Ray Delahanty of CityNerd ranked the top transit cities in North America based on the metric of 2024 transit rides per capita for the metropolitan region. Seattle narrowly makes Ray’s top 15 list at #14, with 41 transit trips per capita — though he also notes that Seattle is likely to climb the list as it light rail system expands. Ray pointed to the huge frequency boost that the imminent 2 Line extension will provide for the interlined light rail segment from Lynnwood to Downtown Seattle.
Overall U.S. cities were underrepresented on the list, with Canada punching far above its population weight. Large U.S. metropolitan regions sit as low as 7.5 annual transit trips per capita in Dallas (the worst performing region) or as high as 179.9 trips in New York City, but the Big Apple is very much the outlier. In contrast, Canada’s baseline is much higher, even for smaller metro areas. And Mexico has some standouts too, even among smaller cities.
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrian streets, bus lanes, and a mass-timber building spree to end our housing crisis. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and loves to explore the city by foot and by bike.