The American Transit Tier List

C tier was higher than I expected for baltimore. I live here and have for my whole life. The light rail and metro are fine systems and marc is good but there isn't enough of them. The buses might have fine schedules but their pathing is horrible. Wanna go 5 blocks? You likely will need to make 3 connections because there are only a few instances where the buses maintain a straight line for longer than just a couple blocks. Our rail is lacking a lot both due to nimbyism and lack of tracks. Nimbyism (and the "crime magnet/tax waste" people) prevents metros being added and the lack of existing rails prevent commuter rail service. There used to be a lot more tracks surrounding baltimore but were removed due to lack of use in the 50s and now new infrastructure takes its place meaning it can't be put back without going through houses and buildings. Adding more metro lines in baltimore would be best once we figure out how.

NYC?????!!!!!!??????!!!?!!!??????!!!!!

I ride the transit in LA every single day, and while it's ok, there are srill tons of basic things they can do to improve it. Stsrting with running more buses more often dueing the day and running later at night. Stopping the bus service before 10 pm is ridiculous in an area this big. DC metro is excellent, with clean and bright stations and trains that run frequently. What i dont understand is why NYC wasnt mentioned at all!

No NYC 👀

Make Public Transportation FREE and People will Use It

As someone who has lived in the suburbs of both Philly and Chicago, regional rail frequency/scheduling on weekends is such a buzzkill. I would be taking the train downtown multiple weekends per month if the schedules were better, but as it is, on weekends you'll get one train per hour if you're lucky, and the last train out of the city is usually at or before midnight. At the very start of June, I had to take two $50 Ubers home in the same weekend, once because we missed the last regional rail train home at 12 AM and once because I missed my train during the day and the next one home wasn't for two hours. It sucks having to cut your night short or leave downtown earlier than you'd like because of the rail schedule. I realize the number of suburbanites wanting to close down the bars is not very high, but I still can't shake the feeling that it'd probably be better for the downtown economy if transit users didn't effectively have a curfew.

RAHHH WMATA ON TOPPP
literally never had a bad transit experience in Washington DC. The VRE can be a bit slow at times, but the Metro has always been there, through and through, as not just a reliable ferry to DC from the suburbs, but also an amazing interlink between regions in the DMV area.

It really does deserve that S tier, and I'll always be there to defend it
stay hot WMATA 🦾🔥

When you are ready to tackle New York City, keep in mind you can also subdivide urban New Jersey too. Newark, Hoboken and Jersey City are all majorly represented by public transportation, and most people who live in these wonderful cities use it regularly. New York City conurbation is probably the best Public transportation web in the English speaking world next to London. There, I said it.

Mobility matters. All train stations should have places to park and store bicycles, escooters or electric vehicles. Parking spaces need EV chargers.
Train stations need to connect trains, buses, cars, bicycles, escooters and walking. All mobility options need to be considered and work together.
Safe protected bike lanes and trails and dedicated bus lanes make communing better.

Electric trolleys are great for city center transportation !

Chicago metro I have to say is in f tier

BIG DC FYTB😝

I just LOVE how people who aren’t from Philadelphia are so enamored by SEPTA. That’s because you haven’t stayed here long enough to see the bogus going on behind closed doors.

You nailed the cleanliness problem though, I see people taking fat dumps in the stations way too often.

As someone that lives in SF. S tier is woefully overrated. The transit system is probably the worst I’ve experienced in any city I’ve lived in or visited. Only better than LA.

It only took 1 death by broken door, a federal investigation, and almost a year of localised bustitution in order to make room for track work, but the MBTA has gotten a good bit better since this video was made!

Where is Pittsburgh ?

You should check out Salt Lake City, Utah and the Utah Transit Authority some day

As a San Franciscan I see this as an absolute win 💪

Where is New york City?

As a Californian, those are pretty respectable placements. LA is getting better, but has a ways to go, San Diego is doing alright, and SF is just on another level. Overall, I’m very glad to see a pretty fair ranking of those. (Also, I don’t entirely know about the other cities outside of the state bc I haven’t visited yet, but I will scroll to see what yall are thinking)

How are you gonna make a list like this and not include some major cities but then include cities like flagstaff and kansas city. Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Miami and NEW YORK?? Those not being here are ridiculous

You way too overrated septa. I think as a Philadelphian rail enthusiast it should get it’s own tier called: Philly BS

If you haven’t been to NYC then you can’t do a transit tier list. It’s not even close with the vast scope of the network, frequencies and running stock. There’s a reason 60%+ of ALL TRANSIT RIDERS in the US love in the NYC metropolitan area.

