US cities with good public transportation

[Winston Smith]

Portland, OR; San Francisco; Sacramento; Santa Barbara, CA; San Diego; portions of Los Angeles; NYC; the ones I know from personal experience, anyway.

A side note about using a car less. In many respects, one just has to do it. At times it's less convenient, but not always. It's less costly 100% of the time. The more one opts for walking, bicycling, bus or train over driving, the easier it gets.

[Woof]

Originally Posted by j33

In my opinion, a good public transportation system is one that will allow a city resident to live comfortably without a car, and is a system that is used by people of all economic levels, not just by people too poor to afford alternatives. There are precious few of those sorts of cities in the US.

I haven't owned a car in decades .... the cities I've personally experienced that have a decent public trans system are Seattle, Madison WI, Santa Cruz CA, San Franciso, Boston, and to some extent San Diego if your destination is near the trolley stops. I've heard that Los Angeles, DC, and NYC also have excellent systems, but don't know that from personal experience.

[oaa1982]

for me, no problem with cars. of course it is a lot better from the convenience point of view than public transportation. but the issue is that I remember from my short stay in NY that insurance and repairs are a real headache.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by oaa1982

for me, no problem with cars. ... insurance and repairs are a real headache.

In other words, cars are great were it not for all the things they need. You mentioned insurance and repairs. I'll add payments, gas, maintenance, tickets, parking, traffic, accidents and the time to take care of it all.

There IS a problem with an over-dependence on cars, however, in that cities become less livable. Every other mode of transportation, including walking, deteriorates in car-centric places. Cities built around a human scale are far more pleasant. They are also more efficient, even more convenient. Most people love to walk and, when asked, prefer walkable destinations to drivable ones.

[oaa1982]

Originally Posted by cre8

Cities built around a human scale are far more pleasant. They are also more efficient, even more convenient. Most people love to walk and, when asked, prefer walkable destinations to drivable ones.

where are these cities? ....it seems perfect.

and by the way, how can I get a map search engine that would enable me to search for apartments and businesses with subway stations (public transportation stations in general) clear on the map? I tried to use google maps and it was great in searching for addresses and businesses. But I couldn't find out how can I see stations on the map. What I am trying to do is to find if my target neighborhood has a subway station.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by oaa1982

where are these cities? ....it seems perfect.

and by the way, how can I get a map search engine that would enable me to search for apartments and businesses with subway stations (public transportation stations in general) clear on the map?

Portland, OR; Davis, CA; and Bolder, CO are cities that I know have decided on a policy level to build around people (i.e. walking, biking, transit) instead of around cars.

You're not likely to find whole cities designed in such ways, but you can find areas within cities that require less use of a car almost anywhere. Los Angeles, for instance, widely known for its obsession with cars, yet even there you can find centrally-located neighborhoods, close to major transit lines where you can comfortably walk and get around fine without a car. (LA has an active and vocal car-free movement and a "bus-riders union," by the way.)

As for search engines, try terms like "livable cities" and "bicycle- pedestrian-friendly" or "transit-oriented." Be weary of the term "smart growth" as it has largely become an empty buzz phrase used by developers to get pet projects approved. Developers will propose a bike lane and call it "smart growth." Meaningless. You may not get everything spelled out in one place, one map, but with a little effort you can piece the information together to give you an idea of where to find these types of cities and neighborhoods.

[dullnboring]

Originally Posted by oaa1982

and by the way, how can I get a map search engine that would enable me to search for apartments and businesses with subway stations (public transportation stations in general) clear on the map? I tried to use google maps and it was great in searching for addresses and businesses. But I couldn't find out how can I see stations on the map. What I am trying to do is to find if my target neighborhood has a subway station.

It might not be a one-step process. Generally, apartment listings will tell you if they are close to public transportation because it's a major selling point, although they may overexaggerate it's convenience (i.e. a "five minute walk" is really 15 minutes). And quite a few of the official websites for a city's public transportation have an overlay of the system map over city streets, or a function where you can enter an address and it will then give directions and distance to the nearest station. I know that the DC Metro system does this but I have not explored every other site to see which other cities do it as well. So basically, I'd say you'd have to have two windows open; one with the address of where you're looking and then the other the system's locator/map and cut and paste.

[Woof]

Dull, I think everything can be done through most of the bigger public transit websites, I remember being able to do that sort of thing at Seattle's Metro site.Here's a system map you can look at there, I'm sure other large cities have similar information: http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/bus/area_maps/regional.html (broken link)