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CSAs by Number of Workers Using Public Transportation, 2019(20,000+)
3,102,875 New York-Newark
586,728 Chicago-Naperville
535,017 San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
526,836 Washington-Baltimore-Arlington
392,110 Boston-Worcester-Providence
339,283 Los Angeles-Long Beach
291,797 Philadelphia-Reading-Camden
245,774 Seattle-Tacoma
90,477 Miami-Port St Lucie-Fort Lauderale
90,058 MInneapolis-St Paul
90,003 Portland-Vancouver-Salem
86,663 Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs
84,052 Denver-Aurora
70,211 Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton
65,923 Houston-The Woodlands
49,097 Dallas-Fort Worth
42,937 Phoenix-Mesa
40,156 Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor
36,635 Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem
35,236 Cleveland-Akron-Canton
31,383 Las Vegas-Henderson
25,437 Sacramento-Roseville
24,886 Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha
24,739 St Louis-St Charles-Farmington
23,672 San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall
22,363 Orlando-Lakeland-Deltona
21,386 Charlotte-Concord
CSA by Percentage of Workers Using Public Transportation, 2019
27.8% New York-Newark
11.9% Chicago-Naperville
11.1% San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
10.2% Washington-Baltimore-Arlingto
9.6% Seattle-Tacoma
8.9% Boston-Worcester-Providence
8.2% Philadelphia-Reading-Camden
5.5% Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton
5.5% Portland-Vancouver-Salem
4.1% Minneapolis-St Paul
4.2% Denver-Aurora
3.7% Los Angeles-Long Beach
2.8% Las Vegas-Henderson
2.7% Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem
2.6% Miami-Port St Lucie-Fort Lauderdale
2.4% Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs
2.3% Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha
2.3% San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall
2.0% Cleveland-Akron-Elyria
2.0% Sacramento-Roseville
1.8% Houston-The Woodlands
1.7% Phoenix-Mesa
1.6% St Louis-St Charles-Farmington
1.5% Charlotte-Concord
1.5% Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor
1.2% Dallas-Fort Worth
1.1% Orlando-Lakeland-Deltona
looking at numbers like these, I believe Philadelphia can probably boost it's numbers and percentage the most without having to build new infrastructure and just building more TODs. Washington DC should serve as an example of building effective transit nodes.
Atlanta system was built when it wasn’t really needed in the 70s.It was visionary. Its on really in the last 10-20 years that the city has caught up to building where people will use it. Development is being done mostly in the city near the stations. Stations used to be seas unto themselves with nothing really around them,
Cities don’t always don’t have to wait until they ‘need’ rapid transit, because there’s no set parameters, or agreement among officials or residents, to make that determination. And as we have seen over the years, the conservative anti-transit crowd is extremely adept at making a case for why rail transit is never needed, with Nashville being the most recent rapid transit tragedy. Hell, conservatives could probably make a case against building the New York City subway if you gave them half a chance.
As for MARTA, you call it ‘visionary’, I call it planning. Atlantans knew their city was going to increase its stature as the capital city of the Deep South and begin planning rapid transit, and other urban infrastructure, to accommodate it. Washington, DC was a similar case. In the early and mid-1960s when the first serious heavy rail transit plans were being drafted, DC was still pretty much a sleepy backwater surrounding the purely national governmental infrastructure. But times were changing, and the reality of DC (esp the suburbs) as a mega-corporate home for government spin-off industry was already beginning to happen; Arlington’s fledgling Crystal City was one of the early iterations; and this tend accelerated from the 70s through 2000 and beyond…
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl
Do they still tell that racist joke about "what MARTA really stands for"?
Yeah, I know: Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta… The quip is pretty much dated, now. The good news is I, the last time I rode MARTA, about 5 years ago, there were more white riders than I’d ever seen before. Probably because Atlanta is both urbanizing and gentrifying along MARTA corridors.
Cities don’t always don’t have to wait until they ‘need’ rapid transit, because there’s no set parameters, or agreement among officials or residents, to make that determination. And as we have seen over the years, the conservative anti-transit crowd is extremely adept at making a case for why rail transit is never needed, with Nashville being the most recent rapid transit tragedy. Hell, conservatives could probably make a case against building the New York City subway if you gave them half a chance.
