This article is about 6 years old

The 10 best places to live in the U.S. for public transportation in 2019

Where can you live without a car?

For many people looking to relocate to a new part of the country, the options for getting to work, home and anywhere else can often be a deal-breaker.

For the sake of avoiding white-knuckle traffic, public transportation may be your preferred means of travel, not to mention the fact that it can help offset a high cost of living. But if you’re planning to count on a bus or train to get you from point A to point B, you may find your choice of metro areas is limited.

Of the 125 most populous metro areas in the U.S. that make up the Best Places to Live list, only 10 have public transportation used by more than 5% of local residents for daily commuting, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Read on for the 10 Best Places to Live for Public Transportation.

Row houses sit behind a man waiting at a bus stop, Sunday, May 3, 2015, in Baltimore. Gov. Larry Hogan has called for a statewide "Day Of Prayer And Peace" on Sunday after civil unrest rocked Baltimore. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
9. Baltimore (tie) Best Places 2019 Rank: 100
Metro Population: 2,792,050
Median Home Price: $248,833
Median Annual Salary: $56,400
Public Transit Use: 6% Public transportation is used by 6% of the Baltimore metro area. Commonly utilized transit around Baltimore includes buses and the local subway that runs from the center of the city out to the suburb Owings Mills. Additionally, Baltimore’s location on the Eastern Seaboard makes it easy to take advantage of Amtrak and MARC train systems that can take you north to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, or south to Washington, D.C. Learn more about Baltimore. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
(1/10)
Row houses sit behind a man waiting at a bus stop, Sunday, May 3, 2015, in Baltimore. Gov. Larry Hogan has called for a statewide "Day Of Prayer And Peace" on Sunday after civil unrest rocked Baltimore. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
In this Nov. 14, 2017 photo Amtrak's Empire Builder approaches a bend in the Columbia River Gorge. The Empire Builder's section serving Portland, Oregon, travels approximately 55 miles of the gorge, which separates Oregon and Washington. Further east, the train crosses the northern Rockies and the northern Great Plains on its route between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. (AP Photo/Paul Davenport)
Ward Kea, of Honolulu, jumps over a puddle as he prepares to board a bus in Honolulu Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014. Hurricane Ana brought a steady rain to the Hawaiian Island of Oahu as it passed about 180 miles west. (AP Photo/P. Solomon Banda)
A Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority bus (SEPTA) turns onto Market Street in Philadelphia, Wednesday, May 2, 2018. Lawyers for an investigative reporting organization are suing Philadelphia's main transit agency after it refused to run ads about the group's stories on racial disparities in mortgage lending. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A King County Metro bus displays a snow route sign, Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Seattle. Schools were closed across Washington state as winter snowstorms continued pummeling the Northwest. Seattle's metro area has already been hit by three snowstorms in February, making it the snowiest month in Seattle in more than 30 years. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
A Red Line train moves through Wrigleyville neighborhood, seen from the stands of Wrigley Field, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016, in Chicago. Living near the workplace is one of the unique attractions of playing in a vibrant residential neighborhood like Wrigleyville. For the players and staff who take advantage, it means almost nonexistent commutes, more time with family and a chance to mingle with the surroundings in a way that might not be possible in other cities. For residents, well, you might have a Cub living next door. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
In this Wednesday, June 17, 2015 photo, commuters disembark from a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority train in Brookline, Mass. The subway system in the Boston metro area is the nation's oldest, launched in 1897. Public transportation has long been hailed as a certain remedy for traffic congestion, but many of the nation's largest mass transit systems are struggling to keep up with maintenance and expansion. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The top places for public transportation in the U.S. include:

— New York City

— San Francisco

— Washington, D.C.

— Boston

— Chicago

— Seattle

— Philadelphia

— Honolulu

— Portland

— Baltimore

More from U.S. News

The 25 Best Affordable Places to Live in the U.S. in 2019

The 20 Best Places to Live in the U.S. for the Weather in 2019

The 25 Best Places to Live in the U.S. for Quality of Life in 2019

The 10 Best Places to Live in the U.S. for Public Transportation in 2019 originally appeared on usnews.com

Federal News Network Logo
Log in to your WTOP account for notifications and alerts customized for you.

Sign up