Which area has the best public transportation: Boston or New York/ New Jersey area?

Question

I'll be moving soon and won't have a car for a while. My husbands job takes him all around the East coast so I just have to pick a place to settle in. He does a lot of New Jersey (Parsippany) and New York work and goes down into Richmond, Baltimore and such. I love Boston too so I'm just trying to get a feel for what area is going to have the best public transportation so that I can get to a from work and/or school best.

Answer 1

NY metro area.
The subways run 24x7. The T stops running at 2:00 am. Pretty useless.

Tons of cabs in NYC. Tough to hail a cab at night in Boston.

LIRR, Metro North, NJ Transit and Amtrak all have trains running into NYC.

Lots of public and private buses in the NY metro area as well.

Answer 2

I don't know why the 2 previous answerers have not mentioned Jamaica Plain - it will remind you a lot of parts of San Fran. Boston's bus system is not as good as the city of San Fran's but it is all one system - not separate systems for each county. Boston's subway system is somewhat more extensive but not as expansive as BART's. Boston's train system is far better than San Fran's. A lot depends on what you want: if you are used to the Mission District or Berkeley or the Haight and you want somthing comparable in Boston you are going to pay, but if you are used to San Leandro or Daly City or San Mateo and something comparable will be OK $ 1200 will do you well.

Answer 3

Boston and Washington DC are easier to decipher in terms of following their maps.

NYC and Jersey have longer hours of service and an extremely extensive network of infrastructure to get you where you want to go. Once you figure out the Subway maps, its not too hard to figure out and the MTA staff although sometimes a little gruff, do give good tips and advice as to what train(s) you want to take.