As for MARTA, you call it ‘visionary’, I call it planning. Atlantans knew their city was going to increase its stature as the capital city of the Deep South and begin planning rapid transit, and other urban infrastructure, to accommodate it. Washington, DC was a similar case. In the early and mid-1960s when the first serious heavy rail transit plans were being drafted, DC was still pretty much a sleepy backwater surrounding the purely national governmental infrastructure. But times were changing, and the reality of DC (esp the suburbs) as a mega-corporate home for government spin-off industry was already beginning to happen; Arlington’s fledgling Crystal City was one of the early iterations; and this tend accelerated from the 70s through 2000 and beyond…
Yeah, I know: Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta… The quip is pretty much dated, now. The good news is I, the last time I rode MARTA, about 5 years ago, there were more white riders than I’d ever seen before. Probably because Atlanta is both urbanizing and gentrifying along MARTA corridors.
I think that in this case, the two terms are synonymous. Both Atlanta and DC (and neighboring Arlington) saw a future rapidly approaching where their size and roles would be greatly expanded from what they were when both cities began talking about building rapid transit (and both began talking at about the same time: 1960-61, IIRC). Without that "vision" of a different future, they would not have planned to accommodate it.
What differs is this: DC (well, definitely Arlington) also planned for the development that would follow in rapid transit's wake; it rezoned the corridor where its subway line would run to accommodate denser mixed-use development as the plans were being drawn up in 1961. Atlanta may well have done the same, for all I know, but the development didn't happen right away as it did in Arlington.
In general, Atlanta played all its cards right as the Civil Rights Movement transformed the South. Georgia Govs. Eugene Talmadge and Lester Maddox may have been as staunch segregationists as Alabama Gov. George Wallace was, but Atlanta business leaders knew that defending those old prejudices would ultimately be bad for business, so they worked to promote more harmonious relations and sell the Georgia capital as "the city too busy to hate." The differing fates of Birmingham and Atlanta, which were about the same size in 1960, prove the wisdom of the Atlantans.
These are the only cities the census bureau has data on for 2019.
US Cities by Number of Workers Using Public Transportation, 2019
2,242,092 New York, NY
385,018 Chicago, IL
191,018 San Francisco, CA
181,698 Philadelphia, PA
177,099 Los Angeles, CA
131,786 Washington, DC
128,238 Boston, MA
115,989 Seattle, WA
70,159 Jersey City, NJ
58,277 Oakland, CA
49,103 Portland, OR
44,475 Arlington, VA
42,471 Houston, TX
42,249 Baltimore, MD
31,868 Denver, CO
29,069 San Diego, CA
28,995 Minneapolis, MN
27,458 Pittsburgh, PA
26,089 San Jose, CA
25,969 Atlanta, GA
25,792 Newark, NJ
24,500 Phoenix, AZ
23,523 Dallas, TX
23,487 Yonkers, NY
22,111 San Antonio, TX
20,749 Cambridge, MA
20,019 Honolulu, HI
19,391 Detroit, MI
19,304 Miami, FL
18,799 Austin, TX
18,514 Milwaukee, WI
18,048 Alexandria, VA
17,549 Berkeley, CA
16,294 Somerville, MA
16,077 Charlotte, NC
15,861 Union City, NJ
14,982 Madison, WI
14,727 Columbus, OH
14,454 St Paul, MN
14,231 Daly City, CA
