Surprise! Walk Score Ranks SF Second-Best City for Public Transit

muni ferry building f market
Photo by Dave

In an announcement that probably surprised San Franciscans the most, our fair city ranks second in Walk Score’s new ranking of Best U.S. Cities for Public Transit, just a tick below New York City. How does this compute?

According to Walk Score, they determined the ranking of cities this way:

Our ranking is based on the average resident’s access to public transit in a city. To compute our ranking, we calculated the Transit Score of over 1.9  million locations in 316 cities. We use a population-weighted methodology to compute the average Transit Score for a city. Our top 10 cities list includes cities with populations over 500,000 people.

Unsurprisingly, New York ranked first in the study. On the West Coast, the top best cities are San Francisco, Seattle, and Oakland, in that order.

To be fair, I think it’s pretty reasonable to live without a car here, but the study doesn’t taken into account reliability, which really affects the quality of transit for everyday riders (preaching to the choir, aren’t I?)

15 comments

  • A Vuncular

    Correct, Eugenia. S.F. scores high because of the promised coverage. it looks good on a map.

    In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice …

  • The score is rigged, because anyone who rides MUNI would laugh at this.

  • Ye I ride and laugh at all the car drivers.

  • Glennz R via Facebook

    They have obviously never ridden the 6, the 71, the 30 and on and on and on.

  • Judy Hitzeman via Facebook

    Anyone who has lived in towns with limited or no public transit, as I have, knows that Muni, for all its warts, is one of the best in the U.S. (note I left out Europe).

  • French Twist via Facebook

    “In an announcement that probably surprised San Franciscans the most…” <--- Enough said 😉 Thanks for the laugh

  • Amy Bacharach via Facebook

    Wow. Just wow. MUNI is, by far, one of the WORST systems of any major city in the United States. And forget about any comparisons to the rest of the world.

  • Jenny Mosley via Facebook

    Its the not the best…but it does take me from point A to Point B.

  • ジェフ・ チャウチャウ via Facebook

    did these people come to sf and actually take a ride on muni?

  • Heather Carey via Facebook

    Shocked and in a fit of hysterical laughter.

  • J-something R-something Sherman via Facebook

    What’s first? The German Reichsbahn during World War II?

  • Maureen K. Persico via Facebook

    How bad are the other cities?!

  • Read about what happened in Atlanta, Ga…

  • A Riding Priviledge

    Everyone seems to be so down on Muni in this town, but I rode it every day for 6 years and I loved it. I came from the Midwest where you’d be lucky to have any accessible mass transit system near you. It’s true that Muni can take some time to get around SF, but when you’re dealing with constant vehicle traffic, that’s going to happen. What I can say is that when you look at the NextMuni readout at the bus stop, 9 times of out 10 the bus shows up when it says it will. I think Muni is doing a great job in this City, and even though I’ve switched to predominately riding my bike, I will always feel priviledged to have the public transporation system that San Francisco provides.

  • Christina B Castro via Facebook

    Reliability sucks hard, but coverage is pretty nice. “Muni operates 80 routes throughout San Francisco with stops within two blocks of 90 percent of all residences in the city.” I’ve nearly gotten fired for being late at various job sites around the City, but I always got there.

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