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I'd say Chicago or D.C. are the best of the bunch. In both cities, the trains are frequent, run relatively late (especially Chicago) and reach a lot of different parts of the city. Boston has good transit too, but not quite as good as Chicago or D.C.
Seattle is definitely a distant 4th to the above three cities. It's light rail system is not very good, but it does have one of the best bus systems in the country and the city is small enough to where you can easily, albeit slightly inconveniently, live car-free. I'd definitely grab a bicycle in Seattle though. If you take advantage of Seattle's great biking infrastructure, living car-free will be a breeze.
I'd say Chicago or D.C. are the best of the bunch. In both cities, the trains are frequent, run relatively late (especially Chicago) and reach a lot of different parts of the city. Boston has good transit too, but not quite as good as Chicago or D.C.
Seattle is definitely a distant 4th to the above three cities. It's light rail system is not very good, but it does have one of the best bus systems in the country and the city is small enough to where you can easily, albeit slightly inconveniently, live car-free. I'd definitely grab a bicycle in Seattle though. If you take advantage of Seattle's great biking infrastructure, living car-free will be a breeze.
Seattle has a great 24hr bus system and a expanding subway , and streetcar network . It already has a extensive commuter rail network. I lived downtown for three years without a car it was comfortable. It helped to have department stores , Grocery stores, And lots of entertainment downtown. I didnt go to the suburbs very often I had all I needed downtown.
Seattle's bus system is not 24/7. And if you live downtown and work downtown in any city you don't need a car. There is nothing unique about Seattle in this regard. I'm sure you can live without a car if you stayed in downtown Kansas City too, which has a horrible transit system
Wouldnt it be hard to live without a car in most cities if you didnt live near a rail line?
I had a few friends in Boston that lived away from the Green Line and were car free. Needless to say visiting them was a huge PITA and something I tried to avoid - unfortunately all the best parties were at their place too
Seattle's bus system is not 24/7. And if you live downtown and work downtown in any city you don't need a car. There is nothing unique about Seattle in this regard. I'm sure you can live without a car if you stayed in downtown Kansas City too, which has a horrible transit system
So Seattle has Metro night 0wl Service ive used it several times getting to work and it runs in the metro off hours. So yes it does have 24hr bus service. Not all downtowns have Grocery Stores , Department stores, in Seattle theres several grocery stores, Several department stores , Not all cities have a street car network downtown or subways. If you live in a city that Doesn't have everything you need downtown you have to leave downtown. Seattle's last downtown Population count puts downtown over 100,000 in population and 43 % of those people own cars.
I voted Boston, but it REALLY depends on where you live. If you live anywhere in the central area, it's very easy to live without a car. If you live further from the city in one of the inner suburbs, it's difficult to live without one.
For example, I used to live in Brighton, which is a neighborhood just west of fenway/back bay, and it was awesome. I had was within 5 minutes of the 86(to Harvard), the 57(to Allston/Kenmore), the 65(to Longwood/Kenmore), and Cleveland Circle, which included three different branches of the green line that could get me to BU, Coolidge Corner, Newton, Longwood, etc. as well as various buses like the 51 that I could take to Forest Hills.
Now I live in Roslindale, and using public transit for everything is ridiculous. There are a number of buses in my area, but they all go to the same place(Forest Hills), where the only options are the orange line, which goes to downtown Boston, and the 39 which also goes into downtown Boston (and the 51 I suppose, but it doesn't run often enough to be convenient, imo). So not only can I not easily travel into the city, but I'm restricted to the orange line's path. If I want to get to Kenmore Square, I need to get off at Ruggles and walk a long way, or overshoot it to come back to it on a different train. Its really annoying.
So that's my blurb. It's either really easy or really difficult to live without a car in Boston. I think, based on what I saw, that DC was somewhere in between Boston's extremes. On one hand, I found that it was hard to get around central DC when I was there (had to cross into Virginia to get from Georgetown to the National Mall), but DC's subway also extends further into the suburbs that Boston's.
So Seattle has Metro night 0wl Service ive used it several times getting to work and it runs in the metro off hours. So yes it does have 24hr bus service. Not all downtowns have Grocery Stores , Department stores, in Seattle theres several grocery stores, Several department stores , Not all cities have a street car network downtown or subways. If you live in a city that Doesn't have everything you need downtown you have to leave downtown. Seattle's last downtown Population count puts downtown over 100,000 in population and 43 % of those people own cars.
