this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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Public transit is basically non-existent for most of the United States.
Do you mean on the entire territory or just in cities? Because some states have an urbanization percentage of around 90%. I.E.: most people live in cities or suburbs.
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Austin, Charlotte, San Francisco, Seattle, Jacksonville, Denver, Washington, Boston, Detroit, Portland, Baltimore. That's like 35 million people, that have no public transit? I can believe that public transit is shitty in some of those cities, and most certainly in a lot of the suburbs, but all of them? Do people hail Ubers in rural areas?
I've been watching some American YouTube channels about transit, like Miles in Transit, and one Adam that goes to national parks using public transit, and it appears that there is at least some public transit in the US. But just like where I live, people are dependent on cars and prefer to call a taxi than take public transit.
There is public transit where I live, because I moved here for this reason. A bus from the airport (soon to be a metro, finally) is $12 CAD and it includes all other forms of transit in the city; trains, metros and buses. An Uber ride from the airport to downtown is between $20 and $40 CAD. Yet, people hail their private chauffeurs and continue to claim that "there's no public transit".
Public transit in the US was purposefully gutted to force the adoption of cars, with many transit lines being replaced by highways or car centric infrastructure.
The Boston metro (more of a light rail), referred to as the T, is rated as the 3rd best public transit system in the US, despite the frequent fires and breakdowns caused by a lack of maintenance on vehicles that haven't been replaced since the 70s or 80s due to being majorly underfunded. 100 years ago, the T was twice the size it is today, and a connection of one of the lines in Boston proper is now done by shuttle bus.
The number one and two spots in quality public transit are held by the bus lines in Seattle and Washington D.C., respectively. Public train lines effectively don't exist as there are no government owned tracks in the country. Amtrak, the public train line, has to run on freight rail under contract with the various companies that own the rails along the way and is never on schedule because they have to stop and let freight go by due to said contracts. All the companies that were started to bring high-speed rail to the US were bought up by car companies or the fossil fuel industry and immediately shut down. The cities of Boston and NYC at one point had planned to build a direct high-speed rail connection between the two cities that would have dramatically cut down travel time compared to any other form of transit, but that never went anywhere.
My hometown has a few bus lines with maybe ten stops each and no connecting stops between them, and a single coach line that's a direct stop at Logan Airport, which is probably 2 hours away depending on the traffic (probably an hour and change if you were to drive yourself instead). If you want to get anywhere else, your options are taxi services, rideshare, or driving.
Public transportation is so bad in the US that cars are culturally seen as a major sign of independence and the ability to choose for oneself. Getting your driver's license is seen as a major growth point because it's often the first time that people have the ability to go wherever they want without getting a ride from their parents.
You’re gonna say no public train infrastructure exists in the DC metro area?
I can ride a train from Baltimore to dc if I want.
I can cross DC with the metro, a public train system. Is the #2 ranking not including the trains? The DC metro system is busses and trains
Note this map doesn’t show Virginia Rail or Maryland or Amtrak service connections, this is JUST the dc metro rail map.
There are proposed light rail connector lines in MD.
FWIW it’s not nothing, going to other major cities in the country is a shock though.
Public transit in LA sucks. It probably does in other cities that I haven't tried it in as well, but just being an urban area in the US doesn't mean that there's decent public transit.
Yes, it's bad almost everywhere. D.C. is surprisingly good, and I've heard NYC is good too. Those are the two exceptions. Everywhere else: at best it exists but sucks. It's nearly impossible to use as a reliable service, like you need for getting to work or whatever. It may be possible if you really need it, but you'll have to sacrifice a lot to use it. It may be acceptable to use on vacation or when time isn't an issue.
Minneapolis is okay for public transportation. The light rails are great, but bus travel falls way off only coming every 15-35 minutes depending on the route. The 35 minutes for a bus makes reliability very very hard, even when you plan around it so taking it to work wouldn't be feasible without planning to get to work 0-30 minutes early
Even in places with somewhat decent public transport, it's still more convenient to drive a car.
even if there was, a car is usually more convenient. plus PTthey dont extend to tech jobs that are outside of cities where they need indsutrial areas. so a car is a must for these jobs.