13,573 Quincy, MA
13,070 Cleveland, OH
12,584 Silver Spring, MD
10,519 Bellevue, WA
10,282 Buffalo, NY
10,280 Fremont, CA
10,187 Aurora, CO
10,017 Long Beach, CA
9,714 Louisville, KY
9,528 Alameda, CA
9,425 New Orleans, LA
9,353 Salt Lake City, UT
9,031 St Louis, MO
8,950 San Leandro, CA
8,911 Stamford, CT
8,858 Naperville, IL
8,756 Nashville, TN
8,479 Sacramento, CA
8,250 Jacksonville, FL
8,221 Cincinnati, OH
8,041 Richmond, VA
7,729 San Mateo, CA
7,712 Richmond, CA
7,519 Paradise, NV
7,473 Las Vegas, NV
7,406 Bridgeport, CT
7,095 Concord, CA
7,058 New Haven, CT
7,022 Providence, RI
6,974 Aurora, IL
6,955 Rochester, NY
6,890 Newton, MA
6,850 Kansas City, MO
6,774 Hayward, CA
6,579 Tacoma, WA
6,412 Durham, NC
6,405 Elizabeth, NJ
6,264 Indianapolis, IN
6,208 Hartford, CT
6,126 East Los Angeles, CA
6,116 Tucscon, AZ
6,019 Albany, NY
5,912 Albuquerque, NJ
5,912 Ann Arbor, MI
5,785 Norfolk, VA
5,775 Anaheim, CA
5,748 Syracuse, NY
5,514 Pasadena, CA
5,471 Passaic, NJ
5,423 Santa Ana, CA
5,299 Sunnyvale, CA
5,199 Iowa City, IA
5,103 Boulder, CO
5,056 St Petersburg, FL
4,890 Greensboro, NC
4,736 Glendale, AZ
4,700 Miami Beach, FL
4,627 Lakewood, CO
4,619 Tempe, AZ
4,474 Inglewood, CA
4,394 Raleigh, NC
4,386 Sunrise Manor, NV
4,295 Garland, TX
4,271 Renton, WA
4,189 Paterson, NJ
4,164 Chula Vista, CA
4,150 Springfield, MA
4,081 Provo, UT
4,072 Antioch, CA
3,885 Riverside, CA
3,786 Reno, NV
3,749 Gresham, OR
3,743 Mesa, AZ
3,585 Spokane, WA
3,576 Grand Rapids, MI
3,544 Hollywood, FL
3,542 Vancouver, WA
3,536 El Paso, TX
3,464 Brockton, MA
3,437 Rochester, MN
3,418 Newport News, VA
3,414 Tallahassee, FL
3,405 Tampa, FL
3,333 Worcester, MA
3,277 Savannah, GA
3,256 Cicero, IL
3,248 Fresno, CA
3,168 Schenectady, NY
3,199 Gainesville, FL
3,197 Lexington, KY
3,105 Lansing, MI
3,098 Redwood City, CA
3,071 North Las Vegas, NV
3,022 Fort Worth, TX
2,962 Stockton, CA
2,928 Eugene, OR
2,911 Springfield, MO
2,842 Allentown, PA
2,827 Fort Lauderdale, FL
2,778 Arvada, CO
2,746 Santa Clarita, CA
2,690 Spring Valley, NV
2,643 Athens, GA
2,580 Auburn, WA
2,570 Knoxville, TN
2,518 Baton Rouge, LA
2,470 El Monte, CA
2,495 Elk Grove, CA
2,412 Hialeah, FL
2,411 South Gate, CA
2,399 Oklahoma City, OK
2,390 Toledo, OH
2,385 Glendale, CA
2,377 Joliet, IL
2,366 Des Moines, IA
2,321 Dayton, OH
2,319 Orlando, FL
2,309 Virginia Beach, FL
2,297 Hawthorne, CA
2,233 Bloomington, IN
2,159 Henderson, NV
2,129 Oceanside, CA
2,115 Columbia, SC
2,098 Thornton, CO
2,074 Fullerton, CA
2,011 Salem, OR
1,989 El Cajon, CA
1,979 Dale City, VA
1,973 Akron, OH
1,955 Lowell, MA
1,954 Duluth, MN
1,939 Bakersfield, CA
1,935 Fort Collins, CO
1,919 Reading, PA
1,887 Garden Grove, CA
1,854 Laredo, TX
1,818 Bloomington, MN
1,796 Fort Wayne, IN
1,783 Winston-Salem, NC
1,760 Augusta, GA
1,699 Wichita, KS
1,696 Birmingham, AL
1,687 Santa Rosa, CA
1,656 West Palm Beach, FL
1,621 Lawrence, MA
1,607 Chandler, AZ
1,587 Memphis, TN
1,584 Pomona, CA
1,560 Tulsa, OK
1,558 Hampton, VA
1,521 Springfield, IL
1,508 Elgin, IL
1,494 Chattanooga, TN
1,478 Ventura, CA
1,434 Anchorage, AK
1,405 Escondido, CA
1,393 Orange, CA
1,386 South Bend, IN
1,373 West Jordan, UT
1,311 Denton, TX
1,310 Upland, CA
1,292 Plano, TX
1,278 Ontario, CA
1,269 Corpus Christi, TX
1,262 Sandy, UT
1,236 Colorado Springs, CO
1,154 Irvine, CA
1,136 Erie, PA
1,126 Fontana, CA
1,121 Costa Mesa, CA
1,099 Orem, UT
1,096 Little Rock, AZ
1,051 Laredo, TX
