Battle of the transit systems: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Miami, San Diego (best, compared)
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For these 5 cities it's more of a fair comparison as none of these are in the league of NYC, Chicago, DC, Boston, Philly, SF, or even LA and Seattle. Which has the best coverage, efficiency, on time performance, cleanliness and safety of these systems? I'll be curious to read the discussions.
For these 5 cities it's more of a fair comparison as none of these are in the league of NYC, Chicago, DC, Boston, Philly, SF, or even LA and Seattle. Which has the best coverage, efficiency, on time performance, cleanliness and safety of these systems? I'll be curious to read the discussions.
As a point of fact, Seattle is not right now even in the league of any city in the poll with the possible exception of Miami.
I voted for San Diego and Dallas. Drove home from Santa Ana last month and saw the elevated track of the new Blue Line extension straddling the 5....looked mighty impressive. I ride either bus or light rail seven days a week, and Amtrak three times a month or so. San Diego is a GREAT mass transit city.
I've never been to Dallas, but their system looks massive.
I imagine its the type of thing that Texas suburbanites would mock, "oh that thing that no one rides", then you actually ride it and realize its awesome and useful (this is how mass transit in SD and LA is).
As a point of fact, Seattle is not right now even in the league of any city in the poll with the possible exception of Miami.
I voted for San Diego and Dallas. Drove home from Santa Ana last month and saw the elevated track of the new Blue Line extension straddling the 5....looked mighty impressive. I ride either bus or light rail seven days a week, and Amtrak three times a month or so. San Diego is a GREAT mass transit city.
I've never been to Dallas, but their system looks massive.
I imagine its the type of thing that Texas suburbanites would mock, "oh that thing that no one rides", then you actually ride it and realize its awesome and useful (this is how mass transit in SD and LA is).
The thing is it’s mostly streetcar downtown as opposed to Subway like Atlanta
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Originally Posted by Losfrisco
As a point of fact, Seattle is not right now even in the league of any city in the poll with the possible exception of Miami.
I voted for San Diego and Dallas. Drove home from Santa Ana last month and saw the elevated track of the new Blue Line extension straddling the 5....looked mighty impressive. I ride either bus or light rail seven days a week, and Amtrak three times a month or so. San Diego is a GREAT mass transit city.
As a visitor to San Diego, I beg to differ. It doesn't go anywhere I wanted to go. No rail to any of the beaches, no rail to Hillcrest, no rail to get you to Balboa Park, no rail connection to the airport. Good for commuters to get from inland suburbs to downtown, and the one nice option for me was its line to the border. But when I was there, I had to use Uber to get to any of the real points of interest that a common visitor to the city would want to get to. That's not a great mass transit city.
Again with Miami, no rail to the beach, you know... where a ton of people want to go. Why? Both Miami and San Diego are very tourism driven, one would think that Mass Transit would bring you to the main attraction where traffic is heavy and parking is difficult. At least Seattle's system hits several important urban nodes and the airport and on mostly elevated and subway lines with a separate right of way. And please don't suggest a bus, any city will have bus lines, but you need comprehensive rail coverage to be a serious transit city.
Dallas has great coverage, very extensive with most of the important nodes covered, but the problem is the layout of Dallas isn't very walkable and downtown is not a big focal point for the area.
Denver has an excellent system to get suburban commuters into the city, and I really like the new heavy rail airport line. The problem in Denver is it severely lacks intra-city coverage, so you can't get to important nodes by rail to the high density areas like Highlands, East Colfax/Capital Hill, Cherry Creek, City Park, and South Broadway. Also Colorado Boulevard is probably the biggest traffic cluster**** in the city, but rail doesn't serve that corridor either. Denver should develop a subway corridor down Colfax and Colorado Boulevard. RTD rail is pretty much a Park and Ride system, unless you're going into downtown into the city for a game at one of the sports facilities, it comes up pretty short.
I voted for Atlanta, it's a great system. The only thing that perplexes me is why would they put the new Braves stadium in the suburbs (seems like a reverse trend as far as ball parks go), no less in a county that rejected MARTA. That's just odd.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 04-01-2019 at 08:55 PM..
