail stop, though none are conveniently located to city center. But they don't have any kind of light rail subway-like system. Miami does, and Tampa has an extremely limited streetcar line, but best I can remember that's it for subway-type systems in Florida.
Edit: Brightline looks interesting, and very badly needed. Glad that's going to happen.
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