1,030 Charleston, SC
914 Bethlehem, PA
902 Corona, CA
883 Fayetteville, NC
819 Green Bay, WI
796 Mobile, AL
776 Arlington, TX
766 Boise, HI
727 Vacaville, CA
675 Lawton, OK
661 Portland, ME
636 Davenport, IA
626 Sioux Falls, SD
577 Columbus, GA
544 Salinas, CA
483 Scottsdale, AZ
442 Wilmington, NC
388 Gilbert, AZ
351 Wichita Falls, TX
282 Huntington Beach, CA
269 Rapids, IA
171 Greeley, CO
47 Jacksonville, NC
US Cities by Percent of Workers Using Public Transportation, 2019
55.59% New York, NY
49.29% Jersey City, NJ
41.26% Union City, NJ
36.31% San Francisco, CA
34.15% Washington, DC
31.98% Boston, MA
29.95% Somerville, MA
29.76% Arlington, VA
29.09% Cambridge, MA
28.43% Berkeley, CA
28.37% Chicago, IL
26.95% Philadelphia, PA
25.73% Silver Spring, MD
25.55% Oakland, CA
25.49% Yonkers, NY
25.13% Seattle, WA
25.11% Quincy, MA
23.82% Alameda, CA
23.74% Daly City, CA
21.50% Newark, NJ
18.23% San Leandro, CA
17.93% Alexandria, VA
17.87% Passaic, NJ
17.31% Pittsburgh, PA
15.40% Baltimore, MD
14.95% Newton, MA
14.59% Portland, OR
14.33% Richmond, CA
13.08% Bellevue, WA
12.94% San Mateo, CA
12.50% Stamford, CT
12.17% Albany, NY
11.86% Iowa City, IA
11.86% Minneapolis, MN
11.58% Bridgeport, CT
11.40% Fremont, CA
11.28% Hartford, CT
11.26% New Haven, CT
11.21% Jersey City, NJ
11.10% Naperville, IL
10.99% Honolulu, HI
10.91% Paterson, NJ
10.89% East Los Angeles, CA
10.65% Schenectady, NY
10.59% Concord, CA
9.97% Atlanta, GA
9.73% Miami Beach, FL
9.61% Ann Arbor, MI
9.51% Madison, WI
9.28% Hayward, CA
9.11% Hayward, CA
9.03% St Paul, MN
8.85% Syracuse, NY
8.75% Los Angeles, CA
8.71% Boulder, CO
8.51% Cicero, IL
8.21% Cleveland, OH
8.19% Inglewood, CA
8.04% Providence, RI
8.03% Salt Lake City, UT
7.94% Antioch, CA
7.87% Renton, WA
7.86% Miami, FL
7.72% Brockton, MA
7.54% Detroit, MI
7.46% Rochester, NY
7.25% Pasadena, CA
7.20% Denver, CO
6.92% Gresham, OR
6.86% Milwaukee, WI
6.71% Aurora, IL
6.50% Richmond, VA
6.38% Redwood City, CA
6.30% Springfield, MA
6.29% Auburn, WA
6.20% Sunnyvale, CA
5.98% Provo, UT
5.94% Everett, WA
5.91% St Louis, MO
5.88% Tacoma, WA
5.82% Erie, PA
5.82% South Gate, CA
5.81% Paradise, NV
5.59% Bellingham, WA
5.57% Sunrise Manor, NV
5.54% Hawthorne, CA
5.43% Bloomington, IN
5.40% Lakewood, CO
5.36% Cincinnati
5.34% Reading, PA
5.32% Allentown, PA
5.15% Lansing, MI
5.05% Aurora, CO
5.05% New Orleans, LA
4.98% Gainesville, FL
4.96% San Jose, CA
4.73% Dale City, VA
4.67% Savannah, GA
4.54% El Monte, CA
4.49% Hollywood, FL
4.47% Athens, GA
4.38% Norfolk, VA
4.34% Durham, NC
4.29% Duluth, MN
4.29% Long Beach, CA
4.23% Tempe, AZ
4.22% Dayton, OH
4.21% Arvada, CO
4.10% Lawrence, MA
4.05% Glendale, AZ
4.03% El Cajon, CA
3.94% Bloomington, MN
3.94% Vancouver, WA
3.93% Newport News, VA
3.87% San Diego, CA
3.83% Springfield, MO
3.78% Houston, TX
3.68% Garland, TX
3.61% St Petersburg, FL
3.53% Worcester, MA
3.49% Dallas, TX
3.49% Grand Rapids, MI
3.47% Rochester, MN
3.47% Tallahassee, FL
3.46% Spokane, WA
3.43% Eugene, OR
3.43% Greensboro, NC
3.39% Sacramento, CA
3.35% Charlotte, NC
3.33% Santa Ana, CA
3.29% Austin, TX
3.25% Joliet, IL
3.23% Columbia, SC
3.23% Louisville, KY
3.22% Chula Vista, CA
3.21% Upland, CA
3.16% Lowell, MA
3.15% West Palm Beach, FL
3.14% Anaheim, CA
3.11% Fullerton, CA
3.10% Springfield, IL
3.01% Columbus, OH
2.98% San Antonio, TX
2.96% Elk Grove, CA
2.95% Fort Lauderdale, FL
2.94% South Bend, IN
2.93% Phoenix, AZ