You haven't been to NYC?
What RU waiting for?

What about sacramento regional transit

That a way, Tampa!!! Proud of you 👏👏👏

DC definitely deserves its spot in S tier. I sold my car after moving here because it is just more convenient and often faster than fighting traffic.

DC Metro for the win

As someone from the DMV I’m rlly happy with the ranking of the DC Metro. To be honest, my absolute favorite part about it is the architecture.

DC’s Metro makes you feel like you’re in Europe.

I was hoping to see some shame directed towards denver's pitiful public transit system!

San Francisco is fantastic

La is spending alot but its too spread out

If STL can find a way to properly develop the area around Metro stations that line moves to A tier. Long way to go though

Fuck you MBTA is S

As a native to Massachusetts I agree with it being B tier feel you misunderstood several of Boston's transit aspects. The commuter rail for one is a big sticking point you skipped over it mostly but it has some glaring issues that drag it down. It has 12 lines but most are disconnected 4 are out of North Station and 8 are out of South Station and is really only effective for traveling to and from Boston. So if you live on the outskirts of the commuter rail system you have to travel all the way into Boston and back to get to stations that might be only a 30 minute drive away. For instance Auburndale on the Worcester Line and Brandeis on the Fitchburg line are only a mile apart as the crow flies but to travel between them at their terminus's on the commuter rail you would have to transfer to two separate metro lines. The MBTA also refuses to consider Electric trains even on lines that are already electrified by the Northeast Corridor.

And in regards to the slow zones on the Metro and Light rail They have reduced them considerably since this video was published from 26% of the overall system length the day this video was published to just 6% now with two lines effectively having all their slow zones removed.

Where would you put Miami?

Bro thank you so much for thinking of SF as its own city, and not the Bay Area. I was excited to see your review of the city, I personally love it. the Ferry service is absolutely incredible and as of today the MUNI system has come back online in Sunset. The biggest issues with Muni are costs for me. They have been on top of cleanliness as of late. S tier is fucking beautiful.

I don't understand the sun belt tier because i cannot tell if it is good or bad, But from my own opinion, I think the sun belt tier would likely be a D or an F.

Atleast the DC metro doesn’t have intoxicated people on board

All color lines on the MBTA: blue line, red line, green line, orange line, Commuter rail which is Purple line and finally Amtrak

You should do a canadian tier list next

New York and New Jersey should've been on this list. It's a must, especially for New York since it has a lot of transit systems, such as NYC Subway, PATH(New York to New Jersey), MTA, and many more

Don’t forget I’m from Philly and Philly is the transit capital of the us

You missed new york subway

I agree with your list. What I gather is that there are at least 7 cities in the US that are in the B tier (New York wasn't ranked and neither was nearby Jersey City/Hoboken, but the former would be in the S tier and the latter in the A tier). IMO, that's already more "transit-oriented" cities than Canada... first of all, Canada's truly BIG cities are: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Quebec City, Edmonton, Surrey, Mississauga, and Hamilton, and their best system is in Vancouver or maybe Montreal, but they still pale in comparison to SF. Toronto is also mediocre compared to Chicago, and it's actually a bigger city (surpassed Chicago in population a few years ago). The rest of them aren't really remarkable.

IDK, Canadians like to rip on America for having "abysmal" transit when the reality is the opposite (they mostly chalk it up to ridership, but why is that more important than actual coverage, efficiency, and infrastructure?)...all it shows is a deep lack of self awareness, which is astonishing and mildly irritating. Fix yourself before you rip on someone else

honestly as someone who used to live in baltimore, i love the place but C is too generous

Boston has definitely improved drastically since you visited, thanks to an amazing governor and GM. Although breakdowns are somewhat common, the subway and light rail is completely slow zone free for the first time in many years. We've also increased headways, although some parts still could use work. Most trains on the subway are newer, although we're still working on upgrading trains on the light rail.

You forgot about Montreal and Toronto

As a dc local yea this makes sense, if we were just talking about light rail then wmata is definitely the goat, but considering all other forms of transit SF is better. Solid list