A study of the top 100 large cities in America ranks Tulsa at No. 95 when it comes to providing public transportation.

In WalletHub’s “2019’s Cities with the Best and Worst Public Transportation,” Tulsa ranked No. 95 while Oklahoma City was not much better at No. 94. Only New Orleans, Louisiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and St. Petersburg, Florida, had worse rankings.

Seattle, Washington, topped the list.

With Americans taking nearly 10 billion trips on public transportation every year, WalletHub compared 100 cities across 17 key factors ranging from share of commuters who use public transit and average age of the fleet to number of injuries and peak hours spent in congestion.

“Public transportation may be a simple convenience or an absolute daily necessity, depending on the city and the size of its population,” the report states. “The scope of public transportation in giant metropolises like New York City can be massive. According to the MTA, the New York City subway has over 665 mainland track miles and transports over 1.75 billion passengers per year. That’s not to mention the city’s 5,700 buses that carry over 760 million passengers per year.”

According to the American Public Transportation Association, taking public transportation is cheaper in the long run than buying a vehicle and paying for its upkeep and gas costs. Public transportation also has drastically lower odds of an accident than driving a personal vehicle and helps to cut down pollution from emissions.

“Funding, roadway congestion, and urban planning issues continue to cause problems for safe and efficient public transit in most U.S. cities,” said Professor Greg P. Griffin of The University of Texas at San Antonio. “Many transit agencies depend on a combination of rider fares and federal, state, and local funding to pay for services. … Without dedicated transit lanes, buses and rail get stuck behind vehicle drivers causing traffic in the first place. Urban planning and policy issues such as requirements for vehicle parking spaces (often un-priced), sprawl developments, and tax-supported highway investments continue to work against transit in urban areas.”

Professor Jonathan Levine of The University of Michigan said the criteria for the best cities to use public transportation are the size of the downtown; residential densities; automotive congestion and how many households don’t own cars.

Best Cities for Public Transportation

  1. Seattle, Washington            
  2. Boston, Massachusetts      
  3. San Francisco, California    
  4. Washington, D.C.   
  5. Madison, WI            
  6. Jersey City, New Jersey      
  7. New York, New York           
  8. Reno, Nevada          
  9. Honolulu, Hawaii    
  10. Portland, Oregon 

Worst Cities for Public Transportation

  1. St. Louis, Missouri
  2. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  3. Arlington, Texas
  4. Oklahoma City
  5. Tulsa
  6. New Orleans, Louisiana
  7. Charlotte, North Carolina
  8. Tampa, Florida
  9. St. Petersburg, Florida
  10. Indianapolis, Indiana

Best vs. Worst

  • Lincoln, Nebraska, has the shortest average commute time by public transportation, 30.2 minutes, which is 2.4 times shorter than in Henderson, Nevada, the city with the longest at 71.7 minutes.
  • Wichita, Kansas, has the fewest annual hours spent in congestion per auto commuter, 22 hours, which is 7.5 times fewer than in Boston, the city with the most at 164 hours. Tulsa is No. 2 on that list.
  • Chandler, Arizona, has the lowest annual ticket price for public transport (as % of median annual household income), 0.54 percent, which is 7.6 times lower than in Cleveland, the city with the highest at 4.09 percent.
  • Reno, Nevada has the lowest average age of the public transit fleet, 3.72 years, which is 4.6 times lower than in New Orleans, the city with the highest at 17.05 years.
  • Boise, Idaho, has the lowest average lifetime miles per active vehicles, 123,102 miles, which is 5.2 times lower than in New York, the city with the highest at 636,057 miles.