2.80% Elgin, IL
2.77% Knoxville, TN
2.73% Reno, NV
2.73% Ventura, CA
2.68% Santa Clarita, CA
2.65% Kansas City, MO
2.63% North Las Vegas, NV
2.59% Sandy, UT
2.55% Salem, OR
2.51% Las Vegas, NV
2.47% Riverside, CA
2.46% Bethlehem, PA
2.38% Glendale, CA
2.38% Tucson, AZ
2.36% Stockton, CA
2.34% Nashville, TN
2.33% Hampton, VA
2.33% Oceanside, CA
2.32% Spring Valley, NV
2.26% Garden Grove, CA
2.25% West Jordan, UT
2.24% San Bernardino, CA
2.23% Pomona, CA
2.22% Orem, UT
2.21% Des Moines, IA
2.16% Hialeah, FL
2.15% Albuquerque, NM
2.11% Akron, OH
2.04% Orange, CA
2.04% Toledo, OH
2.00% Augusta, GA
1.99% Fort Collins, CO
1.98% Lexington, KY
1.96% Escondido, CA
1.89% Santa Rosa, CA
1.85% Torrance, CA
1.82% Jacksonville, FL
1.78% Costa Mesa, CA
1.75% Raleigh, NC
1.73% Denton, TX
1.72% Tampa, FL
1.71% Birmingham, AL
1.70% Portland, ME
1.66% Laredo, TX
1.65% Chattanooga, TN
1.61% Vacaville, CA
1.58% Winston-Salem, NC
1.53% Lawton, OK
1.52% Green Bay, WI
1.49% Indianapolis, IN
1.49% Mesa, AZ
1.48% Fresno, CA
1.46% Orlando, FL
1.45% Henderson, NV
1.42% Ontario, CA
1.40% Fort Wayne, IN
1.35% Charleston, SC
1.32% Davenport, IA
1.22% Bakersfield, CA
1.17% Chandler, AZ
1.16% El Paso, TX
1.14% Fontana, CA
1.12% Little Rock, AR
1.10% Corona, CA
0.95% Mobile, AL
0.93% Virginia Beach, VA
0.94% Anchorage, AK
0.89% Irving, TX
0.89% Wichita, KS
0.85% Corpus Christi, TX
0.85% Fayetteville, NC
0.84% Plano, TX
0.81% Irvine, CA
0.81% Laredo, TX
0.81% Salinas, CA
0.81% Tulsa, OK
0.75% Oklahoma City, OK
0.75% Wilmington, NC
0.68% Columbus, GA
0.68% Fort Worth, TX
0.68% Wichita Falls, TX
0.62% Boise, ID
0.61% Sioux Falls, SD
0.54% Memphis, TN
0.50% Colorado Springs, CO
0.46% Baton Rouge, LA
0.39% Arlington, TX
0.39% Rapids, IA
0.35% Scottsdale, AZ
0.31% Greeley, CO
0.30% Gilbert, AZ
0.27% Huntington Beach, CA
0.11% Jacksonville, NC
One that sticks out to me on this list is Atlanta. For as much as people talk about MARTA you'd think it'd be higher here.
My theory is that Southern cities like Atlanta have such low transit usage is because the white people in these cities share a disdain for public transit. This originated back to the Civil Rights Act when the transit operators could no longer segregate blacks in their buses and trains. The white people decided en mas they would no longer ride it if they would have to share a seat with a black person. In Northern cities it was always normal for blacks and whites to share space on buses and trains.
It would be very interesting to see these same transit usage statistics from the 1960s to compare pre-Civil Rights Act years with post-Civil Rights Act years, for both Southern cities and Northern cities.
White flight from the inner cities served by public transportation is probably the better theory. It’s a well-researched phenomenon that happened nationwide.
If Union City, NJ is #3 nationally by percentage then might as well throw neighboring West NY up there too as they are basically mirror images. Hell all of North Hudson (county) would be way up this list.
The actual numbers for Atlanta and Dallas are pretty close. I’ve said before, in Dallas, people (of all races) have a certain level of snobbery toward public transit. Ride share options has probably hurt it even more. Also with the road grid and infrastructure layout here, it’s much easier to drive than take transit a lot of the time.
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