Madison has a pretty good system, but I rarely use it because it does not serve the route I must take to get to work. There is a bike path, and I use this in the warmer weather. Sometimes I walk to work, about 3 miles each way. There is talk of making Madison Metro a county-wide system, with taxing authority, so that service to outlying areas can be improved.

Mass transit remains an ongoing debate while existing services (bus and battery trolley) get cut back. Segments of this population has been fighting for more bike laning. Others have been pushing for accelerated construction of freeway widening to accomodate all those people driven to distant bedroom communities by constantly rising house and rental prices. Finally, there are those who want to expand light rail to accomodate the growing computer population.

The arguments for expanding metropolitan bus service collapsed a few years ago when transit stations in satellite towns were closed and routes cut back both in coverage and schedule. Buses ridership is substantial during rush hours but sparse at other times.

This area is increasingly reliant on automobiles as small neighborhood retail businesses close and megastores miles away come in or expand. The City sees the solution to maintaining the down town area as building more parking structures and reducing "free parking" on neighboring streets.

Mass transit is a non sequitur around here.

RTA (Regional Transit Authority) has transit service available from downtown Cleveland west to Hopkins International Airport and to the eastern suburbs.

My DH rides the bus to work everyday, we live in an eastern suburb about 20 minutes from Downtown and we have transit available right into Tower City (former Terminal Tower). Our buses have recently been equipped with bike racks for riders who want to get from point A to point B and ride their bikes the rest of the way. Many of the Cleveland school children also use public transportation instead of school buses.

I would say ridership is up as DH says when he get on there is "standing room only" every day of the week.

I am fortunate that all shopping and banking are within one block of my home so my "feet" run my errands....LOL.

The mass transit system here is primarily bus. Two years ago Minneapolis opened a light rail line from downtown to the ariposrt. The ridership of the light rail has exceeded expectations by 58%. There are plans for a light rail line between Minneapolis and Saint Paul which would likely be as popular as the Hiawatha rail line.

There are fantastic bike routes connecting the suburbs with the cities and bike lanes in the downtowns. There are also bikes available for check out, like a library, at selected locations.

A new transportation option is a car sharing network call HourCar. You can join and have a Toyota Prius Hybrid available, paying by the hour or mile.

Here is a link that might be useful: hourcar

Thanks for the responses. Mass transit works pretty well here in Utah because most of the population lives within a commuting distance of Salt Lake City. Even so, development of light rail or commuter rail north of Salt Lake City has been a slow affair. Also, the west side of the valley in Salt Lake valley is underserved. The well to do east side actually has better public transportation than the more blue-collar west side. Watching all the stuffed suits on the TRAX line is indeed interesting as they leave the Lexus at home and take TRAX because it takes less time to get to work that way.

Very interesting.

You really need to be a resident to comprehend how ineffective local mass transportion can be. Imagine a spider web, putting DC at the center and the strands are the major traffic routes. There are a fair number of strands [traffic routes] radiantly outwards, but a very limited number of cross-connecting routes. In northern Virginia (DC suburbs) there are buses, subways, and regular rail lines available. The subways -which consist of three close-in lines to/from DC- have limited parking available, are jammed during commuting hours due to few cars per train although trains run approximately every 10 minutes, and demand subsidies because they claim to be non-self-supporting. They are great if you live and work within walking distance of the few stops. The rails are meant for the outer-most suburbs (12 to 30 miles from DC) and apparently do well, although radio traffic reports include them as they often run 15 minutes to an hour late. The bus system is extensive but they run primarily on major roads [having few and limited routes through subdivisions], so again it's not too bad-- if you live within walking distance of a stop. Like the subway, buses demand subsidy; are crowded during main commuting time; and like the rails, are not especially prompt with schedules. You can obtain transfers for changing from one route to another -- a necessity if you plan to travel anywhere other than the originating routes which are mostly straight-line to/from DC. Even straight-line travel can be inconvenient and unbelievably time-consuming. For instance, last year I found that to go 10 miles [straightline on a single major highway] from Annandale to downtown Fairfax required a transfer and 1 1/2 travel time, with 2 poorly timed choices for departure -- and I still had to walk 1 mile to busstop and 1 1/2 miles from stop to office. Vehicular traffic [in Arlington and Fairfax counties, and extending 20+ miles into adjoining counties] is subject to grid-latch from approximately 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. To travel "with the traffic" means toward DC in the a.m. and outbound in the p.m. There is little to no difference between traveling with or against the traffic from 6a - 10a and from 3p-7p; it's mostly bumper-to-bumper but it does move - at least until there is an accident which can cause delays ranging from 1 to 8 hours.
Obviously, I think local mass transportation is poorly planned and worse in actuality; no planner seems to allow for the present distribution of residences-to-worksites, or even that DC is no longer the major worksite! A while back, I read that 80% of Fairfax residents do NOT work in DC, but apparently this has not been noticed by the designers of any form of mass transportation.
Thirty years ago, this was a lovely place to live, and rush-hour was about 60 minutes morning and evening. Fifteen years ago, this was a nice place to live, and rush-hour was about 2 hours morning and evening--but it was fast approaching 3 hours. This year, this is a lovely place to live if you telecommute, but I think nearly anywhere else would be better, whether or not mass transportation was available.

