The West Coast City Tier List

The west coast is a region of the US full of cities. With all of these cities having their own quirks and differences it's always a fun time comparing them by using a tier list. So, let's dive in and see how the cities of the west coast rank on it from an urbanist perspective!
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[@blankface_]

Anecdotally, it’s way easier to get around Oakland than Santa Ana because the Bay Area has a bike share program that gets you around very well. I would put it in A

[@UnReal31337]

we just got ebikes back too last month

[@blankface_]

Good to know, I haven’t been in over 2 years. But Oakland has multiple Bart lines and Santa Ana has no in-city rail to my recollection. Also just a way more suburban place compared to Oakland

[@GauravSharma2106]

Yeah, I think this tier list has not placed Oakland correctly

[@FreedomLovin]

Yeah but the danger of Oakland is a factor not to be dismissed

[@GauravSharma2106]

@@FreedomLovin Can I share a lil secret? Huge parts of Oakland are pretty safe. Rockridge, Temescal, Bushrod, North Oakland, Piedmont Ave, Montclair, Dimond, Lakeshore etc. There are some parts that are struggling with crime (eg East and West Oakland), not surprised why those are the only areas that get media attention.

[@zf8604]

Putting Fresno over San Diego is ACTUALLY ridiculous and insane

[@sammymarrco47]

yeah thats an oversight

[@bluedream6462]

S: San Francisco A: Seattle, Portland B: Oakland, Long Beach, Los Angeles C: San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose, Eugene, Tacoma, Santa Ana D: Anaheim, Fresno, San Bernardino F: Bakersfield

[@romancorey6796]

THANK YOU

[@alexhaowenwong6122]

San Diego's transit blew Sacramento out of the water pre-COVID and enjoys one of the nation's strongest ridership recoveries.

[@lioneaglegriffin]

Yes.

[@prashnaveetprasad8339]

Bakersfield is conservative as f explains why.

[@ChocoliciousCake]

Los Angeles is more like lower C, upper D tier. Long Beach is many times less car dependent than LA

[@mk-oc7mt]

Oakland has an incredible diversity of walkable neighborhood, each functioning as their own village, and all connected by heavy rail, ferry, rapid buses or regular bus service. This is due to the fact that, unlike most of the other cities, Oakland has pre-automobile bones. The author is unaware that Oakland is drastically increasing transit oriented housing in many neighborhoods, not just downtown.

[@JordanPeace]

Long Beach above Oakland is just not right. Oakland has substantially more rail coverage with both BART and the Capitol Corridor/Amtrak station, very few neighborhoods that aren’t at least somewhat walkable since most of it was built pre-automobile, and a bus network that is nearly as dense in coverage as SF’s. Long Beach has one light rail line and a bunch of suburban sprawl.

[@JudgeDee7]

Putting Long Beach two tiers ahead of San Diego is pretty insane. LA has the exact same sprawl problem that San Diego has, pound for pound I don't see any way to argue that LA or especially LONG BEACH is more walkable or has better urbanism than San Diego.

[@bewwybabe8045]

As an LA born and raised resident, the LA Metro along with DASH and Big Blue Bus are all together a strong network of transit. There are lots of other LA County lines that serve as wonderful connectors under the TAP Card network. The mere existence and ease of TAP (which connects nearly all LA County lines) puts it in B. I wish expansions didn’t take so damn long, though. That’s my only gripe. If you’re talking about City of LA and not LA County, the transit is definitely B-tier

[@DavidCiani]

The big difference is that the city limits of San Diego includes much of its sprawl, while in LA and Orange counties, the sprawl is divided up into a bunch of smaller cities. It’s comparing apples and… oranges.

[@mrxman581]

​​@@DavidCianiLA city is 500 square miles and SD is 370 square miles. LA has way more sprawl than SD. And, LA County is 4700 square miles. An area that LA Metro is also responsible for servicing with transit infrastructure including 2300 buses.

[@mrxman581]

​@@bewwybabe8045LA should be in the A category.

[@JudgeDee7]

@@DavidCiani I wish the video would take something like that into account then :/. A lot of videos/analyses end up gutting San Diego just because it's huge in terms of both territory and population, covering areas that in Seattle or even DC would end up being suburban cities that wouldn't drag down stats for the city they orbit. There's also huge swaths of empty land within San Diego city limits, really hope this doesn't factor into analysis.

[@ababababaababbba]

long beach above Oakland is insane though

[@leg690]

this whole list is insane tbh

[@mk-oc7mt]

Came here to say this

[@Geektos]

You have to take into account the chance of getting jumped while taking public transit.

[@noremfor]

As a San Franciscan, i see this as an absolute win. I love our public transit, im able to get just about anywhere in the city just using it. In fact, Market Street, the main artery of the city, recently banned all private vehicles on it, making bus and trolley service even more efficient. I do recognize that SF can stride to go even further. Extensions to CalTrain and the Muni metro are planned at the moment. The L Taraval line has been undergoing extensive remodeling, and the Central Subway is slated to be extended to Fisherman's Wharf in the future. Not to mention, the California High Speed Rail will also run through the city when its finished too, with a terminus at the Salesforce Transit Center.

[@ezekielcarsella]

I'd put Long Beach in B tier along with San Diego and Santa Ana in C tier but I don't have any gripes as I'm not from the West Coast lol.

[@ehoops31]

Have you spent time in Long Beach? I used to agree, but after living in LB car-lite, I think it's clearly above Sac and the other B tiers. (Maybe not Oakland, but I would advocate for Oakland moving up)

[@mrxman581]

​@@ehoops31Long Beach should not be above LA. Long Beach only has access to the A line because of LA Metro, LB didn't do that.

