your city's public transportation

1STmammal2wearPants

Obviously New York City's subway system is the best in the country and I am well travelled with it, with all of my trips there, but how is the transportation in your city? The T in Boston I find to be quite convenient, if not crammed to the brim with people (can't always say the same about the commuter rail though, which I sometimes take out of either Acton or Southboro, and is rarely on time). Boston's subway system though, you really can't beat the bargain for 9 bucks for 24 hrs anywhere on the T. Fucking parking costs 30 bucks alone in a lot of places.

norm

los angeles and public transportation is an oxymoron.....:)

decides2dream

1STmammal2wearPants wrote:

Obviously New York City's subway system is the best in the country and I am well travelled with it, with all of my trips there, but how is the transportation in your city? The T in Boston I find to be quite convenient, if not crammed to the brim with people (can't always say the same about the commuter rail though, which I sometimes take out of either Acton or Southboro, and is rarely on time). Boston's subway system though, you really can't beat the bargain for 9 bucks for 24 hrs anywhere on the T. Fucking parking costs 30 bucks alone in a lot of places.

i LOVE the NYC public transport. i don't actually utilize it much anymore, i walk to/from work to the LIRR...but i love knowing it's there. i also know the LIRR gets a lot of shite, but overall...i think it's fantastic.

taking it outside of the US, i think the london underground system is quite superb, loved it while i lived there. prague has a great system of trams, very timely....but being a non-czech speaker, bit difficult to decipher.

having excellent public transport is a HUGE boon for a great city imho.

rearviewmiror

The T is a good thing to have, but from this rider's perspective it is operated by cocaine addled monkeys.

Nothing makes sense. (Not the routes, but when things actually decide to show up)

Oh, and closing at 1? WTF?

xavier mcdaniel

i love the express bus from in front of my house to the city right near any connection for subways

pearljamjen

decides2dream wrote:

i LOVE the NYC public transport. i don't actually utilize it much anymore, i walk to/from work to the LIRR...but i love knowing it's there. i also know the LIRR gets a lot of shite, but overall...i think it's fantastic.

taking it outside of the US, i think the london underground system is quite superb, loved it while i lived there. prague has a great system of trams, very timely....but being a non-czech speaker, bit difficult to decipher.

having excellent public transport is a HUGE boon for a great city imho.

Prague is great. I used to live there. I found the metro quite easy to navigate as there are only 3 lines. London is great but everytime I have been they are always doing construciton and I had to transfer way to many times. Berlin is awesome because they have the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn but if it is your first time there and you aren't familiar with it, it can be VERY confusing! But it is always on time and gets you anywhere.

decides2dream

pearljamjen wrote:

Prague is great. I used to live there. I found the metro quite easy to navigate as there are only 3 lines. London is great but everytime I have been they are always doing construciton and I had to transfer way to many times. Berlin is awesome because they have the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn but if it is your first time there and you aren't familiar with it, it can be VERY confusing! But it is always on time and gets you anywhere.

i lived there too. but i still found it a bit confusing to figure out, and to buy tickets.....:p hahaha.

and someday i hope i get to try out berlin's public transport, i've yet to get there. but it's on the *list* absolutely.

ooooooooo...helsinki has really good trains too! and what i can remember of the paris metro, very good! i think most of my fave cities have excellent public transport. it really does add so much to a place.

GreenTeaDisease

1STmammal2wearPants wrote:

Obviously New York City's subway system is the best in the country and I am well travelled with it, with all of my trips there, but how is the transportation in your city? The T in Boston I find to be quite convenient, if not crammed to the brim with people (can't always say the same about the commuter rail though, which I sometimes take out of either Acton or Southboro, and is rarely on time). Boston's subway system though, you really can't beat the bargain for 9 bucks for 24 hrs anywhere on the T. Fucking parking costs 30 bucks alone in a lot of places.

