A new report from the Census bureau finds that New York is the only city in the United States where the majority of workers.... A new report from the Census bureau finds that New York is the only city in the United States where the majority of workers — 55 percent, or 1.9 million people — commute from home to work via public transportation. That is by far the highest percentage among the nation’s largest cities.

The numbers from New York are applauded for America's first city, but the New York tale leaves much to be desired for the rest of the country where over-all only 5 percent use public transportation to get to work.

Among other large cities (250,000 population or more) the highest public transportation rates are in Washington, D.C. (37 percent), Boston and San Francisco (31 percent each), Chicago and Philadelphia (27 percent each), Newark, N.J. (26 percent), and Baltimore (25 percent). Only 1-in-8 workers (12 percent) in Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest city, use public transportation, and in Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city, only 6 percent of workers use public transportation. (In my home of Pittsburgh 22 percent used public transportation.) More city numbers

Driven by New York City’s dominance, New York state led all states in the percentage of its public transportation commuters. Statewide, 27 percent of New York workers used public transportation. Other states above the national average were: New Jersey (10 percent), Maryland (9 percent), Massachusetts (9 percent), Illinois (9 percent) and Hawaii (6 percent).

Nationwide, 77 percent of workers drove alone to work, 10 percent carpooled and 2 percent walked. Bus transportation accounted for 55 percent of public transportation use nationally; subway or elevated rail use ranked second at 29 percent.

I needn't tell many of our readers that more cities in the United States should be like New York. The Big Apple is the economic powerhouse it is in part because of the density, ease of transportation and ability to bring "different molecules together" as Lewis Mumford would say.

Other cities wishing to improve their ranking should not try to accommodate cars (per my other recent post), they only create space that detracts from density and ability to easily utilize public transit. Subways, light-rail lines and to a lesser extent efficient bus routes--in addition to an availability of housing that's accessible to both retail and business districts and public transportation is the route to take to bring the percent using public transit more in line with New York.