[@acuritis]

@@mrxman581I live in Long Beach without a car and can assure you I don’t care who put the A line there when I use it to get to LAX or anywhere else the river bike paths or LB transit can’t get me

[@acuritis]

@@mrxman581and that’s if I even fly out of LAX since LGB is a much better experience and is easily accessible by LB transit

[@ehoops31]

@@mrxman581 to each their own. I prefer the small city feel of Long Beach. There’s more to do in LA, but it also feels busier.

[@Water_117]

I like the sound the San Diego light rail makes.

[@climateandtransit]

Siemens really put their coolest sounds on their reddest light rail

[@Water_117]

@@climateandtransit MERP MERP

[@realquadmoo]

FOR. REAL. I love the bell too.

[@CityBuilder568]

I like LA Metro’s Kinkishiro P3010s: an an.

[@zrspangle]

Power inverters sound so dang awesome. The horn is cute too.

[@technotion_]

As a Socal resident, I think you nailed all Southern California cities. However, Seattle 1000% deserves to be in the S tier.

[@hobog]

Maybe accounts for mismanagement of transit projects and housing measures

[@realquadmoo]

@@hobog thats just misinformation

[@thebabbler8867]

Seattle, Portland, and San Fran are all the same tier; yet lightyears above the rest of the West Coast.

[@mrxman581]

​@@thebabbler8867Los Angeles should be in the A tier, and will soon be in the S tier by next year considering the projects that will be completed in 2025 including the connection to LAX airport to LA Metro via the automated people mover.

[@meteorical8036]

@@thebabbler8867Seattle and especially Portland are much harder cities to live in car free than SF. It’s definitely a tier above.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Anaheim has Anaheim Canyon on the IEOC Line as well, so you were right the first time with two! Metrolink also runs an Angels Express for games from Union Station along both OC and IEOC! I think it's also worth mentioning that Disneyland has a dedicated bus area just to the east of the Disneyland esplanade, the East Shuttle Area (shown off to the side at 3:39, served by LA Metro, OCTA, ART, and different hotel shuttles. ART travels between hotels to the Disneyland Resort, the Anaheim Convention Center and other locations throughout the Anaheim Resort. Besides ART, Disneyland is served by the Metro Express Line 460 bus, which runs between downtown LA and Disneyland's East Shuttle Roadway, connecting with different bus and rail lines like Norwalk station on the C Line! For OCTA, Route 50, 43, 46, 83, and 430 all serve Disneyland, with the 430 serving as a link between the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center and the Anaheim Resort district! So for all the people wanting to visit Disneyland, you have different ways of getting to the resort by transit from LA! But of course, transit wise, Disneyland is most famous for its monorail system, which opened in June 1959 and was the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere! When it opened, it connected Tomorrowland to the Disneyland Hotel and its parking lot, but now it connects to the Downtown Disney shopping complex instead of just the hotel. The system actually opened with an incident, as Walt abducted then Vice President Nixon without his security! The monorail was designed by famed Imagineer Bob Gurr (who designed most of Disneyland's ride vehicles like Haunted Mansion and Autopia). Up until opening day, the monorail would not cooperate with them. Gurr and a German engineer worked tirelessly each night on sketching replacement parts and rushing them to Burbank so they could be built. The day before on June 13, the monorail ran as intended for the first time, but they were still worried for opening day. Gurr was in the pilot's seat, with Nixon's family and Walt on board, but the secret service agents didn't get on board as Gurr left the moment Walt told him to. He was worried, with Walt staring at him, that the monorail would break down and he accidentally kidnapped Nixon. Thankfully, it ran as intended.

[@yj-yuanjun]

always a pleasure to see you in the comments in the past few years on youtube

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Love that you used the gum wall to represent Seattle! The story behind the Seattle gum wall at Pike Place Market is that it started in the 1990s after the theater next door became home to Unexpected Productions' Theatresports and the patrons who came to the theater would stick their gum on the wall before they entered. No matter how many times the local authority tried to clean it, the gum has remained, and the authority later decided to keep it and declare it a tourist attraction in 1999. Pike Place Market itself was created in 1907 when a city councilman took advantage of the precedent of an 1896 Seattle city ordinance that allowed the city to designate tracts of land as public markets! Pretty cool that both Seattle and San Francisco have trolleybuses! The first trolleybus to operate on Seattle's streets was in 1937. It was brought to the city for a demonstration to gain public support for a plan to replace the debt-ridden streetcar and cable car system with a "trackless trolley" system. While a successful demonstration, Seattle voters rejected it in March 1937. In 1939, Seattle received a federal loan that allowed the city to retire the debts from the streetcar and cable car system. Management of the system was turned over to an independent commission, renamed the STS or Seattle Transit System. The commission immediately began construction on overhead wire and ordered many trolleybuses, with the first in revenue service in April 1940. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel used to have special dual-mode trolleybuses, but as the tunnel was futureproofed for light-rail, the overhead wire for them was replaced for the light-rail, and so hybrid electric buses were used in the tunnel instead. When the light-rail opened in 2009, the tunnel had shared bus and light-rail operations until March 2019 when tunnel bus service finally ceased after Convention Place station was closed in 2018 for expansion of the Washington State Convention Center.

[@lolpeep644]

Im sorry but A tier for Long Beach!?

[@kyuwoo.]