I agree that the T is pretty good (just got off it actually). At the times I go to and fro work and stuff I don't run into the massive crowds, though I used to. It is pretty damn cheap! much cheaper than any other subway system I've ridden. my biggest peeve with it though is that it only crosses the river in one place. Have you ever been in cambridge and tried to get to allston/brighton/brookline? if you could swim across the river it would take like 2 minutes, but if you take the T you have to ALLLL the way in the OTHER direction to park street, and then ALLL the way back on one of those horrid B line trolleys with the BU kids! it takes like 3 hours! My friend is dating someone in allston (we live over by davis)...I'm like dude, is it really worth it to date someone in allston, there's no way to get there! .

GreenTeaDisease

actually, I was going to post this earlier. isn't it like a UNIVERSAL public transport rule that you let people OUT first before trying to enter the car? I mean I cannot understand people who don't get this...I was just almost bowled over by entire family trying to get off the T...

GreenTeaDisease

decides2dream wrote:

i lived there too. but i still found it a bit confusing to figure out, and to buy tickets.....:p hahaha.

and someday i hope i get to try out berlin's public transport, i've yet to get there. but it's on the *list* absolutely.

ooooooooo...helsinki has really good trains too! and what i can remember of the paris metro, very good! i think most of my fave cities have excellent public transport. it really does add so much to a place.

I've been on berlin (and munich actually). I can't remember it exactly, but I do remember it was pretty confusing because it runs in concentric circles! plus there is the u-bahn (the subway) and another system that goes above ground, so that's a bit complicated.

rearviewmiror

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

actually, I was going to post this earlier. isn't it like a UNIVERSAL public transport rule that you let people OUT first before trying to enter the car? I mean I cannot understand people who don't get this...I was just almost bowled over by entire family trying to get off the T...

That and elevators. People in Boston don't get that concept.

Oh, btw try the buses to get acrkoss the river. I live in Brighton and that's what I use. I too hate the B line.

BrotherLoveBone

Obviously this is no New York, in terms of the amount of people using public transport, but the system is so good they have to shut it down at nights so that taxis have some customers too when the bars close.

GreenTeaDisease

rearviewmiror wrote:

That and elevators. People in Boston don't get that concept.

Oh, btw try the buses to get acrkoss the river. I live in Brighton and that's what I use. I too hate the B line.

ugh, buses. not a fan. bad experiences in junior high (we didn't have school buses so we had to take MBTA buses. terrible). that said, I will walk down to the mass ave bridge and take the number one to harvard sq after a red sox game. if you try to get on the green line at kenmore after a game, you're just an idiot .

GreenTeaDisease

BrotherLoveBone wrote:

Obviously this is no New York, in terms of the amount of people using public transport, but the system is so good they have to shut it down at nights so that taxis have some customers too when the bars close.

I need to go there.

I need to go a lot of places.

damn I wish I had more money.

tybird

Public transportation???? We don't need no stinkin' Public transportation!!! I wish we had something besides the shell of a bus system.

PureandEasy

Well I live in Jersey and work in Philly. I personally think the system is great here. I take a hi-speed line (PATCO) in from Jersey (22 minutes) and then a quick 4 min bus ride (or 12 minute walk) to my work.

I’ve taken the regional rail lines to the airport – very easy to get to and run fairly often. No problem there either.

The city has an elevated train (The Market El) that runs E/W and a Broad street line that runs N/S. I have used both and don’t have any issues with either of them.

The bus system on the other hand, I am not that familiar with, other than my quick run up 7th street.

As far as the people that run the system (SEPTA), that’s a different story all together.

decides2dream

BrotherLoveBone wrote:

Obviously this is no New York, in terms of the amount of people using public transport, but the system is so good they have to shut it down at nights so that taxis have some customers too when the bars close.

it is good....and yes, not a NY by any stretch! seriously, i was AMAZED at how few people actually live in your country. i think i read something like 97% of fins live within the borders of helsinki, but i don't think your overall population even tops 3 million? NYC has like....13 million? hahaha. my county on LI i think has about 3 million. it really is amazing. but absolutely...your 2? train lines were great ...and yea, i just can't get over so many cities NOT having 24 hour public transport.

