#transit1

[crossroadsalpha]

A bit of a stop press on the Space Race as I wade through this months Astounding, which I unwisely saved for last. You should never eat dessert first…

[highbyethebeach]

Transit // Boston, MA

[greatcities-blog]

Intra-city transit

According to a Pew Research report, in 2011, just two-thirds of young households owned a car.  Increasingly, the members of the creative class have shunned car ownership preferring to live in places where travel via public transit is easy. Three of the four rebounding cities (Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC) have extensive public transit networks serving over the quarter of their population daily.  Most of the other cities have modest rail networks ranging from Detroit’s People Mover with just 2.9 miles of track in a loop downtown to Cleveland’s RTA with 37 miles of track over three lines. 

Many of the future investments in these cities may come from Bus Rapid Transit rather than rail.  Indeed, Cleveland’s HealthLine opened in 2008.  However, existing systems and present ridership trends considered together may signal the

appetite for or viability of transit improvements.  Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Cleveland are well poised in this area with multi-line systems already in place and a public transit commuting share above 10 percent.

These maps of rail systems are borrowed from Radical Cartography.  All maps are drawn at the same scale. 

Sources:

Pew Research Center.  “Young Adults After the Recession: Fewer Homes, Fewer Cars, Less Debt.”  February 21, 2013. 

Radical Cartography: Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America. 

Tomer, A., E. Kneebone, R. Puentes, and A. Berube.  “Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America.” The Brookings Institute.  2011. 

U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2011, 1-year estimates).