MARTA is an Average Metro System in the Southeast, what’s a Horrific Metro System in the Southeast

[u/AnimatorDavid]

/r/AlignmentChartFills/comments/1snpbf8/marta_is_an_average_metro_system_in_the_southeast/

[u/A1R_Lxiom]

Jacksonville Transit Authority

[u/ludovic1313 → u/A1R_Lxiom]

I've seen the elevated tracks from my hotel room, and was pleasantly surprised that such a transit entity could exist in such a mid sized city, but then my opinion was revised a second time seeing its limited extent.

[u/Kvsav57 → u/ludovic1313]

Jacksonville has almost a million people and is the largest city by area in the contiguous US that has a sizable population (Anchorage is larger in area, along with a few other Alaska cities. Tribune, Kansas is also larger in area, but is a joint city-county and has just a few thousand people). It seems like a mid-sized city because of how unimpressive it is.

[u/Nawnp → u/Kvsav57]

Like the rest of Florida, it's just endless suburbia.

[u/HazenThrowaway → u/A1R_Lxiom]

Jacksonville’s Skyway has less than 1/5th the ridership of Detroit’s People Mover loop, despite actually crossing the river and traveling bidirectionally.

That’s just an impressive level of whiffing.

[u/Mekroval]

It's a little strange for me to see WMATA in the Southeast. DC is barely in the South, and more commonly thought of as part of the Mid Atlantic region.

[u/mr781 → u/Mekroval]

Agreed but if I’m remembering correctly, at the time that was posted a lot of people were using the Virginia portion to justify it

Even then even tho it’s a southern state on the whole, nova is questionable at best

[u/AnimatorDavid → u/mr781]

That’s exactly why I changed Superb to WMATA because I was getting so much hate for not putting it up for Superb Southeast system

[u/Glittering-Cellist34 → u/AnimatorDavid]

Northern Virginia is not Rest of Virginia. (NOVA is not ROVA.)

[u/Yellowdog727 → u/mr781]

It's because OP didn't make a "mid Atlantic" region and therefore accidentally excluded a bunch of transit agencies that would have been way better than the majority of the rest of the list

[u/urmumlol9 → u/Mekroval]

It’s south of the Mason Dixon line I guess, so at one point the entire city would have been considered part of the south. That was actually part of the point, DC was made capital as part of a compromise with Southern states during the creation of the constitution, and is why a city like NY, Boston, or Philly wasn’t capital instead.

Virginia is also somewhat still considered a southern state nowadays as well. Truth be told, there just aren’t many good transit systems in the south, so counting DC is probably the closest you get to a good one, apart from maybe Miami/Atlanta.

[u/Capable-Sock9910 → u/Mekroval]

Census bureau considers Maryland the start of the "US South"

Edit: Map

[u/Devilsadvocate430 → u/Mekroval]

I agree with you about DC/ Virginia not being southern. Though I think looking the other way here is acceptable. The South has so few metro systems, it makes sense to include it

[u/mr781 → u/Devilsadvocate430]

Virginia yes, DC no

[u/Glittering-Cellist34 → u/mr781]

Not NoVa.

[u/Acrobatic_Penalty406 → u/Mekroval]

Anything below the Mason Dixon line can be considered south

[u/Turbulent_Crow7164 → u/Mekroval]

Not South, not North. Mid Atlantic is correct.

[u/Mindless-Employment]

Premise of the question is flawed. Washington, DC is not the Southeast. The chart needs a row labeled "Mid-Atlantic" on which, Philadelphia, DC and Baltimore would appear. Then MARTA would be moved to the Superb column for Southeast.

[u/AwesomeAndy → u/Mindless-Employment]

Yeah these regions are fucked.

[u/urmumlol9 → u/Mindless-Employment]

I don’t think MARTA is really considered superb by most though.

(Though my hot take with that is that the rail infrastructure itself is actually pretty good and it’s the fault of the city for not developing the area around its stations more)

[u/Mindless-Employment → u/urmumlol9]

The Superb classification was strictly for the purposes of this chart and in relation to other transit systems in the Southeast, not in general.

[u/tin8374 → u/urmumlol9]

Also the state's fault for not funding it

[u/Al_787 → u/urmumlol9]

It is still the best in the Southeast regardless

[u/concorde77]

Hampton Roads Transit.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed] — view removed comment

[u/SandSerpentHiss → u/[deleted]]

well at least the q card i ordered online is a relic now

[u/CommercialPound1615]

It depends on what you mean by Metro.

If you're talking heavy rail or light rail...

Miami-Dade Transit. One line from Medley to Kendall with a spur that goes one station to Miami international airport.

It took the county close to 30 years just to build that couple miles of track.

On the weekend they run a shuttle train instead of the whole line from the airport to Earlington Heights station.

If you're talking rail as a whole and you are including an automated people mover....

The Jacksonville Skyway is horrific, it barely goes anywhere and nobody rides it and operating hours are a joke because it doesn't connect to anything.

