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Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

citylab.com

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#11
The fantastic transit in NYC, along with a very large population, makes for significantly increased labor market liquidity.

As in any market, increased liquidity translates to reduced risk. For this reason I think that within 5-10 years NYC will overtake SF / Bay Area as the optimal startup economy/environment in the US.

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#12

The fantastic transit in NYC, along with a very large population, makes for significantly increased labor market liquidity. As in any market, increased liquidity translates to reduced risk. For this reason I think that within 5-10 years NYC will overtake SF / Bay Area as the optimal startup economy/environment in the US.

http://fortune.com/2014/10/02/are-we-done-yet-with-new-york-...

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#13
post #4

It's unfortunate that these are (or at least appear to me to be) raw counts, rather than percentages, normalized by each metro area's population or job totals.

Agreed. I think the analysis here plays a little fast and loose with the conclusions it draws from the data.

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#14
post #8

Having lived in Boston, SF, Seattle, and now NYC (and having visited LA on numerous occasions), not at all surprised to see this. Even considering the population differences, NYC wins by a large margin if the goal is 'best public transportation', and by proxy 'best metro area for commuters'. NYC has (by far) the best public transportation system in the US. Nothing even comes close, though obviously MTA is not perfect…

> and King County Metro is just a shit show in general.

Ah, yes, I was wondering if I was going to read this here. In the same sentence that you give BART a pass for stopping at midnight and not going "everywhere," Metro gets written off completely. Even thought it has a 5am to 1am span of service, 14 night owl routes, daily express service from as far out as North (freakin') Bend, and is the most-used mode of transportation to jobs in Seattle, it's a "shit show."

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#15

The fantastic transit in NYC, along with a very large population, makes for significantly increased labor market liquidity. As in any market, increased liquidity translates to reduced risk. For this reason I think that within 5-10 years NYC will overtake SF / Bay Area as the optimal startup economy/environment in the US.

http://fortune.com/2014/10/02/are-we-done-yet-with-new-york-...

NYC isn't there yet, but there are so many intrinsic advantages it's just a matter of time. The biggest impediment is cultural. Most of the tech talent is very cautious and by the book. However this is changing. NYC Papers We Love is a great example of what the future holds... As is clojure.

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#16
post #8

Having lived in Boston, SF, Seattle, and now NYC (and having visited LA on numerous occasions), not at all surprised to see this. Even considering the population differences, NYC wins by a large margin if the goal is 'best public transportation', and by proxy 'best metro area for commuters'. NYC has (by far) the best public transportation system in the US. Nothing even comes close, though obviously MTA is not perfect…

> and King County Metro is just a shit show in general. Ah, yes, I was wondering if I was going to read this here. In the same sentence that you give BART a pass for stopping at midnight and not going "everywhere," Metro gets written off completely. Even thought it has a 5am to 1am span of service, 14 night owl routes, daily express service from as far out as North (freakin') Bend, and is the most-used mode of transp…

Erm, there is also Sound Transit, which completes the system a bit.

I wish it wasn't all bus based; Portland does much better than Seattle in this regards.

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://fortune.com/2014/10/02/are-we-done-yet-with-new-york-...

NYC isn't there yet, but there are so many intrinsic advantages it's just a matter of time. The biggest impediment is cultural. Most of the tech talent is very cautious and by the book. However this is changing. NYC Papers We Love is a great example of what the future holds... As is clojure.

NYC will get there when they move the city to the west coast. There is something different about the west: wide open spaces, mountains, good weather, that you can't really replicate in the east.

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#18
post #7

I wish they had included Toronto. There's an ongoing debate about how to improve transit and being able to see various options compared against each other empirically would be damn useful. As a philanthropic effort an open system that would allow someone to "play" with transit designs might be a godsend for all urban planners. Add in the ability to easily adjust schedules/stops (e.g. bus every 4 minutes, or add a sto…

As a Toronto resident I would say that the city could use some better planning and zoning. A bunch of high density like Liberty Village, Eglinton west and Flemington Park are served by buses and streetcars (streetcars!) whereas large segments of subway go through low density suburbia-like areas, and zoning laws make it hard to build anything there.

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#19
I was surprised D.C. ranks so low [1]

I've been to most of the big cities in the U.S. and despite having some problems the D.C. (the city proper) system is easily the 2nd best public transport. It's no NYC, but it's not bad. By wider extension, the links into the Maryland and Virginia systems are also pretty good. Looking at the map it's not even clear to me why it's ranked below LA or SF. It provides lots of coverage and covers a vast area.

Then I realized they were measuring time as part of their ranking and yeah, I guess I can see that. The D.C. metro area is larger than all of L.A. county and it can take forever to get around it.

1 - BTW, the map for D.C. is here https://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v4/ctswebrequest.jlb2j0ip/page.ht...

Re: Report ranks U.S. metros based on how many jobs residents can access by transit

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYC isn't there yet, but there are so many intrinsic advantages it's just a matter of time. The biggest impediment is cultural. Most of the tech talent is very cautious and by the book. However this is changing. NYC Papers We Love is a great example of what the future holds... As is clojure.

NYC will get there when they move the city to the west coast. There is something different about the west: wide open spaces, mountains, good weather, that you can't really replicate in the east.

The New York night life cannot be beaten in the US for many reasons.

The sheer volume of people also means that people have a good chance of having good ties to NYC even when never having lived there. Love the weather out here in the Bay Area, but there is a part of me that will always miss NYC and the whole tri-state area (well, minus Long Island anyhow ;) ) - hell, the whole east coast in general.

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