Urban Rail Success Stories:
The 7.0 million residents of the New York boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx,
Brooklyn and Queens take nearly five million trips a day on the city's subway system.
This high density of public transport ridership is made possible by a residential
population density of nearly 30,000 per square mile and one of the world's largest
central business districts, with between 1.8 and 2.3 million jobs (depending on area
definition). The central business district employment density is approximately 300,000
per square mile. In addition, nearly one million daily trips are taken on commuter rail
systems and the PATH subway system from the suburbs. These largely suburban to
central business district commutes would overwhelm the roadway system, which is
limited to river crossings (since Manhattan is an island). Virtually all rail service is grade
separated metro or commuter rail (little or no light rail).
See Keys to Rail Success
Source notes: Data from various sources, most notably the United States Census
Bureau Janes Urban Transport (multiple editions) and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy and Felix B. Laube, An International Sourcebook of
Automobile Dependence in Cities: 1960 to 1990.
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