Which cities get the most out of their public transit systems? FiveThirtyEight.com, the go-to site for data nerds everywhere, decided to find out by looking at how many train, bus and subway rides the people in 290 cities took in 2013.
The results show that people in Philly love to leave their cars behind. The Philadelphia metro area saw an average of 67.8 transit rides per person in 2013.
However, college students are even more transit-friendly that city dwellers. State College, Pennsylvania was ranked #8 on the list, with 85 rides per person.
In contrast, Atlantic City was at the very bottom of the list. With a minuscule rate of 0.5 trips per capita, the city can't say that its 255,000 residents take even a one whole trip per year on public transport on average.
Number one of the list was, unsurprisingly, New York City, which raced past the rest of the country like an Acela speeding by a public bus. In fact, the New York/Newark metro area alone had more total public transit trips than the next 16 metropolitan areas combined.
That could change, however, if trains along the key Northeast Corridor route continue to suffer from delays, caused partially by deteriorating tunnels that were damaged in Hurricane Sandy. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie blasted Amtrak in July for its "abject neglect" of the state after a week of massive delays drove commuters crazy. Others blame Christie himself because he cancelled a tunnel project under the Hudson River in 2010.
Related story: Christ Christie takes aim at Amtrak over nightmarish regional commutes
The top 10 urban areas with the most heavily-used public transit systems are, in order: New York; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Athens, Georgia; Boston; Honolulu; Champaign, Illinois; State College; Chicago and Philadelphia.
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