When I tell people that I live in Buffalo, New York and don't drive, the common reaction is to look at me like I'm crazy. "Wow," "How do you get around?" and similar responses are common. But the public transportation infrastructure that we have here makes it quite easy.
First, I should note that my views on public transportation were heavily shaped by my time living in Japan and New York City. There, everything was incredibly accessible, if not exactly convenient per se. (A car will always halve the time from Brooklyn to Queens or quarter the time from some parts of Brooklyn to the other. At night, a trip from Manhattan two stops into Brooklyn could take 10 minutes... or you could be waiting at the station for an hour.) So convenience isn't part of the equation. Rather, three criteria are key: Coverage, predictability, and security.
COVERAGE:
The city of Buffalo is just over 40 square miles (of land) and less than eight miles end to end, giving the city a more than respectable density of over 7,000 people per square mile even given our area's significant population loss and the urban prairies of the East Side. But the city's public transportation infrastructure was designed to support far more people. The city of Buffalo boasts subway or bus coverage on every major arterial route, every single street with any kind of major business from Abbott to Elmwood and South Park. There simply are no sections of the city of Buffalo unavailable to public transportation.
Beyond the city, coverage gets somewhat dicier, (a consequence of living in not-dense-at-all suburbs) but major venues like the Boulevard, Galleria, and Eastern Hills malls, and the airport remain easily accessible by via dedicated bus routes. Meanwhile, bus coverage persists down suburban arteries such Niagara Falls Boulevard, Delaware, Union, and, heck, even Transit Road.
PREDICTABILITY:
As any New Yorker will tell you, predictability is NOT the same thing as reliability. Some trains simply vanish. Some buses get lost in swamps of traffic. These things don't happen in Buffalo. Our trains run to near Japanese punctuality. Traffic severe enough to strangle or even ensnare simply doesn't exist. Even on days with ample snowfall, both the bus and subway remain pretty set on schedule.
SECURITY:
In Tokyo and Osaka, dedicated trains exist for female passengers who don't want to face the prospect of being groped. In New York, fights regularly break out on trains, and device theft runs rampant. Robberies, armed or otherwise, still aren't uncommon late at night. On NFTA vehicles and in NFTA stations, these simply don't occur. Subway stations are well lit (more important than you think), and well-stocked with cameras. While lacking evident police booths at every station, transit police are often in evidence, and the system features two dedicated anti-terrorism canine detection teams periodically sweeping cars. Subway cars and buses are both relatively clean compared to those of other cities and, on especially rainy days, look no worse than the floor of anyone's car.
CONVENIENCE:
This isn't one of my keys for success in public transportation, but I do want to address it briefly. A public transportation system will always be less immediately responsive than a car or a bicycle. Direct comparison is difficult. Times to depart or arrive have to be planned with greater precision. This isn't an NFTA vs. other public transit issue. This is implicit in the mode of transportation. Within the city of Buffalo and its immediate suburbs, transit will get you where you need to go and will drop you off within a few blocks of your destination. If you're trying to get to Quail Hollow Lane in East Amherst or some strip mall on Transit, I grant you no sympathy. Accessing it is inconvenient for cars, too.
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT:
Numerous local activists (yours truly included) are constantly working to further the public transportation infrastructure. Extension and expansion of BRT or light rail systems to SUNY Buffalo's north campus and the airport in particular would be wonders. The institution of a metro card system and turnstiles on the subway would yield the system a great deal more flexibility and more intelligence on rider habits. Still, the present state of the NFTA system works efficiently and allows Queen City dwellers a financially, economically, environmentally, and socially responsible alternative for car ownership. For 75% of those living within the Buffalo city limits and Kenmore town limits, I am convinced it can function as a complete and nigh exclusive replacement for car ownership.
5 stars for city coverage
3 stars for extra-city coverage
4 stars for predictability
4 stars for security
4 stars overall read more