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How many hours do you spend when commuting to work every day?
If you intend to move to another city, the number of potential hours you’ll spend commuting to work every day should be among the top items on the list of things you should consider.
Spending several hours in traffic can increase your stress level and cause road rage that can result to several other anger-related actions.
Thankfully, SmartAsset recently conducted an analysis of the top cities with the best public transit system in the United States. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau on the use of public transportation in every U.S. city with a population of over 175,000 people were analyzed. In all, 136 cities were looked at.
Did your city made it to the top 10 list? Find out!
Best Cities For Public Transportation
10. Oakland, California
Currently, up to 21% of Oakland population relies on public transportation to get to work. That figure is a 1.5% increase since 2011, and ranked the 11th highest rise of any United States major city.
Interestingly, Oakland has one of the smallest income gaps between car commuters and transit commuters in the United States.
In fact, the median income for transit commuters is only 2% lower than the median income of car commuters.
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Guess how many workers in the city of Philadelphia use public transportation? About 171,000 workers. That figure is the fourth largest of any city in the United States. Amazingly, that number does not include people who commute from outside the city into Philadelphia.
The city’s public transportation system includes underground subways, commuter rails, street-level trolleys, trolley buses, and regular buses. On a typical weekday, trolley buses and buses complete about 490,000 rides while the different types of available trains make more than 290,000 rides.
8. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The united states Census Bureau reports that Pittsburgh commuters who use public transportation spend about 32 minutes traveling to work. Considering the fact that most of the transit riders in the city use buses, that travel time is rated the 11th fastest of the 136 states analyzed by SmartAsset.
7. Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is rated among the very few cities where transit users have a higher median income than car commuters. For people who commute to New York from Jersey City, trains and ferries that travel directly to Manhattan makes their journey easier and more convenient.
6. Seattle, Washington
Since 2011, the percentage of Seattle commuters that use public transport to get to work has risen to 34.9%.
Also, with a 3.8% increase, the percentage of Seattle commuters is now the largest increase of any major United States city.
Recently, Seattle’s transit agency known as Sound Transit built an underground light rail line to connect downtown Seattle to the University of Washington (in north Seattle), when the school opens later this year.
Earlier this year, Seattle opened its second streetcar line to enhance its transit system.
5. New York, New York
According to SmartAsset analysis, 48 minutes is the average commute time for transit users in New York. That time is 48% longer than the average for car commuters out of the 136 cities in SmartAsset’s analysis.
4. Chicago, Illinois
An average commuter in Chicago spends 43.6 minutes traveling to work each day. This travel time is just 10 minutes more than the typical car commuter in the city. That figure is the seventh lowest difference of the 136 cities in SmartAsset’s analysis.
3. Boston, Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) oversees all public transportation system in Boston. Interestingly, the percentage of commuters that rely on public transport to get to work in Boston is 34%. That figure is the fifth highest in the United States.
2. San Francisco, California
Commuter trains and buses make up the major parts of San Francisco’s public transportation system. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), the Muni (San Francisco Municipal Railway) and the city’s historic cable cars complete more than 220 million passenger rides every year.
1. Washington, D.C.
What makes D.C.’s transportation system the best in the United States? The average transit commuter in D.C. spends 36 minutes to get to work each day. That travel time is 10 minutes below the average for the 136 cities in SmartAsset’s findings. Also, that time is 8.6 minutes slower than the average commute time for drivers in the city.
The city’s subway system called the Metro or Metrorail oversees more than 200 million trips per year. That figure makes it the second largest system by ridership in the United States. That being said, the D.C. bus system is responsible for an additional 130 million trips every year.
According to SmartAsset’s analysis, Here is the 25 cities with the best public transit system in the U.S
