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The top five are: NY, SF, Boston, D.C., and Philly.
My gut reaction is surprise that they rank NY and SF so closely (but that could be because outer burroughs
have less transit access). I'm also surprised to see D.C. as far back as it is, and Portland, OR behind both Seattle and Oakland.
I would move SF to 5, put DC at 2 and Chicago at 3.
Chicago is hurt by its large borders, it belongs in the top 5 for sure.
You think it hurts Los Angeles too. I know it wouldn't make much difference but I think Houston would be higher if it was only the 95 sq.miles of the inner loop.
I probably wouldn't weight light rail the same as heavy rail as it can be much slower in many cases, especially the case of SF. Not sure why ferry/cable car or other is weighted 1.5X too as they can be somewhat slow.
You think it hurts Los Angeles too. I know it wouldn't make much difference but I think Houston would be higher if it was only the 95 sq.miles of the inner loop.
I do but I think that its place at #9 isn't that far off - and I think Chicago is hurt worse in the ranking than LA is.
I think overall this score weights "trendy" transit like rail and streetcars too much. Sure there is a small subsection of elitists/urbanistas who will not take a bus, but the majority of transit trips in most (maybe all?) metros are on buses.
As far as LRT vs. Heavy rail - it really depends on the line, not all LRT is built the same. The Green Line in LA is completely grade separated and might as well be heavy rail, and many (but not enough) sections of LA's LRT system is grade separated. Other LRT lines like MUNI are mostly street running and shouldn't be counted as high. There are a lot of variables with LRT so it makes it hard to really build into an equation.
Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas were right next to each other. No surprise there.
All 3 belong at the bottom of the list......
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