[Tech2]

What is this "public transportation" you speak of?

I'm in the Detroit area and other than buses (well, there's the People Mover downtown, which is more of an amusement-park ride) we have a horrible system. I believe it has to do with being the automotive capital, at least years ago, and mass-transit is bad for car sales.

 

[majid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by organicabstract /img/forum/go_quote.gif everyone i know has NEVER rode on the cable car trollies downtown...

I do nearly every day. I am on the California line (which few tourists take). 126 years old... The cable cars are actually more reliable than the 27 line trolleybus that is my alternative ride back home.

A good indicator of the quality of public transportation is the car ownership. 30% of SF residents don't own a car (in 1960, it used to be 42%). In Paris overall, the figure is 50%, and in dowtown Paris over 70%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by camille /img/forum/go_quote.gif at this time, transit in Vancouver is ok. they're handling the rapid transit construction quite well. can't wait for all the new trolleys to be in full service.

I tried one of these a couple of months ago, they are quite pleasant to ride in.

Don't forget SeaBus, an integral part of the Vancouver public transit system. I am always impressed with how accurately SeaBus skippers maneuver them into their quays, without the assistance of any fancy positioning electronics.

 

[johnniewalker]

Seattle currently is ok if you are just talking about within the city, but outside the city limits, it sucks.

Light rail is being built, which might help some if it's expanded.

My commute in a car that is 27 miles takes 35-45 minutes. On the bus it takes 2+ hours.

 

[marvin]

Used to live in the largest city in the US with no public transportation system (Arlington, TX). Moved to Plano where the public transportation is limited to a train to Dallas.

 

[*645-k701]

the public transport in helsinki is great always on time.
only useless thing is most stop between 2-6 a.m.

 

[averydonovan]

Denver's public transit system is not very good and has only been getting worse over the years. Many buses do not run late enough in the day (no going out late at night), nor frequently enough, and the new southeast corridor light rail system made bus service even worse. Their route system is also not all that extensive in many parts of the metro area and especially in the suburbs. RTD is constantly short of drivers and they don't maintain their vehicles as well as they should, and their contractors (who operate under the RTD banner) are even worse when it comes to maintenance. Their on-time rates for buses are abysmal, especially the contractors. They also do not have enough light rail vehicles and the trains do not run often enough in many parts of the day, nor do they have enough capacity. And to think we pay 1% of our sales tax for this crappy system

I'm moving to where it is only a 15 minute walk to a light rail station since if anything, the light rail does run on time the majority of the time and I'm tired of dealing with constantly late buses. But I really hope to have a license and a car in the next 6 months since public transit just doesn't cut it.

 

[The Actual]

I lived in Cleveland for the past four months, so I'll talk about that since San Francisco is pretty covered.

Public transportation in Cleveland feels very commuter oriented, which is OK I guess. My biggest problem is that a lot of the buses stop around ten at night, so getting back from concerts can be very difficult. In addition to that, the buses are on time sixty percent of the time. So half the time I go to the stop and am on a bus withing five minutes, but the rest of the time I end up waiting twenty plus minutes.

There is also a train system which is pretty reliable, but does not have nearly enough stops for it to be useful to me.

Oh well.

 

[Carl]

Public transport in New Zealand? Ahahaha, that's a good one!

 

[MrSlacker]

I love NYC MTA system. You can get pretty much everywhere in the city by subway or bus. They are on time more or less and run all the time.

 

[SayNoToPistons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aman /img/forum/go_quote.gif NYC Subways here. Never have had a problem with them. Easy to understand, schedules and maps are simple, and they are rather quick. Some of the cars are a little out of date, but it doesn't bother me.

Ding ding. Best public transportation on earth

Gotta have my bragging rights!

 

[craiglester]

Well, I gotta say that the RTD in denver is not as bad as Donovansmith says, at least as far as my experience goes. It's pretty reliable, runs from like 4.30 am or so to about 1 am on my route. I've only had 2 buses not be running in like 3 years of using it 5 days a week. It's gone up in price, but what hasn't in the last 5 years? The free New Years eve service is a nice idea too.
The access-a-ride service is a god send to my wife also, and it's nice to knnow all the busses are accessible.
And the free mall ride is pretty good too.

The only major gripe i have with the public transport system is not with the company or the buses themselves, but some of the inconsiderate asses that ride them. Like people who open all the windows on the bus when the heater is on, because they're hot and they have a hat, scarf and big coat on.. duh, try taking some of that off jackass. Or the dumbasses who open the windows in the summer when the ac is on..

 

[nabwong]

Boston's public transportation is as predictable as its weather. It's better to cycle. But i've grown to deal with it.

Singapore's awesome. Frequency of trains is 3 mins and buses 10 mins. It's fast and clean. Can't ask for anything more, except lower fares. I hate the TVs in the train and buses. Fortunately, i have my e4c.

 

[Sweet Spot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aman /img/forum/go_quote.gif NYC Subways here. Never have had a problem with them. Easy to understand, schedules and maps are simple, and they are rather quick. Some of the cars are a little out of date, but it doesn't bother me.

How exactly do I get to this Bizzaro world NYC then ?

Schedules ? Ha ! Easy to understand ? Sure, I'll give you that, but don't be so sure about understanding any transit system as a tourist. Quick depends on how long you have to wait for it to arrive. There's always SOMETHING going on to delay a train, who are you kidding.

And the people ? Animals. Crowding like they're in a zoo, waiting for meat to be tossed to them. And talk about FILTHY ! What a freeking CRIME I tell you ! We pay an ass load of taxes, and the whole place looks like something out of a bad movie, like say... Escape From The Bronx or something.

I was in Hungary recently, and you could literally eat off of their subway floors, that's how clean they were. And you want to talk about being on time, and following a schedule ? Go there. Actually, that's pretty much true for most European transit lines, and the people don't really even pay for it in Hungary.

Certain New Yorkers should be ashamed of how they treat things though, and to be honest, even if it was all cleaned up, I doubt it would stay clean for long. No respect, and no pride in their surroundings. When I used to work for Time Warner, I got to see how a lot of people lived, and from that alone, I can honestly say that I'm not surprised about what our streets and transit systems look like.

And come on Mr. Rich ass Bloomberg, how's about spending some of those millions on getting the homeless into real shelters, cleaning them up and keeping them warm, and making sure they're healthy, so that at the very least, they're not spreading their TB in our poorly ventilated subway cars and tunnels, eh ?

I wish we were invaded and conquored by Canada. At least we'd have free health care and education.

I'd like to add that my 4, 5 and 6 trains are pretty reliable though..most of the time. And I will admit that it's nice being able to travel any time of the day and night, even if you have to wait a while for a train to arrive, since in some states PT is cut off at a certain time. I really do wish they'd update our ugly trains though. That pic of the train in SF on the other page, is what I'm talkin' about. Class. I'm tired of our transit system fulfilling that stereotypical NY look.

 

[skitlets]

San Francisco is decent, for the most part. The thing that bugs me is that drivers and lines never actually follow a schedule. Buses are to follow intervals, that is, every x minutes another will come. But as often happened on my way to school, one, two, sometimes even three buses will miss the interval then all show up at once. Adds an extra half hour to my already hour long bus commute. Light rail is much more reliable compared to the buses.

 

[Edwood]

Public transportation is called a car in Los Angeles.