GreenTeaDisease

decides2dream wrote:

.and yea, i just can't get over so many cities NOT having 24 hour public transport.

let me tell you it is a pain in the be-hind in boston! you're sitting there at the bar and you're like "shit! it's 12:15!" then it's like a race against the clock!

dawng

In Seattle, public transportation needs a lot of help. They are starting to put in a rail line from the airport to downtown - and they now have one for the north end to seattle, but getting over from the east side sucks. I have a 60 minute commute both ways daily - 2 hours wasted (not to mention all the gas and dealing w/ idiots on the road!)

GreenTeaDisease

BrotherLoveBone wrote:

Obviously this is no New York, in terms of the amount of people using public transport, but the system is so good they have to shut it down at nights so that taxis have some customers too when the bars close.

actually, this is pretty common. in the "triangle" area of north carolina (raleigh-durham-chapel hill) they were always talking about putting in a "light rail" (it would never happen, but they talked about it a lot). Anyway, the plans for the supposed light rail had it going nowhere near the airport! which is absolutely ridiculous! well apparently the airport wouldn't allow it because it would decrease it's revenues from parking and taxi service!

1STmammal2wearPants

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

let me tell you it is a pain in the be-hind in boston! you're sitting there at the bar and you're like "shit! it's 12:15!" then it's like a race against the clock!

nevermind the fact that bars close at 2am which is too fucking early as it is. ya gotta leave even earlier if ya want a damn train.

BrotherLoveBone

decides2dream wrote:

it is good....and yes, not a NY by any stretch! seriously, i was AMAZED at how few people actually live in your country. i think i read something like 97% of fins live within the borders of helsinki, but i don't think your overall population even tops 3 million? NYC has like....13 million? hahaha. my county on LI i think has about 3 million. it really is amazing. but absolutely...your 2? train lines were great ...and yea, i just can't get over so many cities NOT having 24 hour public transport.

Yes of course with more people it's just so much harder to build a working public transport since the going to and coming back from work traffic is so heavy compared to normal hours. Buses are too small and metro is limited too so building a system that can handle the peaks but not waste capacity during slow hours isn't easy.

There's still a big cultural difference. In the U.S. I've only been to Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago and many mid size to small towns but still comparing any of them to big European cities i've been like Berlin, Athens, Paris etc. there's a distinct difference. Athens for example was pure traffic chaos but still the public system was better than i'd experienced in U.S.

Of course the relationship with a person and his/her car is different in America than Europe and in USA the public transport is build to support the car traffic and in Europe it's the other way around. One reason being that many European cities have been build centuries ago and they just can't handle too much cars in the narrow streets.

With Finland we have 1/3 of our region above the arctic circle with 1/10 of the population and then the southern part which covers maybe 1/5 of land and almost 50% of the population of 5 million. So, it's not too complicated to build a system around that amount of people but it's also made quite expensive to own and drive a car here although it would've been just as easy to build highways everywhere and keep taxes for fuel/cars lower.

edpearson

Out here in the Bay Area, we have decent public transportation. I used to live in Berkeley and work in San Francisco, so I'd take a short bus ride to the BART station, then hop on the BART train for a 15-20 minute ride to downtown SF (a large portion of that ride is underneath the bay). From there, there's a light rail station you could take to AT&T Park for Giants games or to the CalTrain station for easy access to San Jose and all points along the Peninsula, or you could take the F-Line electric cars (they're super old and cool) to Fisherman's Wharf or the opposite direction towards the Castro, or just hop on a bus that'll take you to anywhere you want. There's also the cable cars! The BART was supposed to go to Marin County, but those rich snobs up there didn't want to pay the extra tax to have it run up there (or at least that's how I heard it). That would connect all those people in Sonoma County to the city which would have been cool. Instead, a bus runs between Santa Rosa and SF daily. You can take a ferry from Marin County to the city, but I've never done that. Despite our traffic woes, the Bay Area is a decent city for public transportation.

