Which southern cities have the best public transit systerms? Which are the worst? (subway, transportation)

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

how are they going to convince Atlanta's drivers to share the road with that thing?

LOL just another opportunity to be flattened on Peachtree.

[scarletneon]

also, I just wanted to say, that the MARTA train cars are just really funny looking to me. I don't know why.

[theSUBlime]

Of course, we are talking about the best of the worst though....

[EclecticEars]

Atlanta and Dallas.

Dallas will soon surpass Atlanta as they are expanding their DART system. Atlanta has too much suburban resistance to rail expansion to facilitate such a large step for a long time. Of course, both cities pale in comparison to New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, and even San Francisco in terms of covering large sectors of their metropolitan areas.

Houston has light rail and Nashville has one commuter rail line, but both cities will need to greatly expand their systems before being competitive with Dallas and Atlanta.

All the cities just have buses.

[Ben Around]

Don't forget, transit is more than just rail. Here in the Twin Cities, we built a light rail line a few years back, and now we are on the verge of starting a new one, between doawntown St Paul and downtown Mpls. The problem is, it will replcae much of the bus service in the corridor. Right now, buses run 24 hours a day, every 10 minutes except at night when they run 15 - 60 minutes depending on how late it is. They stop at every corner, and weekdays there is supplemental limited stop service that's much faster.

When they start the new light rail line, the trains will stop only every mile, not every block, except in the downtowns. The buses that now stop every block will be reduced to every 30 minutes. For the people who live along the line, unless they live within a block of a station, I can't see how this would be an imporvement in transit service, but the Metro Countil and the federal govenment who will be funding mush of it, don't seem to see the problem.

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by CMDallas

Well according to the Civil War era, Washington DC is in the south...so Washington DC ... or you mean the modern south, which hasn't got sucked up by the liberals and Northeast .... not saying its a bad thing ...
I don't know, the South has crappy Public Transit...i think... I never took the public transit anywhere except in Dallas, or DC

According to the Civil War era? Where did you get your education? D.C. is the South according to the Mason-Dixon line, which as far as I'm concerned is too far north. (Should be Maryland-Virginia border, not Maryland-Pennsylvania border)

[lammius]

Originally Posted by ajf131

According to the Civil War era? Where did you get your education? D.C. is the South according to the Mason-Dixon line, which as far as I'm concerned is too far north. (Should be Maryland-Virginia border, not Maryland-Pennsylvania border)

If the Mason-Dixon line were moved that far south there wouldn't be any Maryland left!

[CMDallas]

^
lol I thought of your comment in a different context... what would it be?
Unmaryland?
or was that what you meant?

I got My education in Texas!

[lammius]

Originally Posted by CMDallas

^
lol I thought of your comment in a different context... what would it be?
Unmaryland?
or was that what you meant?

I got My education in Texas!

Well the Mason-Dixon line was surveyed as the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, and Maryland and Delaware. If the line bounding those states were established at the Potomac River instead, Pennsylvania and/or Delaware would have possessed everything that was once Maryland. Baltimore, PA has a nice ring to it though, doesn't it?

[AK123]

Houston is up-and-coming in this area. As long as things keep progressing and no more major roadblocks (think Tom DeLay) try to stop things, I expect some great things down the road. The light rail system, though small, was a lifesaver for me when I was working in the Texas Medical Center, and the trains were always filled with lots of others in white lab coats. Sometimes there wasn't even room to get on. There's also a pretty extensive park-and-ride program for people who use the buses... most people I know who work downtown and live in the suburbs use the buses to get to/from work.

In Austin I used the bus system a lot, but it seemed geared more toward the central part of town where I lived... basically if you live in the suburbs you're stuck having to drive the whole way to work?

And does San Antonio have anything? I'm familiar with the city from travel but have never actually lived there.