As a visitor to San Diego, I beg to differ. It doesn't go anywhere I wanted to go. No rail to any of the beaches, no rail to Hillcrest, no rail to get you to Balboa Park, no rail connection to the airport. Good for commuters to get from inland suburbs to downtown, and the one nice option for me was its line to the border. But when I was there, I had to use Uber to get to any of the real points of interest that a common visitor to the city would want to get to. That's not a great mass transit city.
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Well, this is being addressed in the new comprehensive plan to have rail stops at every single street address in the entire city. That way no one will be able to say "it didn't go anywhere I wanted to go."
I'm kidding.
Did you attempt to use the MTS bus in your travels to San Diego? The pass that gets you on the light rail is good on the buses as well.
I lived right in the middle of Hillcrest for nearly 2 years. Black soot accumulated around my kitchen windows...didn't know what from until I realized it was because so many different buses stopped right outside my building. The kind that go places like....the beach, Balboa Park, and the airport. Buses are a form of mass transit.
You can walk right on the bus with your surfboard.
As a point of fact, Seattle is not right now even in the league of any city in the poll with the possible exception of Miami.
Then why do all of these systems have pathetic usage compared to Seattle? Only Atlanta and Miami are even large fractions. Dallas and San Diego have horrific numbers...illustrating that rail mileage means very little.
Seattle's buses get multiple times the ridership per capita of any of the others, aided by HOV lanes, decent frequencies, etc.
For these 5 cities it's more of a fair comparison as none of these are in the league of NYC, Chicago, DC, Boston, Philly, SF, or even LA and Seattle. Which has the best coverage, efficiency, on time performance, cleanliness and safety of these systems? I'll be curious to read the discussions.
Miami also has the bright line higher speed rail. Miami should be listed in the poll as Metrorail/Brightline rail/Tri Rail/Metro mover. That's all four rail based public transit lines in SoFla.
As a visitor to San Diego, I beg to differ. It doesn't go anywhere I wanted to go. No rail to any of the beaches, no rail to Hillcrest, no rail to get you to Balboa Park, no rail connection to the airport. Good for commuters to get from inland suburbs to downtown, and the one nice option for me was its line to the border. But when I was there, I had to use Uber to get to any of the real points of interest that a common visitor to the city would want to get to. That's not a great mass transit city.
Again with Miami, no rail to the beach, you know... where a ton of people want to go. Why? Both Miami and San Diego are very tourism driven, one would think that Mass Transit would bring you to the main attraction where traffic is heavy and parking is difficult. At least Seattle's system hits several important urban nodes and the airport and on mostly elevated and subway lines with a separate right of way. And please don't suggest a bus, any city will have bus lines, but you need comprehensive rail coverage to be a serious transit city.
Dallas has great coverage, very extensive with most of the important nodes covered, but the problem is the layout of Dallas isn't very walkable and downtown is not a big focal point for the area.
Denver has an excellent system to get suburban commuters into the city, and I really like the new heavy rail airport line. The problem in Denver is it severely lacks intra-city coverage, so you can't get to important nodes by rail to the high density areas like Highlands, East Colfax/Capital Hill, Cherry Creek, City Park, and South Broadway. Also Colorado Boulevard is probably the biggest traffic cluster**** in the city, but rail doesn't serve that corridor either. Denver should develop a subway corridor down Colfax and Colorado Boulevard. RTD rail is pretty much a Park and Ride system, unless you're going into downtown into the city for a game at one of the sports facilities, it comes up pretty short.
I voted for Atlanta, it's a great system. The only thing that perplexes me is why would they put the new Braves stadium in the suburbs (seems like a reverse trend as far as ball parks go), no less in a county that rejected MARTA. That's just odd.
Miami's system hits most of its urban nodes as well, despite not reaching SoBe. And there's also an elevated metro rail line at MIA airport. And Tri rail is expanding to downtown Miami via the central station. Bright line takes you from Downtown Miami all the way to downtown WPB. Plus there's the ppl mover that takes you to all the hot spots in downtown and Brickell. If Miami finally connects to the beach, that'll change Miami's rankings almost overnight.
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