Planning a trip and figuring out whether you can get away without getting a rental car? That’s a great goal—you save on the rental and parking fees and become a more grounded visitor using public transportation. Some cities make that easy with a great transit system that takes you everywhere you want to go and is easy to understand. Others? There may be a few stops, and not where you need them to be. A new study by Solitaire Bliss looks at the bus, light rail, subway, tram and train lines of the 30 largest U.S. cities and assigns each city a transit accessibility score—here’s what the study finds.
San Francisco is the best-connected city, with the most train stops per mile (and per person) and the most bus stops per mile. That means that within the relatively small 28 square miles of the city, you can walk knowing that a transit stop will be within reach if your energy flags. There are 7.84 train stops per mile! As for buses, the city has 70.14 bus stops per mile. That’s kind of a wild statistic. San Francisco’s transit lines include MUNI buses and light rail, BART trains, vintage trams, and, of course, the famous cable cars.
The next best city for public transit is Washington, D.C., with 1.11 train stops and 43.04 bus stops per mile, followed by Portland, Oregon, with 1.06 train stops and 24.88 bus stops per mile.
And for the other side of things, the worst cities (of the 30 the study looked at) for public transportation are Jacksonville, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; and San Antonio, Texas. For all three cities, the public transit issues stem from one large problem: they are all sprawling metropolises with population scattered across a wide space. In Las Vegas, the intense heat exacerbates the issue of planning for public transit. Casinos on the Strip are so huge that even walking within one casino, let alone between two of them, can be a long stroll. We do, however, love the double-decker Deuce Bus, which gives you a fun ride connecting the Strip and downtown for $4 one way.
The 15 best cities for public transit:
1. San Francisco, California
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Portland, Oregon
4. Boston, Massachusetts
5. Chicago, Illinois
6. Seattle, Washington
7. Baltimore, Maryland
8. Detroit, Michigan
9. New York, NY
10. Denver, Colorado
11. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
12. Dallas, Texas
13. San Jose, California
14. Phoenix, Arizona
15. Los Angeles, California