Gallery: America's 10 Best Cities for Commuting on Public Transit
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies01New York City transit commute time map
New York has more jobs accessible by public transit than any metro region in the country. That’s partly thanks to its population and density (the area has 479 jobs per square kilometer), but also a highly developed network of trains, subways, buses, and ferries.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies02San Francisco transit commute time map
San Francisco ranks eleventh in total employment, but second in weighted accessibility. The impact of the BART rail system that connects downtown and Oakland is clear. Thanks to the bus and heavy rail systems, even people living as far south as San Mateo can easily reach tens of thousands of jobs.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies03Los Angeles transit commute time map
Los Angeles may have a reputation for poor public transit (who knew it even had a subway system?), but its systems adequately reach enough people to put it in third place. The map shows only jobs accessible within 30 minutes, but if you go up to a 40-minute interval, the number of accessible jobs jumps from 40,000 to 112,000.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies04Washington DC transit commute time map
Residents of central Washington, D.C. have access to over 1 million jobs via public transit, and thanks to a metro system that goes well beyond the city limits, even residents of outer suburbs have access to lots of jobs.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies05Chicago transit commute time map
Job accessibility in Chicago closely follows the network of the metro region’s rail system. As the report says, getting people to live and work near public transit is just as important to accessibility as developing transit in the first place.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies06Boston transit commute time map
Boston ranks third in the country in total employment (3.4 million jobs), but slides to sixth place in the accessibility rankings.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies07Philadelphia transit commute time map
Coming in at number seven on the list, Philadelphia is well served by its SEPTA public transit system. It’s clear that living nearby one of the rail lines makes a big difference for those in the suburbs.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies08Seattle transit commute time map
Seattle’s public transit system makes lots of jobs in the city and surrounding areas accessible, but no dice if you live on one of the islands to the west of the city.
09Denver transit commute time map
The Denver metro area ranks 20th in the country in number of jobs (1.18 million), but a quickly expanding light rail system, plus good bus service, puts it at ninth in the accessibility ranking.
University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies10San Jose transit commute time map
San Jose is expected to grow faster than any city in the Bay Area in the coming decades, so it’s good to see it ranked 10th on the U of M report. Its proximity to Silicon Valley puts lots of jobs nearby, and for residents willing to spend an hour traveling, nearly 200,000 jobs are accessible.