Been waiting on this video for so long I actually tried to make it myself. Thanks for making a better one and saving me the embarrassment though :P

[@cobaltblue42]

A moment of silence for all of the following major but unmentioned west coast cities, ordered from highest to lowest population: Honolulu, HI (343k pop, and yes, it's usually counted with west coast cities), Riverside, CA (328k pop); Stockton, CA; Anchorage, AK; Irvine, CA; Chula Vista, CA; Fremont, CA; Spokane, WA; Modesto, CA (all of these have larger populations than Tacoma, WA with 213k pop); Fontana, CA; Santa Clarita, CA; Oxnard, CA; Moreno Valley, CA; Glendale, CA; Huntington Beach, CA; Rancho Cucamonga, CA; Oceanside, CA; Ontario, CA; Vancouver, WA; Santa Rosa, CA; Garden Grove, CA; Elk Grove, CA; Salem, OR (all of these have larger populations than Eugene, OR with 168k pop). (Edit: added Honolulu from @zeroone8800's comment). Honestly, it's a really great video and very well done! While obviously you can't cover every single one of the above-listed cities in a single video, I was a little sad more of them didn't make the cut, such as Riverside, Stockton, Anchorage, Spokane, Modesto, Santa Clarita, Glendale, Vancouver (WA) (though I guess you could lump it in with Portland), Santa Rosa, and Salem. And frankly, Vancouver, Canada, is worth including as it's really the only significant (500k +) West Coast metro area not mentioned in your video, and it's isolated enough to be considered a defacto US City, culturally and economically it's basically just a part of Washington State ; ) I jest... sort of.... (don't hurt me Canadians, I'm innocent). And as @G-546 reminded me below, Tijuana, Mexicali, and Ensenada, Mexico all have populations well over 500k and are equally deserving of coverage if you did expand your rankings to include non-US cities on the west coast of North America. Again, the video really is great as is, I just like it when lesser known but still high population cities can get the transit/urbanist limelight, as the big or more well-known cities tend to get most of the focus on YT. Please keep up the great work!!!

[@G-546]

Don’t say Vancouver without Tijuana lol

[@cobaltblue42]

@@G-546 That's a great point, but I'd add to that both Mexicali and Ensenada, as all three are well over 500K in population. Sorry for forgetting them, I'm rather biased living in the PNW, so Vancouver, Canada was an obvious omission for me, but Baja's metro's absolutely deserve to be included too!

[@HammershotSGD]

As a Fremont resident I can tell you that without a car, it’s going to take a long time to get across town unless your stops are right next to the two BART stations. A lot of transit oriented high density housing has been going up lately, but it’s still sprawling single family homes almost everywhere.

[@Shant91]

I was also hoping for Glendale, CA. We’re here!

[@zeroone8800]

Missing Holonlulu.

[@neckenwiler]

Oakland and LA beneath Long Beach, and on par with Santa Ana, Sac, and Eugene is completely wild.

[@kevinbarnes218]

lol bakersfield in f tier. not surprised at all

[@TheNobleFive]

Accurate

[@tonywalters7298]

@@TheNobleFive Bakersfield is F tier fodder for anything

[@Killersanchez256]

I wouldn’t expect better especially for how its been doing since covid.

[@FreedomLovin]

It's a good thing the politicians in CA are throwing billions at a high speed rail to nowhere there

[@MilliBlom]

I really liked this video! A quick editing tip - make sure the footage you're working with is all at the same framerate. This will significantly reduce the stuttering that sometimes happens in video when framerates are mismatched. For example, though the difference may seem small, 59.94 is distinctly different from 60 frames per second, and mismatching them will lead to stuttering every few seconds, as certain frames have to be duplicated to match the timing between clips. The same goes for putting your timeline in 60 and using 59.94 clips. Try to see which framerate is more common among your video clips, and make sure your timeline speed matches it. :)

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

A cool fact about the MAX light-rail system in Portland is that it's home to North America's deepest station, Washington Park, which has a depth of 260 ft or around 79 m! It doesn't have long escalators like deep Soviet metro systems but rather elevators. The station has a geological theme, and so to go along with it, the floor indicators outside the elevators refer to its two levels not by floor numbers but by "the present" and "16 million years ago"! The "16 million years ago" refers to the basalt layers the Robertson Tunnel (named for William D. Robertson, who served on the TriMet board of directors and was its president at the time of his death) passes through, and due to variations in the rock composition, the tunnel curves mildly side to side and up and down to follow the best rock construction conditions! You can actually see a sample taken during construction on display at the station as well as a timeline of local geologic history! The station serves the Hoyt Arboretum, Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Oregon Zoo, and World Forestry Center! The station opened in September 1998 as part of the Westside MAX extension to downtown Hillsboro. The reason the station is so deep is because prior to the start of preliminary engineering efforts, the Portland City Council asked TriMet to consider building a rail tunnel through the West Hills instead of following the Sunset Highway alternative proposal to run tracks on the surface alongside Canyon Road. TriMet's engineers noted that this surface option would carry a steep six- to seven-percent grade as opposed to only two percent in a tunnel. Thus, they went with a tunnel, identified three tunnel options, and chose the one with the option to serve the Oregon Zoo!

[@nathanielthrush5581]

I’d probably put Oakland in the A tier! It’s a great city, punches way above its weight culturally, and the transit is on par with Portland at the very least.

[@FreedomLovin]

But it's not safe

[@driftofair9691]

I’ve been waiting for a transit KZbinr to finally do some kind of coverage on Santa Ana, as I’m routinely impressed by how they’re transforming the city. Finally glad to see it got the recognition it deserves. Watch it closely these next few years, because I can guarantee you it will move another tier up in that time. Otherwise as a So Cal resident who’s lived in many of those cities, I have no complaints with your list. Good stuff!

[@nicthedoor]

SF at the top is 🔥

[@nlpnt]

Eugene is where Curbside Classic started because so many people are car-lite that (combined with a lack of road salt) they end up keeping the same car for 30+ years.

