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Good point by Ben Around; there is no one "real" America. New York is just as real as anywhere else, but it's certainly different than any other American city. Ideally if you want to see "real" America you'll get to see a wide range of places (not to mention neighborhoods within cities). Put them all together and you'll have a sense of the great diversity of experiences to be found in this country.
Good point by Ben Around; there is no one "real" America. New York is just as real as anywhere else, but it's certainly different than any other American city. Ideally if you want to see "real" America you'll get to see a wide range of places (not to mention neighborhoods within cities). Put them all together and you'll have a sense of the great diversity of experiences to be found in this country.
As I said in another thread, if New York isn't the "real" America then Paris isn't the real France.
And the "real" America would be where? Houston? Buffalo? Great Falls? Meridian, MS? Anchorage? Punxatawney? Klamath Falls? Santa Fe? Bryson City? Hilo? Town 'n' Country, FL? Wichita? Where???
Yes pretty much all those places are very typical America, except I'm not familier with Bryson City.
Id like to thank everyone for there help. After researching ,the cities I absolutely want to visit are:
Washington dc
New York city
Boston
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Chicago
Im going to those cities because I want to visit cities that are the most famous American cities. However There are a few cities that are rasing questions. Atlanta,Seattle,Portland,Minneapolis & St.Paul, savannah and charleston and las vegas. What id like to know is how easy are these cites to get around without a car because ive read about them and they sound like interesting places.
Also Im a little surprised that some of you think Los Angeles is a good place to get around without a car. Based on what ive read It sounds like a car in that city is very important.
Portland, Oregon is a VERY walkable city. The public transit is excellent and easy to use also. Bus drivers and streetcar operators will be very happy to help you find things. A very unique American city worth visiting. Seattle has a decent bus system, and it's worth visiting for the scenery. It's beautiful. Downtown is very walkable too, as are other neighborhoods in Seattle, but you have to plan the bus to get from one neighborhood to another.
Can't speak for LA, but in the central part of the city they do have good public transit. Koreatown and Hollywood, etc are rather walkable too.
Can't speak for LA, but in the central part of the city they do have good public transit. Koreatown and Hollywood, etc are rather walkable too.
Regardless of the transit system, to visit Los Angeles with out having access to a car would be the ultimate sin. Might as well stay home and watch it on TV.
Regardless of the transit system, to visit Los Angeles with out having access to a car would be the ultimate sin. Might as well stay home and watch it on TV.
I disagree. If you want to see the ghetto parts of town or the suburbs then yes, you need a car. It's do-able though without.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
Denver is quite walkable (flat, believe it or not), and has great public transportation.
That's right. It was nicknamed Queen City of the Plains for a reason.
Regardless of the transit system, to visit Los Angeles with out having access to a car would be the ultimate sin. Might as well stay home and watch it on TV.
I totally disagree. Have you spent much time living in or visiting LA and getting around by public transportation? It would be a hassle to get to some parts of the city/metro area, but given the sheer number of fascinating and vibrant (and very walkable) other neighborhoods, it's no real loss.
One of LA's problems is that so many people do watch it on TV and think they're seeing the "real" LA.
One of the best ways to get a sense for LA, or for most cities, for that matter, is to get around by public transportation. You interact with people, walk around, and see things in a different way than you do if you're inside a bubble of a car.
Regardless of the transit system, to visit Los Angeles with out having access to a car would be the ultimate sin. Might as well stay home and watch it on TV.
At tripadvisor.com they found that 35% of visitors to Los Angeles were using public transportation as their main way of getting around. Of that 35%, 88% said they were very satisfied with the public transportation in L.A.
The APTA found 31% of Los Angeles tourists only use public transportation during their visit. It ranked 8th among US cities with percentage of it tourists using public transit: The order was New York City (53%), Boston (48%), Washington DC (47%), San Francisco (40%), Philadelphia (38%), Chicago (35%), Seattle (32%), Los Angeles (31%), Las Vegas (30%), and Atlanta (25%).
The main sites a tourist visits are fairly easy by public transportation: Santa Monica, Westwood, Getty Center, Miracle Mile (and museums there), downtown, Hollywood, Universal Studios, Griffith Park/Observatory, downtown, Pasadena, Venice Beach, the Grove, and even Disneyland via commuter rail.
-All of these are located off of rail routes or Metro Rapid lines that run every 2-10 minutes.
Last edited by missionhome; 10-05-2009 at 10:59 AM..
Only 53% of NYC tourists use public transpo?! I guess the other half uses cabs. Surprised (but not really) that Atlanta's in the top 10. wtg ATL!
Being walkable and being "made for walking" are two different things. As is mass-transitable from "made for walking." Atlanta has pretty good mass transit, but it was never "made for walking."
San Francisco, Boston, and NYC stick out to me as being made for walking. You can hit all the urban spots safely and with access to street level retail and tourist areas just on foot if you had the time and patience. The urban cores are dense and the streets easy to navigate. In Atlanta, a lot of the major roads are "highways." You travel on on one road downtown and end up in Athens, GA, quite literally. The point being, you could easily get lost in Atlanta's streets. That's great for commuters who can get to the city with one long road, but not so great for pedestrians who shold have some geographic limitations to minimize the loss factor.
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And the "real" America would be where? Houston? Buffalo? Great Falls? Meridian, MS? Anchorage? Punxatawney? Klamath Falls? Santa Fe? Bryson City? Hilo? Town 'n' Country, FL? Wichita? Where??? 