Most downtowns in major cities have this. And there is NO subway in Seattle. The coverage of the Link is terrible. It's almost embarassing for a city the size of Seattle. I can't think of many major downtowns that don't have good entertainment, lots of places to eat, grocery stores, etc. I think you're overrating Seattle's transit options. And again, if you're going to live and work downtown, sure you wouldn't need a car.
I can say the same for Atlanta, Kansas City, St. Louis, Miami, LA, etc. None of which are going to win awards for having great transits. Any city beyond a million is going to have a little something going on downtown. In some cities more than others SURE, but downtown is where you'll find the best concentration of these things.
I think when someone ask if a city is easy to get around in without a car, I'm sure they mean metro area. Obviously if you're going to stay downtown, this probably wouldn't be a concern. But most people don't live AND work downtown. Big reason is because they don't want to, another they can't afford it, and a another is that they simply can't find jobs downtown. So I think this discussion needs to be expanded beyond just downtown of cities.
Most downtowns in major cities have this. And there is NO subway in Seattle. The coverage of the Link is terrible. It's almost embarassing for a city the size of Seattle. I can't think of many major downtowns that don't have good entertainment, lots of places to eat, grocery stores, etc. I think you're overrating Seattle's transit options. And again, if you're going to live and work downtown, sure you wouldn't need a car.
I can say the same for Atlanta, Kansas City, St. Louis, Miami, LA, etc. None of which are going to win awards for having great transits. Any city beyond a million is going to have a little something going on downtown. In some cities more than others SURE, but downtown is where you'll find the best concentration of these things.
I think when someone ask if a city is easy to get around in without a car, I'm sure they mean metro area. Obviously if you're going to stay downtown, this probably wouldn't be a concern. But most people don't live AND work downtown. Big reason is because they don't want to, another they can't afford it, and a another is that they simply can't find jobs downtown. So I think this discussion needs to be expanded beyond just downtown of cities.
Great point. Portland OR has a good reputation for its public transportation and it certainly does if you are talking about getting downtown and traveling within the downtown and the downtown area. But try to get around the neighborhoods and across town and things change drastically. It becomes sporadic and unreliable in most areas. Those that have somewhat good service tend to me the most expensive.
I am not familiar with Seattle's public transportation but from what people I know tell me, it is just like this. I have heard this of other cities as well. So many are just focused on getting people to the downtown area to work during rush hour and not on people getting around from neighborhood to neighborhood which would include shopping and other reasons during the rest of the day.
So how about if you lived in the Seattle suburbs? It' like you're trying to boost Seattle and hurt D.C. when it's 100% fact that D.C. transit system is world's better than Seattle's. Seattle does NOT belong on the poll with the other 3 cities.
What a ridiculous statement. Simply going by my experiences living in both. Never tried to 'hurt' DCs public transportation system. Seattle doesn't have extensive rail service as the others but can you live in Seattle car free? Of course you can and it was pretty simple and easy to do so.
Most downtowns in major cities have this. And there is NO subway in Seattle. The coverage of the Link is terrible. It's almost embarassing for a city the size of Seattle. I can't think of many major downtowns that don't have good entertainment, lots of places to eat, grocery stores, etc. I think you're overrating Seattle's transit options. And again, if you're going to live and work downtown, sure you wouldn't need a car.
I can say the same for Atlanta, Kansas City, St. Louis, Miami, LA, etc. None of which are going to win awards for having great transits. Any city beyond a million is going to have a little something going on downtown. In some cities more than others SURE, but downtown is where you'll find the best concentration of these things.
I think when someone ask if a city is easy to get around in without a car, I'm sure they mean metro area. Obviously if you're going to stay downtown, this probably wouldn't be a concern. But most people don't live AND work downtown. Big reason is because they don't want to, another they can't afford it, and a another is that they simply can't find jobs downtown. So I think this discussion needs to be expanded beyond just downtown of cities.
So your going to argue an underground light rail system if it is a subway? And Link is only one piece of Sound Transit. Sound Transit has street car networks, Commuter Rail Networks, And light rail with the north line opening 2016, and east line opening 2023. I agree the other cities have better transit than Seattle . Seattle is playing catch up with Sound Transit . And also Amazon World Head Campus has hired 20,000 people downtown Seattle. Maybe Its why Seattle has one of the largest Downtown populations in the nation.
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