[@andrewkeller1117]

I live near Santa Ana and haven't actually spent much time in the city but drove through it a few times. I was looking at the city in Google Maps and found out that they actually have a lot of protected bike lanes now. That is a rarity for Southern California and the only place that I know that has protected bike lanes in Orange County. Also the downtown area has been developed a lot recently and looks very walkable and has a certain charm. So with those developments and the work on the streetcar, I think its place in the list is deserved.

[@geoffsmith8172]

I'm from the other side of the Bay and have only recently gotten to intimately explore Oakland, and even then I have to say you're critically underrating Oakland. It's definitely a notch above LA or Sacramento in terms of how transit effects your day to day. That and so much culture the financialization of Tech has driven out of the SF/Peninsula/South Bay Oakland has held onto better and is doing more to cultivate. I'd call it A and it's not far from being S.

[@lwpdhofgh]

I live in Tacoma and I'm honored to have my city on this list. I don't really care for the local transit here much but the 594 bus to downtown Seattle and the 574 bus to the Seatac Airport are amazing perks.

[@mxderate]

The Sounder, Cascades & Coast Starlight also take you to downtown btw

[@jacobhalladay-glynn4070]

I'm in Santa Ana the transit+rents are pretty good :) we also have metrolink lines to all 3 other areas of SoCal - I can get to downtown or IE in under an hour, or San Diego in 2 by train

[@logan_graybill]

While rents in the Bay Area are undoubtedly higher than Southern California, salaries are higher as well. I went to a public university in California and have friends all over the state, and my anecdotal impression is that roughly the same percentage of income is used on housing between the Bay and LA (at least among young college graduates I guess).

[@darynvoss7883]

12:20 indoor shopping malls are great. Efficient use of space, protection from the weather, great spots for so called Third Places to socialise. There are some nice ones in London, Prague, Paris... The only problem with them is if you attach parking spaces to them, as happens in the US.

[@TohaBgood2]

Oakland and San Diego both deserve a bump. Especially Oakland. While Oakland could really use a loop line to tie their rail system together, it does have three BART lines converging on downtown and making basically any part of Oakland accessible via BART + bus. BART is in reality Oakland's system, not SF's. Just like Washington DC, Oakland has multiple intersecting S-bahn lines, but no local metro/light rail. Just link DC it could really use a local-duty light rail system. But it's still superior to places like Portland, Seattle, and definitely, definitely Long Beach.

[@tz7245]

Bakersfield not beating the armpit of California allegations I see..

[@chrisabella2780]

My only gripe is putting San Diego alongside San Bernardino the two cities aren’t even close I would choose to go care free/car lite ANY day in San Diego over San Bernardino, SD deserves at least C tier

[@theblueblazer999]

He put it in C tier, there was a footnote. He just put it in the wrong box in the recording.

[@chrisabella2780]

@@theblueblazer999Ah didn’t see that thanks for the info

[@FPOAK]

As someone from Fresno I am so offended by this. The city was basically designed around F-tier urbanism as a guiding principle. I think our only saving grace is that it's such a bland characterless place that people don't know enough about it to know how bad it is Our transit is "average" if by average you mean a bus-only system for a city of half a million people that still only accepts cash in 2024 and stops running at 6pm on Sundays

[@Token_Nerd]

Oakland belongs in the A tier

[@FreedomLovin]

If not for the safety factor it may be there

[@mk-oc7mt]

Definitely A tier. Or B tier if Santa Ana, sac and Eugene moved to C tier.

[@moloch8473]

5:36 When you said "You know what else belongs in the S tier?" I was half expecting a clip of Muscle Man saying "MY MOM!"

[@middletransport]

I will say 1) Oakland has a true BRT Line (Tempo) 2) ART is Anaheim Resort Transit (resort is in the name!). Thid matters becuse ART is pretty useless as local transit and the system is entirely oriented around tourism. A ticket on ART is at least $7! 3) Surfliner not really mentioned for the SoCal cities

[@DavidCiani]

Do you know if they distribute free or discounted passes for ART via employers in the resort area? That would be the other big group that would be using it.

[@Shant91]

I was hoping for Glendale, CA, but I appreciate this video.

[@gandhihype]

The SJ rating is pretty accurate. The city is trying and has laid good foundations for future improvement, but the aggressive NIMBYs keep land use bad and VTA's lack of operations funding and lack of light rail expansions (most of their money has gone to building BART for the last 20 years) are big challenges to moving the city forward. The smaller cities' downtowns are pretty great and have good transit connections (Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Campbell).

[@TohaBgood2]

The main problem is that the whole premise of building the VTA light rail where it is was that they'll later add a toooooooooon of TOD to make the system viable. They had these grand plans for entire neighborhoods of midrise apartments along the VTA lines. And then then NIMBYs blocked nearly everything for the first 20 years... They're building like crazy now. Every time I visit there's three more highrises there and five more housing mid-rises. San Pedro Square is now genuinely nice! They're also about the get BART and S-bahn level Caltrain service with 15 minute frequencies. There's definitely light at the end of the tunnel for San Jose. But, boy did the NIMBYs shaft them!!!

[@gandhihype]

@@TohaBgood2 Exactly! There's a lot of historical context that people miss out on to bash places like San Jose that laid good foundations and had NIMBYs deny them over and over again for decades. No system is perfect but a lot of problems with North American LRT systems are ones of NIMBYism.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@gandhihype Yep, when these types of "orphaned" transit systems are built in China or Europe that's "a clever investment into the future". But when as system in the US does it it's "a waste of money". People need to get their heads on straight. If we want to build transit cheaply then it needs to be built in crappy places and wait for development. If we want newly built transit to immediately show record ridership then it will have to be built in already dense places much more expensively. There's no way out of this conundrum. Well, except to just keep building until critical mass is reached.

