3 ms·

> Why is San Francisco public transportation so bad? You should try Dallas.

edward 12y ago
But at least you can park in Dallas, right? In SF public transport is poor and if you drive it is impossible to park and the hills make cycling and walking places hard work.
Pxtl 12y ago
The difference is that SF is dense and liberal - two things that tend to encourage good transit. High density means low cost to service, and a liberal populace means they're more willing to go for "big government" solutions to moving people around. Compare v. Dallas.
aaron-lebo 12y ago
What do you mean by this? I know this could quickly turn into, "well, at least we aren't x", but Dallas has decent rail service compared to a lot of areas. 15 years ago the DART rail was just getting started. Now you can take the red line up to Plano, the blue to Rowlett, the green to Carrolton, and the orange to DFW. Since 2010 the green has been expanded to hit areas like Fair Park and Deep Ellum. You can even take the slower TRE to Fort Worth. Is it perfect? No. But there's been pretty rapid expansion and considering how spread out Dallas is and the fiscal conservatism here, it is not too bad. Austin (albeit much smaller) does not even have a rail system and Houston's is nascent. I'm not too knowledgeable about the situation outside the state, but I'm guessing Dallas has one of the better rail systems in the South.
Nicholas_C 12y ago
I have heard good things from people who take the DART from Plano/Richardson to Dallas for work. What are your complaints? Lack of frequency/coverage?
ulfw 12y ago
At least Dallas is automobile-optimized. SF is shitty in terms of public transport but I'd argue even more shitty for driving because of high traffic, odd routings, stopping at every intersection for a stop sign or traffic light and worst of all complete lack of parking. I fondly remembering looking for well over an hour in a 10 by 10 block radius for a spot to join a party one Saturday night in a residential area around Japantown, only to excuse myself and give up and drove back to Mountain View.

But at least you can park in Dallas, right? In SF public transport is poor and if you drive it is impossible to park and the hills make cycling and walking places hard work.

Pxtl 12y ago

The difference is that SF is dense and liberal - two things that tend to encourage good transit. High density means low cost to service, and a liberal populace means they're more willing to go for "big government" solutions to moving people around. Compare v. Dallas.

aaron-lebo 12y ago

What do you mean by this? I know this could quickly turn into, "well, at least we aren't x", but Dallas has decent rail service compared to a lot of areas. 15 years ago the DART rail was just getting started. Now you can take the red line up to Plano, the blue to Rowlett, the green to Carrolton, and the orange to DFW. Since 2010 the green has been expanded to hit areas like Fair Park and Deep Ellum. You can even take the slower TRE to Fort Worth. Is it perfect? No. But there's been pretty rapid expansion and considering how spread out Dallas is and the fiscal conservatism here, it is not too bad. Austin (albeit much smaller) does not even have a rail system and Houston's is nascent. I'm not too knowledgeable about the situation outside the state, but I'm guessing Dallas has one of the better rail systems in the South.

Nicholas_C 12y ago

I have heard good things from people who take the DART from Plano/Richardson to Dallas for work. What are your complaints? Lack of frequency/coverage?

ulfw 12y ago

At least Dallas is automobile-optimized. SF is shitty in terms of public transport but I'd argue even more shitty for driving because of high traffic, odd routings, stopping at every intersection for a stop sign or traffic light and worst of all complete lack of parking. I fondly remembering looking for well over an hour in a 10 by 10 block radius for a spot to join a party one Saturday night in a residential area around Japantown, only to excuse myself and give up and drove back to Mountain View.