And the Winner Is . . .

Asking what American city has the best transit is like asking which one has the best lutefisk. It may sound like an interesting question, but unless you are in the one urban area where it really matters (New York in the case of transit, Minneapolis-St. Paul in the case of lutefisk), or are a real die-hard fan, the answer is pretty much irrelevant to most Americans.

Nevertheless, WalletHub.com took the time to consider which of the nation’s top 100 cities has the best and worst transit systems. To answer the question, they used 17 different criteria, including such things as airport accessibility, the presence of dedicated bus or rail lines, and fatalities per passenger mile.

They concluded that Seattle has the best transit system, with a score of 77.97 out of a possible 100, followed closely by Boston, which scored 77.84. New York, which scored a measly 68.87, was only the seventh-best. The worst was Indianapolis, with only 21.13 points, slightly bettered by Tampa and St. Petersburg, which each scored about 24 points.

The client felt they lacked the ingredients to become a driver with a good safety record, and for that you have to learn good driving. best buy viagra Unlike medicines released under the recipe as cialis side effects, you do not need to have the prescription. The use of propecia tablets once day, every day for three to four months results in the slowing down online cialis prescription and eventual stop of hair fall. Here, there is an amazing online levitra india valsonindia.com drug which is said to be Sildenafil citrate. But if Boston’s transit is so good, why has it lost 10 percent of its riders in the last five years? Ridership has dropped 13 percent in Washington, supposedly the fourth-best transit system. Madison, supposedly the fifth-best, lost 15 percent of its riders. San Jose, which I’ve often argued has the nation’s worst transit system, lost 18 percent of its riders yet somehow is ranked the 15th-best. Richmond, which is one of the few regions where ridership is actually growing, didn’t even make it on the list despite being the 45th-largest urban area and 98th-largest city.

This is clickbait pure and simple, designed to advertise WalletHub’s real product, which is credit and financial tools. But it was taken seriously by Metro Magazine, which probably thinks that anything that publicizes lutefisk, I mean transit, is a good thing, especially if that publicity leads to spending more tax dollars on it.

Personally, I don’t want my tax dollars subsidizing transit any more than I want them subsidizing lutefisk. To the extent that money is spent on transit, it should focus on the one criteria that really matters: what generates the most transit riders.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

4 Responses to And the Winner Is . . .

  1. Henry Porter says:

    “But if Boston’s transit is so good, why has it lost 10 percent of its riders in the last five years? Ridership has dropped 13 percent in Washington, supposedly the fourth-best transit system. Madison, supposedly the fifth-best, lost 15 percent of its riders. San Jose, which I’ve often argued has the nation’s worst transit system, lost 18 percent of its riders yet somehow is ranked the 15th-best. Richmond, which is one of the few regions where ridership is actually growing, didn’t even make it on the list despite being the 45th-largest urban area and 98th-largest city.”

    Could the Antiplanner please post a link to a table that contains these metrics?

  2. metrosucks says:

    Seattle is the city with the best transit?

    This is a joke, right? Just goes to show that Mr. O’ Toole was right about the article being nothing but meaningless clickbait.

    Any actual professional working in the Seattle area will tell you that the Sound Transit Express buses are the most popular feature of local transit. These, of course, will be phased out in areas where the toy trains are being built, so as to not compete with the all-holy choo choo.

    The Sounder is another favorite of commuters, but it’s really mostly a shiny toy. At least it doesn’t cost $600 million a mile like the ironically named “Link”.

  3. LazyReader says:

    Leftist logic: We wanna get people out of cars because transit is better for Health/environment/urbanism/etc
    I just sat in someone’s jizz….there’s a bum defecating on the following seat. The transit stations smell like piss and the junkies throw their needles along the ground.

    So I’ll give up the safety, hygiene, and comfort of my own car or Uber and take a ride that’ll probably require a tetanus booster afterwards………and the the reason the transit system is so decrepit and disgusting is the Libs that run transit system also stopped caring about public decency, law and order; which is the reason the people are shitting, shooting up and ejaculating on transit rides in the first place.

    When government who runs your city, have a political motivation to pander to people who’re dysfunctional, poorly behaved, engage in lewd or self destructive acts, their policies do nothing but foster more dysfunctionality, poor behavior and lewd acts and disavowing self respect and personal dignity.

    For centuries civil society used ostracism and humiliation as a weapon to motivate upstanding and civil behavior. The Left has squashed that by turning every behavior into a symptom of so called “Institutional Oppression”. Of course once self respect and personal dignity among people dissappear then your cities problems of the consequences of people who have zero dignity and self respect……only continue to get worse. you subsidize a culture of degeneracy and debasement, you make it attractive for more people. If you turn a blind eye to ejaculating on a train or shitting on the sidewalk or fighting on streets, don’t be surprised if people start ejaculating on a train or shitting on sidewalks or fighting. YOU’RE GOING TO GET MORE OF IT.

    Combine with it an entertainment and urban culture that glorifies drug abuse, illicit activities, gun violence, criminality and abuse against woman and distrust and enmity against law enforcement, DON’T BE SURPRISED when EXACTLY THAT kind of behavior proliferates in your neighborhood when you encourage Children to Enjoy it then Hand tie the police when they try to address it. Rather than punish these acts or steer people away from them, today’s progressives chalk up medical, psychological and racial/equity profile for the reason they do them, then turn a blind eye when their options to deal with it, exhausted or unimplemented continue to churn out more of the above.

  4. Henry Porter,

    All of these numbers can be found in the National Transit Database update described in Policy Brief 15.

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