[@gandhihype]

@@TohaBgood2 Exactly! We should be as aggressive as possible on TOD to address the national housing crisis, but especially in the big cities that are mostly single family zoned. Chicago is a great model lots of cities can follow where housing is extremely plentiful and cheap with great quality transit.

[@scpatl4now]

LA is trying. Despite the ultimate foe...NIMBYs with lots of money

[@mrxman581]

...and succeeding.

[@adrianwitzburg6123]

Nice video! I wish Riverside was here though.

[@Urban_Avenues]

Wondering how Los Angeles will rank after the Olympics! We'll need an update on the rankings afterward lol.

[@TohaBgood2]

There's a toooooooooon of transit coming online before the Olympics. Three Metro lines/extensions, Metrolink transformation into regional rail, BRT, and a ton of bus frequency. This will make LA jump a tier or two. They're already the second largest transit system in the country. No way to go but up from here!

[@Urban_Avenues]

@@TohaBgood2I think Brightline will also help boost it up, even if it’s not directly in LA. I hope it gravitates more transit ridership towards the Brightline station to ensure efficient transit connections to it or else it becomes pointless having to drive there.

[@anthonydpearson]

6:51 The Long Beach GP isn't Formula 1, it's Indycar, which is a different open-wheel racing series.

[@climateandtransit]

That is true! But imma be real with ya motor sports ain’t my thing.

[@JTGKirby]

Ignorance is Bliss!!

[@price.gaines]

⁠@@climateandtransitI get that, but it’s still important to have correct and up-to-date info about a city when making a video like this. F1 hasn’t raced in Long Beach since ‘83.

[@lewismaxvaltteri]

@@climateandtransit yeah but it takes one second to look up bruh

[@johnp1937]

Regarding your comment on sprawl around Portland, the city and region are actually governed by a strict "urban growth boundary" that reigns in suburban sprawl better than any other American city. One can find productive farmland just outside the city limits in a number of directions (or just outside the city limits of neighboring cities). The growth boundary was modeled after cities in Europe.

[@europe_trains]

I live in a suburb of Zurich, a metropolitan with about 1’000’000 people living in it. If Zurich would be an S, I don’t think believe any of these cities could be higher than C. Zurich has 16 tramway lines, a very decent S-Bahn network, with 17 lines connecting Zurich to the Suburbs, lots of (trolley) buses, it’s walkable everywhere and extending the bike lanes. Our main station is served by 3000 trains a day (S-Bahn included), providing service every 30 minutes to almost every city and town in the whole country (of course you may have to change a few times) and there are services to 10 different countries every day. A long way to go for the US.

[@moist9861]

As a teen who couldn’t drive. San Diego was the best place to get a round from trolley to bus

[@lioneaglegriffin]

I in the process of researching places to relocate to from Los Angeles to buy a home on the west coast. This sort of tracks with my expectations. However I didn't expect Long Beach to be so high. The light rail has a few stops there's and it's buses and water taxi's everywhere else. I used to avoid going to Long Beach because it took too long to get around on public transit. I also give LB demerits for air quality do to the freighters idling at the Port.

[@GauravSharma2106]

Infrastructure-wise, I think Oakland is similar to SF if not better when it comes to walking. But it is much flatter and the weather is much nicer, which actually makes it more "walkable"

[@ababababaababbba]

man walking up a hills not hard, and the huge ass streets suck, buuut honestly more bart coverage than SF which is something people don't think about

[@mk-oc7mt]

@@ababababaababbbaOakland has more bart stations

[@kris.chandra]

expected to see davis, known for it's biking culture

[@akhilkarandikar99]

in 10 years, Fresno and Bakersfield will be the only cities in new world with true HSR hahaha

[@akhilkarandikar99]

it'll be funny

[@simonmrnka3405]

You forgot Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga

[@TheNobleFive]

That's crazy. Never thought my dusty suburb hometown would have HSR before LA and Chicago.

[@blankface_]

They need it, they don’t got much else

[@mrxman581]

In 6 years, not 10.

[@benjaminchandler7919]

You should do this for the intermountain west!

[@himbourbanist]

LA Metro really does just keep getting better. Excited to see how it improves in the coming decades. It might end up being one of the best networks in the country if they keep this momentum

[@mrxman581]

It will. And it won't be that long. Several transit projects are opening next year including the connection to the LAX airport via an automated people mover to the LA Metro. Within 12 years the rail system will increase by roughly 60% increasing the miles of track from 110 to about 180 miles. Which will probably make it the 2nd largest metro system behind NYC's in the USA. And, a few years after that, the HSR connection to Union Station.

[@danesmith3615]

anaheim has two metro link lines the anaheim canyon station is servered by ie/oc trains

[@ryanevans2655]

Would be curious to see a mountain west version of this. (Specifically, wondering how Denver stacks up with the West Coats cities)

[@ronluk76]

Thanks!

[@pacificostudios]

The great advantage of San Diego over Los Angeles is that its urban core is compact enough that a bus ride is often only 10-20 minutes long. For example, I live in Oceanside and my doctor is in North Park. I often go by train, and then transfer to a Route 10 limited-stop bus. Moreover, neighborhoods like University Heights and Adams Avenue have so little parking (paid or free) that I often choose to take the bus from Old Town or Nobel Drive transit center. By comparison, Hollywood, West Hollywood, the Sunset Strip, Westwood, Melrose Ave., etc., are at least an hour from Union Station by transit, whether or not you transfer to the B or D subway lines.