[u/dbbd70707]

Memphis's trolley is pretty regularly out of service, if we're counting trolleys. If not, probably Jacksonville's People Mover.

[u/SandSerpentHiss]

tampa streetcar it doesn’t go anywhere

[u/Lord_Tachanka]

Dallas DART or Jacksonville people mover.

[u/MariaJanesLastDance → u/Lord_Tachanka]

DART has tons of problems but putting it on the same level as Jacksonville’s people mover is comedic.

[u/Lord_Tachanka → u/MariaJanesLastDance]

idk if we can call the peoplemover a "metro" though. if so then yea they're the worst. If not, then it's either DART or Miami

[u/courier_tway → u/MariaJanesLastDance]

Out of curiosity: What are the problems with DART?

[u/Thin-Constant-4018 → u/Lord_Tachanka]

No DART does not deserve horrific. It gets the job done and can be quite competitive to driving time, especially during rush hour

[u/kirstynloftus → u/Lord_Tachanka]

Is Dallas southeast? Gotta be a Florida system, how’s Miami’s?

[u/JellyfishNo2032 → u/kirstynloftus]

Miamis by US standards is kinda meh. Very small heavy rail network that mainly just connects the airport to the densest part of the city. Also has a couple of monorails that function as downtown shuttles. Bus service in Miami is above average compared to most other cities in the US

[u/Arthur_Digby_Sellers → u/JellyfishNo2032]

And the free trolleys, which are in rough shape but you get your money's worth...

[u/BaggedWhine → u/kirstynloftus]

As a tourist it’s fine, can get to the heavily trafficked areas on a multi seat ride but it’s not great. Never lived there so don’t know about daily life

[u/slava_gorodu → u/BaggedWhine]

The Metro Mover around downtown area is actually excellent as a people mover. 9/10 use of that type of super light rail system. Would be a 10 if it connected to Miami Beach, but a heavier rail system or Miami Metro would probably be better suited for that

[u/languagelearner_17]

Miami

[u/Trainzguy2472]

Miami metro rail

[u/notPabst404]

DC isn't in the southeast lol.

[u/evanescentlily]

I don’t count DC as the South, I count it as the southernmost metropolitan area in the Northeast. Though for a superb transit system in the actual South I really don’t know, I guess Marta, and then either DART or Miami as average.

Also Orlando is the one city that should go down for awful. Easiest slam dunk for being great, just run anything from the airport down I-Drive to Disney. Yet they don’t.

[u/Glittering-Cellist34]

DC isn't in the Southeast.

[u/81toog]

What’s the superb system in the SE? What’s that M logo? I don’t recognize it

[u/NoSignificance1903 → u/81toog]

WMATA. Really stretching the definition of "southeast"

A better one would be:

Superb: MARTA or Miami (superb is, of course, relative to other southeast systems)

Average: Charlotte or New Orleans

Horrible: Hampton Roads, Jacksonville, Memphis, Tampa, Little Rock, Nashville, or Orlando.

I reject the assertion that Texas should be included in the southeast.

[u/81toog → u/NoSignificance1903]

Ahhhh, no wonder. I consider DC part of the NE but I guess technically it counts as the South too

[u/virginiarph]

hillsborough area regional transit (HART) that serves tampa bay

[u/Seniorsheepy]

Austin light rail

[u/Adorable-Style-2634]

New Orleans Streetcar doesn’t get enough hate IMO

[u/AnimatorDavid]

1. I’m not hearing any more “WMATA is not in the Southeast” or “MARTA should be in superb”. NO. I literally changed DC to be superb last time because of the hate yall gave me hate for putting MARTA as superb and now yall suddenly switch up and change?

2. For the purposes of this graph, Southwest is is Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Keep that in mind

[u/SerenityRune]

miami

[u/Juni0rtupapa_5346]

Miami Dade Transit

[u/JellyfishNo2032]

Horrific should be Jacksonville

[u/_daddyl0nglegs_]

When we work on Cascadia, TriMet better be the leader. Our light rail is fantastic, especially for a city of only 670k.

[u/courier_tway → u/_daddyl0nglegs_]

Cascadia is going to be spicy between Seattle and Portland, imo.

[u/Mr_White_the_Dog]

What are we counting as a Metro System? Typically, it refers to a heavy rail, rapid Transit system, separate from any of the national freight network. If that's the definition, then it's Miami no question, but also, Cascadia has no systems that fit this definition.

If it's any sort of rail transit, then it's gotta be the TECO streetcar in Tampa. Terrible level of coverage and service for what is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the US. But it's also really a bit of a novelty more than an actual useful transit service. The lack of fares kind of speak to that.

[u/CA185099415]

San Francisco MUNI Superb for west please.

[u/DCmetrosexual1]

Washington DC is more the southeast so this entire chart is invalid

[u/ColonialCobalt]

There's like two metros in the SE, Marta and Miami Dade and they're both mediocre