To summarize, there isn't any by me. Everybody needs a car. There is a park and ride lot for buses into Milwaukee about 5 miles from my house, the nearest other bus line is about the same distance, but only runs on the weekends, it is intended for families to visit inmates at a correctional facility! Nearest Amtrak station is about 10 miles away, that could take me to Chicago and then many more options. I live 15 miles from downtown Racine and 17 miles from downtown Milwaukee, but I live in a rural/suburban area (people still farm, but more and more houses going in) and so we got nothin'. I have travelled a lot (just over 30 countries) and I would have to say we have the worst mass transit (the least is what I mean) of any country I lived in or visited. Even in poor countries like Ecuador there are buses and trucks that drive along all the main roads and can take you someplace. There are some bike lanes in Milwaukee now, didn't used to be any.

Marcia

Years ago, in Allegheny County, which surrounds Pittsburgh, PA., there was a trolley car system that served a lot of the outlying areas, and the city, too. the price of a ride was one token to get into town, and, if you wanted to go out the other side of town, you had to ask for a paper transfer, which got you to your destination. Tokens were 3 for a quarter!
Of course, after WW II, the price of a ride went up many times, as costs of running the system increased.
So, our wonderful county Commissioners, and the city Council decided the trolley system was too outdated--we must change over to buses. The change-over came soon after that ill-fated decision, and they went to smelly diesel buses. The buses couldn't climb some of the steep hills in our area, so some lines were cut off, making people walk great distances to catch a bus! Then all of the outlying, former trolley routes were discontinued! That left the county and city at the mercy of the driving public trying to find a parking place in town, for work.
Then, The city fathers had a great idea--get the big name clothing and homemaking stores to open their stores downtown, which was a good idea, but didn't work, because folks had to pay thru the nose to park($10-15 an hour) to shop, which didn't set well, because the outlying Malls, etc. didn't charge for parking!
Any way, after much thinking, we have a downtown subway 6 blocks long, a Light rail line to the South Hills(What about the North Hills?)no mass transit to our big new airport 15-20 miles from downtown! Taxi ride is $20, one way, or more! Many bus routes, on old busses, and now the city wants to build 2 tunnels under the Allegheny River, to the North Shore, with 200 yards of track, to handle the crowds coming to watch our "Championship teams" play football, or baseball, in their 2 new stadiums! And, the Penguins, our many times losing hockey team, now is jealous, and wants a brand new ice hockey arena! And still, the North Hills area of the county might get 3-4 busses in and out daily, on only one or two routes, forcing most folks to drive to town and work! Oh, a couple miles out, the transit company has built "Park n' Ride" lots for commuters, but they fill up quick, and yer on yer own!
Us kids, way back when, designed better roads and buildings, in our play areas, than the eddicated gurus do now!
Rusty Jones

I live in a rural valley, and from my home it's an hour's drive from the closest sizable town. There's a public bus system here which is subsidized and therefore affordable to the people who need to, or prefer to, use it. It takes just a few more minutes for me to get to town on this bus.

Most of the passengers can't drive (disabilities) or don't have a functioning car, or any car. Some, like myself, prefer the bus because it's cheaper than driving your own vehicle to town, involves no parking hassles, is more restful (leave the driving to a paid professional), and expresses the well-understood environmental good will. A fair number of people depend on it to get to and from work. Some young folks who don't yet have driver's licenses use it, too. A disadvantage is that the type of bus on this route has no package rack or compartment, so you're limited by having to bring back any stuff you got in town in bags or a backpack you hold on your lap. But most of the time, it seems to work out well for people.

Joel

I live rural SW Ohio where there is zero mass transit other than school busses.

I live in the Greater Binghamton NY area. The county runs large buses all over the area. At any given time you seldom see more then a couple of people on a bus.Our area isn't large by any means so I think this keeps people driving their cars.Years ago we had a trolley system that ran from though the towns.That system went away when more and more people could afford cars.The tracks have sense been removed. I feel that the trolley system would be a more practical means today then busing.But the cost to reinstall the system would far exceed the benefits.We do have train tracks that run though each town near the down town areas. A trolley type system could be run along these rails, but again because of the size of the area and people not being willing to walk a few blocks to work I believe it would fail.

In the 1950's, during the Eisenhower Administration, a decision was made to make moving people by car easier (the Interstate Road System) and to not fund mass transport so what we paid for petroleum products was taxed to pay for the road system. We have then become to rely on our own mode of transport to get us where we need to go and not on mass transport systems hence the passenger railroad system has fallen into decay and except in most large cities buses and other means of moving large numbers of people have not been used meaning that cuts in funding have reduces services even more which results in fewer people using that mode of transport which results in further cuts, ad infinitum.
Until we, collectively as "the government" decide that we want to pay for mass transportation we will not get a good, functioning system. Today, as people begin to realize that the day of cheap automobile transportation are over we may get there, but much of the infrastructure that a good passenger rail system needs has been ripped up and replaced with trails. Many places still encourage people to use automobiles by providing "free" parking and many units of government help foster that by requiring a certain number of parking spaces per square foot of store. Until we collectively, as the "government", decide to make use of the automobile far more expensive than it currently is people will continue to do so, especially when getting from point A to point B can be done faster for about the same cost.
When "mass transit" was restored here many years ago I would have needed to drive 20 minutes to the nearest point I could catch a bus and then from there to work would have taken 2 hours, something I could drive in just over 30 minutes, and not much has changed today except that I am retired and don't need to get to work anymore, I already am.
As long as we have politicians that keep wanting to cut taxes we will see essential services that we have decided collectively we need reduced and or eliminated.