[@Pndapete2]

As someone who lives in downtown Santa Ana I would say in Santa Ana the transit is great for just Santa Ana but because Orange County has so much sprawl and every city relies on neighboring cities you need access to car as your doctor, work, grocery store you might prefer or leisure activity might not be located in Santa Ana and there for a 10-15 minute drive can be a 2 hour bus ride or 1 hour train to bus ride. Because neighboring cities don't care about public transit.

[@cat_luver16]

I thing Portland is an underrated city that gets to much hate for the drug problems, homeless tents don’t exist in the suburbs and in downtown, it’s mainly in east Portland

[@loworochi]

As a San Diegan I think our transit is decent but could be way better. Once you exit downtown walkability goes down. And the trolleys are way less frequent and in less quantity. Plus people don’t feel too safe and rent is wild

[@ababababaababbba]

sits self satisfiedly in my mission apartment

[@roccoisdaman]

Euegene above Tacoma is wild to me tbh

[@simonmrnka3405]

What is the lore behind the Long Beach thumbnail with Snoop? Does he actually ride the LA Metro, or was it just a publicity stunt?

[@colinneagle4495]

While I don't have Snoop's biography memorized, I do remember hearing that he went to high school in Long Beach, with Cameron Diaz no less, so that could be the connection

[@mrxman581]

​@@colinneagle4495Ironic that the picture used was taken in front of a DTLA subway station. And somehow LA is below LB? That's wrong.

[@worldsupermedia7509]

I’m a simple man. I see San Diego Trolley, I click

[@SP1CEANDW0LF]

I think if you're putting LA in B, you have to put Portland in S. Portland actually has MORE walkable neighborhoods despite being 6x smaller than Los Angeles. And its so clear that so many of the neighborhoods in LA that are technically walkable, are still built car first, you are dodging cars and waiting to cross the street for stop lights. I think I would keep Portland in A, and move LA to C-tier personally. Other than that I agree with the list for the most part.

[@kiosk5595]

I love Seattle and Tacoma with a passion so while I agree with the former’s ranking, I’m a bit biased in favor of the latter. Having been to San Jose, Anaheim, and Fresno, Tacoma is leaps and bounds more enjoyable than any of those cities. However, I do think it is not as good as the B tier cities; it is kind of the “Oakland of Seattle” but Oakland is indeed far superior with transit and neighborhoods. So maybe Tacoma would be a C+ or B- in my book?

[@hellfreezer3037]

i wonder where would vancouver, canada rank on this list since it's also a typical west coast city

[@iamaltitude]

Even though I'm from Texas, I've visited most of the cities on this list. The only cities I have not been to are Fresno, Bakersfield and San Bernadino because why?. I'm just having a hard time imagining Fresno outranking San Diego. That one just didn't sit right with me for some reason lol. Other than that, solid list and great video.

[@aminsennour5571]

Long beach and Oakland should swap places.

[@goldenstatedepartures]

Anaheim does have access to 2 Metrolink lines, Anaheim Canyon is the other station in city limits for IEOC line. Edit: also the IEOC line does directly connect to the ARTIC station for Angel's Express game day trains

[@eliase817]

Fresno is better than San Diego? lol idk about that

[@lugi25]

It is. Has a way better bus system.

[@pacificostudios]

The problem with Los Angeles is that the city is too large to be comfortably crossed by bus. A bus ride in L.A. can easily be one hour and more. The extension of the subway to Westwood and the 405 will make major parts of the West Side just a short bus ride from a train station.

[@GirtonOramsay]

San Diego as D tier in insane as a newer resident. I didn't think much of the trolley system until I started using it, like the orbtial loop out in East county where I live. I can travel between many suburbs in 10-15 mins and no necessity for long downtown transfers. You also ignored the many BRT Rapid routes that connects far away places to downtown SD, like Route 225 to Eastlake and Otay Mesa, 235 to Mira Mesa and Escondido, and even the new 227 between Imperial Beach and Otay Mesa

[@blores95]

I think it's appropriate that only San Francisco is S tier, it along with NYC are basically the urbanist bastions of the country (along with some of the worst housing prices). I'd put LA/Seattle/Portland in the same rank, they all have their pros and cons for each other. As much as I like Long Beach, I don't think you could put it above LA as a whole, it should probably be in a separate category ranking in general because it's more of a mid-size city in the giant suburb that is LA county. Glad to see it get some praise though. I wouldn't put any city in the OC above C tier though unless all you care about artificial safety from homelessness/crime/etc or having a big yard.

[@TohaBgood2]

Oakland probably deserves A tier too. It definitely has better transit and walkability than Seattle and Portland. Oakland is the focal point of BART with three lines converging there. It's more on par with Washington DC with an S-bahn serving as the quasi-metro, rather than something like Seattle with its single light rail line.

[@FreedomLovin]

Have you lived in SF? I did. Almost everyone still has cars and they do use them, even to get around the city.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@FreedomLovin That's nonsense. SF has a 1% higher transit mode share than London. Yes, the majority of people drive even in cities with excellent transit like Tokyo and NYC. That's pretty much a fact of life all around the world. But in cities like SF the quality of transit allows you to go car-light or no-car if you want to. That's what we need to strive to make possible for more and more people via transit upgrades.

[@TohaBgood2]

​@@FreedomLovin For the record, Tokyo transit modal share is 36% Paris transit modal share is 32% SF transit modal share is 32% London transit modal share is 31% Toronto transit modal share is 20% Vancouver transit modal share is 16%

[@FreedomLovin]

@@TohaBgood2 not true at all. I lived in Taipei and majority did not drive. Completely different than SF.

[@pacificostudios]

Santa Ana rating should include neighboring Orange, which is a jewel of a college (Chapman University) town.

