SoylentNews

Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

For the ranking [treehugger.com] the team analyzed the data to arrive at five metrics with which they ranked cities with a population of more than 175,000 people. They considered: average commute time; the percentage difference between commute times of drivers and transit users; percentage of commuters who use public transit; total number of commuters who use public transit; and the difference between the citywide median income and the median income of transit users. (The last one seems a bit elitist to me, but SmartAsset notes that they used it to measure overall attractiveness and quality of the system. “In many cities where the public transit system is shoddy, only the city’s poorer residents who can’t afford a car are compelled to ride it.”)

Here are the results:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. San Francisco, California
3. Boston, Massachusetts
4. Chicago, Illinois
5. New York, New York
6. Seattle, Washington
7. Jersey City, New Jersey
8. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
10. Oakland, California

According to the last metric in the study mass transit is only considered "normal" (as in, everybody rich or poor rides it) in 5 of the 25 American cities ranked.

Original Submission