And you folks mentioned NYC's transportation. I was there this past Fall, and I loved your public transportation! I parked my rental car over at Metropark in NJ, then took a train from there (about 30 minutes??) to MSG, then was able to take the subway to anywhere I wanted. Loved it! Wouldn't want to drive in that town so I'm glad there's good public transportation.

Indian Summer

i've never been on a subway.

Louisville has a decent bus system....but I live in a small town....owning a car is a must.

Riverrunner

Our public transportation is sidewalks and paved roads. (A town of 7,000).

The first time I was ever on a subway was in Boston in 2005 for the preVFC PJ concerts. Both my husband and I came home sick. He had stomach flu symptoms and I had a cold. We both blamed the subway, but it could have been the airport, the plane, the bars, or our concert mates.

It was easy/cheap to get around on the subway though. Much easier than this country hick expected.

Collin

The NYC subway system was indeed great. It was so easy. Well, at first we were on it for almost an hour, on the same lines
I forgot what went wrong exactly but it had something to do with trains changing from local? I think to something else around 11pm.
But after we figured it out, it was so great and easy to use the subway system. We even helped two drunk guys (American) and a few tourists as well, they didn't know which train to take

edpearson wrote:

Wouldn't want to drive in that town so I'm glad there's good public transportation.

I agree, it's just necessary in NYC.

One Song Glory

Ottawa's got a great bus/light-rail system. I'm a student here with no access to a car, and other than late night taxi rides, I've never really wished that I had one. Other than when they change the schedules up and timing is fucked for a few days, it's usually quite reliable and gets me just about everywhere I want to go.

Allie

I agree about the Bart in SF, and the Muni train/and bus system is also excellent. You can get just about anywhere. I loved those F Market trains and the N.. what is it, the N Judah? Those are neat trains.

The NYC Subways are pretty dirty and smell gross in the subway but yeah, you can't beat it, you can go pretty much anywhere.
This last fare raise is bogus though. You used to get a $2.00 bonus when you buy a $10.00 card but now you only get a $1.50 bonus! And the fare is $2.00! What are you supposed to do with a $1.50! That's not cool.

The LIRR is good for the purpose that it serves but it is outrageously over priced.

mookie9999

Allie wrote:

You used to get a $2.00 bonus when you buy a $10.00 card but now you only get a $1.50 bonus! And the fare is $2.00! What are you supposed to do with a $1.50! That's not cool.

I forgot about that until I swiped my card this week. I was thinking 'why the fuck do I have $10.50 left on my card?' then I remembered. I also missed the holiday fare the last two years. $1 rides were awesome!! With that being said I love NYC public transportation. Next month when I fly to Cali you better bet your ass I'm taking the A train to JFK. $2 to the airport plus and extra $5 for the airtran? Can't beat it!!

Allie

mookie9999 wrote:

I forgot about that until I swiped my card this week. I was thinking 'why the do I have $10.50 left on my card?' then I remembered. I also missed the holiday fare the last two years. $1 rides were awesome!!

With that being said I love NYC public transportation. Next month when I fly to Cali I'm taking the A train to JFK. $2 to the airport plus and extra $5 for the airtran? Can't beat it!!

Ugh, puh-leeze. It's all about the car service Mookie :P

But yes from Manhattan it is a pricey ride but I dread going to the airport, I don't like to think about schlepping and navigating public transport to get there. I like to get in 1 vehicle and I'm there, and I'm done

mookie9999

Allie wrote:

Ugh, puh-leeze. It's all about the car service Mookie :P

But yes from Manhattan it is a pricey ride but I dread going to the airport, I don't like to think about schlepping and navigating public transport to get there. I like to get in 1 vehicle and I'm there, and I'm done

HAHA! Actually a cab to JFK is only $45. But after missing a flight a couple of years ago due to crazy traffic it's all about the subway for me. Plus I'll refuse just because of those damn annoying commercials. "Sometimes, he just takes me home." Really?!? Well e*t me.