[@sleepinginbio]

Oakland absolutely belongs on a tier above Long Beach and LA.

[@mrxman581]

Above LB yes, not above LA.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@mrxman581 Ummmm... BART service is very extensive in Oakland and they have a very good bus system. I don't know that LA has surpassed Oakland yet. Will probably take another few years of transit upgrades. But eventually, yes.

[@TheRoamingHazard]

My big gripe with the transit in SF and the Bay area is... price. BART in particular I feel is really overpriced. If it cost much more expensive gas and bridge tolls would be less.

[@de132]

"San Jose" [Photo of Cupertino] 😭

[@KyleWithee]

Stockton?

[@charleslacy2292]

I will say that WalkScore is weird and can be inaccurate. Like bike scores are a big one. And often it doesn’t consider things like width of sidewalks or bike lanes etc. particularly with SD there’s streets with large sidewalks and then several streets over with very low quality pedestrian infrastructure will have the same score.

[@charleslacy2292]

Also will add if you need clips from San Diego and some surrounding areas I may have it or be able to get it. I take go pro clips all the time

[@thePress14]

Santa Ana does have some pretty good transit but… 30 - 70 minutes for a bus… 😫

[@adanactnomew7085]

Should have included Victoria and Vancouver :/

[@shsd4130]

San Diego took the hit for sprawl, while Long Beach, Anaheim and Santa Ana didn't get points knocked off. Would bump up SD as a result. (But I'm biased lol)

[@lewismaxvaltteri]

Long beach turns into an indycar track not an F1 track

[@FF4Ever15]

Need sections/timestamps for each city

[@jackbob.coz55]

FRESNO MENTIONED

[@mymocs61]

I’m really interested in what you have to say abt Vancouver, could u do a list of Canadian cities (as there’s only like 6 of them)

[@TohaBgood2]

Should slide just above Seattle, but below SF in terms of transit mode share and walkability. A tier, but far from S tier.

[@mymocs61]

@@TohaBgood2 yeah fair, their bike share probably the worst I’ve ever seen in Canada but I definitely feel that their car share program and transit are some of the best in the world

[@TohaBgood2]

@@mymocs61 I know that there is a lot of fanboying of Vancouver transit online, particularly because a couple of the larger transit tubers talk about it a ton. But Vancouver's transit is kind of mid to good by West Coast standards. It has a 16% transit mode share which is higher than Seattle's and LA's but about the same level as Portland and lower than Oakland's And it's a full 2x worse than San Francisco's transit mode share.

[@mymocs61]

@@TohaBgood2 Haha I was speaking of my own experience as I live in Vancouver and would definitely agree that it has a lower modal share than SanFran. Do you feel that this is the best criteria to rank transit then? Personally I'm curious to see what these rankings are missing cause the Skytrain has peak ridership on weekends and weekdays, and it's because so many people use it to beyond commuting to work. I find it actually takes less time to Skytrain to the airport than it does to drive there too. I'm not sure I agree with you that it would be on par with Portland though. While Portland has more light rail routes than Vancouver, their LRT's are much slower (probably cause the blocks are shorter than Vancouvers) .... and dirtier. The Skytrain also puts bikelanes under and above all their routes for that multi-modal share, and much of their stations are around TOAreas.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@mymocs61 In terms of actual user experience, Skytrain is definitely better than MAX, hands down. It's faster, more comfortable, more frequent, and cleaner. But Portlandia is practically its own country and culture. They will take the train and bike no matter what, so they still have a very strong transit mode share on par with Vancouver despite MAX's issues. (Strong by North American standards anyway.) Transit mode share tells you a lot about a city, but it's just a metric. It's not definitely not everything. For example, for San Francisco there are actually two very distinct populations that are essentially separate "cities" with overlapping territory. One is fanatically anti-car and will walk, bike and transit everywhere religiously. And then there's the moneybags (mostly) living in the north-western neighborhoods that refuse to even visit the eastern side of SF because "there's no place to park". In terms of actual city population the anti-car folks definitely have the upper hand in SF. But the city's transit mode share is "polluted" by super-commuters who drive for 80 miles to get to work in SF. And this is how we end up with "only" a 32% transit mode share in the end. If you were to only look at SF residents you'd get a much higher transit percentage. If you were to look at the entire Bay Area as one giant metro then you'd get a much lower number.

[@wooglefurf]

EUGENE MENTIONED!!! 🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥🔥🔥🔥

[@nicolehmann1853]

Vibe should be considered in every category. San Diego cannot be bellow San Jose (haven't been to the other C tier cities). Having slightly better transit service or bike infrastructure is irrelevant if there's nowhere interesting you can ride to...

[@TohaBgood2]

San Jose is actually in some ways as good as San Diego. Between VTA light rail, BART, soon to be 15-minute Caltrain service, and a pretty large network of busses, more areas in San Jose are accessible by transit than in SD. The downtown still needs more development, but they're doing it right now. SJ is on the cusp of something very good on transit and walkability. 20 years of upgrades are all converging now and reinforcing each other. It's going to be fun over the next 10 years.

[@CityLifeinAmerica]

Lmao the gum wall thumbnail choice for Seattle.

[@im_straight_up_unoriginal]

As a frequent commuter in San Bernardino, its honestly an F

[@awesomeman116a]

In my opinion, I think Tacoma should be a lower rank since their bus coverage isn’t good at all (in my opinion) And Seattle definitely deserves A-tier, maybe even S-tier

[@BigSleepyOx]

Eugene got rated but not Corvallis? Yet another instance of Oregon getting favoritism over Oregon State!! 😠

[@joseSanchez-ej2oh]

LA is A tier but middle lower A tier class

[@tz7245]

If you have ever tried getting arounx in Anaheim without a car you would NOT give it a C.. mind you commuter rail does service it but sparsely.. and once you get there transit is so abysmal.. getting to any destination worthwhile would require at least 3 bus transfers with a thousand stops on all of them.. just a hell hole for transit. Not a C but an F.

[@noodlenomnom6746]

The poop map made the video. Opinion valid

[@mikeverhasselt5976]

San diego transit better Long Beach, Sacramento, Santa Ana, San Jose, Tacoma, Anaheim, and Fresno. To share the category with San Bernardino is ridiculous. The city has expanded its trolley from LA Jolla to the Mexican border. The downtown core including the baseball stadium, convention center, and Gas Lamp district relies on the trolley system for its popularity and easy access. It has many bikeable and walkable neighborhoods, often separated by the canyon geography as well as the freeways. In my five years there the bike, walk, and bus infrastructure has improved dramatically in all the densely populated areas. Rents are high because it is a beautiful city. THe vibe is happy and easy going.

[@goopber]

INDYCAR TRACK LONG BEACH IS AN INDYCAR TRACK

[@commentorsilensor3734]

Ok, you told us to be civilized. However as a non car drivers who have lived in LA for 30 years, i would curse anyone who give good grade on LA public transportation. To meet walkable, jobs, grocery, stores, hospitals, daily life can be access cars. The train station is no good if people have hard time getting to destinations without cars. Unfortunately, better public transportation mean expensive real estate. you don't need cars in HK, but real estate is outrageous high. People have to pay expenses rent just to live in a room just little bit bigger than size of one n half twin bed. Guess what, bathrooms n kitchen are in same area. Inasked HKer, living in New Territory is cheaper with bigger room. Some can even get houses. Commute from New Territory to Hong kong or Kowloon is definitely easier n faster than Commute within Anaheim or Santa Ana. That person didn't give the exact answer. When you get used best public transportation , you cannot stand subpar public transportation even though its better than most US small cities with better living conditions Even in downtown LA, the best in the area, the public transportation is bad. You have to live near union station, red line, civic center. Hard to explain. One time a technical recruiter called me for a job opportunity in downtown LA. I said thats a huge area. He said downtown downtown LA, ok thats the best walkable area. Even in that area, you don't need cars, hiring managers at court IT department asked about if i have problems commuting; many companies would work hard to find cheapest parking nearby because no one validate parking. Many of them are right by red line stations. Remember talking to recruiters in . I had to remind them red line stations then they said oh yes. Same thing to the USC IT recruiter. Those are best public transportation area. People still don't use. downtown LA public transportation become bad couple miles from union Station. One is garment section n county government building nearby. I am very sure garment factory workers are so rich to buy cars. The problem in LA is you need cars to use trains. Ok, not red line, but excep that. Thats reason even companies near train stations don't encourage use public transportation even the ones near red line. There are exceptions, oil company actually encourage people taking public transportation. The rent is cheaper, but remember you need cars in LA. At least in SF, you don't need car expenses. Anaheim, don't get me start. I usec to work Angel stadium there is a frequent bus. That is it. Getting around Anaheim without car is challenging . Anaheim station is joke. I was there long time ago. It was a ghost town. When you don't have good connections, don't expect lots human being. The bus show up at Anaheim station around the metro link train arrive. I did ask OCTA even if i could fly, i couldn't fly from train platform to bus stop, the OCTA staff was silent. OK IT TURN out, the metrlinnk connections bus will wait for passengers a while. Thats good news. The bad news is should not train station be w hub n take people around the city instead of limited schedule. This is US culture. You need cars to use rails. Santa Ana is another joke. There are limited metrolink connections buses that don't stop. I tried metrolink from city of industry station, to first American in Santa Ana. The bus ride n walk are not easy. Oh connections from government building area to Anaheim station is bad. There are many buses, but they are not. It is building street car. It is another you need car system. Long beach, another joke. My excoworker lived in Corona. He did think wbout taking bus, metrolink, bus . Then he found out it was faster to walk miles tan take bus from long Beach station. Many recruiter contact me about jobs in long Beach. After google, it takes 90 minutes or more to get to destinations from long beach station. Get this, Google advice to take three lousy buses to most places in long Beach. Same reason, you need cars to use rail. San Diego. Never been there, but based on researh, worst than transit hell LA. Fresno. Even in downtown downtown Fresno near train stations, government building, financial center, the public transportation is bad. Seattle, man people drive in LA take bus in Seattle. They told me i would love Seattle. Those are tourists. A person lived in Seattle in the 80s. He told me Seattle public transportation is not as good as i think. He took bus to software companies in suburbs. It wasn't easy. Ok, that was easy, but public transportation to suburbs remains terrible. I recently i talked to a Seattle resident on internet. He said i would love Seattle. He loves Seattle public transportation. Then i mentioned why i love public transportation in Vancouver n DC, n even he admitted Seattle is long way to go on public transportation. SF is the best. No doubt even many rich people take public transportation. If there is a drawback. Going to Silicone Valley is tough. Don't bring BART, Amtrak, once you reach stations, you need cars

[@henreereeman8529]

Great video!! Would you consider doing a European city tier list?

[@elliotearles8302]

No way Long Beach is higher than San Diego 😭

[@DavidCiani]

San Diego takes “responsibility” for a lot of its sprawl and has it included inside its massive city limits, versus other cities that have dozens of separately incorporated suburbs. It gets “punished” in these kinds of rankings as a result.

[@TohaBgood2]

@@DavidCiani The other cities like Oakland and Long Beach are part of a larger metro area which increases their transit ridership and generally makes densification easier. San Diego is the lone urban core in its own metro. It just can't jump that far above its own head.