Something America gets right

By N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

THE BLOGGER Atrios, responding to a piece by Salon's Patrick Smith, writes:

Yes, most airports in this country have crappy transit connections much as most cities have crappy transit, but we do actually have some decent ones. Off the top of my head there's Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Philly, Washington (National), ...

Mr Smith, who writes Salon's "Ask the Pilot" feature, had written a column in praise of the fast city-to-airport rail connections that are par for the course at many big Asian airports. Like Atrios, I think America actually does surprisingly well on this count. City-to-airport links seem to be somewhat immune to the partisan politics that have undermined high-speed rail projects across the country. In fact, good airport connections are so common that people are often surprised when they arrive at an airport without useful transit options. When I was in New Orleans last weekend, the friends I met at the airport—a diverse group from all over the country—were genuinely surprised by the lack of any good mass transit options. "Real cities," one (a Chicagoan), said, "have trains to the airport."

I don't think New Orleanians would take too kindly to his implication, but the value of good city-airport connections is hard to dispute. Matt Yglesias says America seems to be doing "freakishly well on this score": while most American cities don't do well on an overall evaluation of transit-friendliness, there's not "a particular problem of cities not remembering to connect their airports."

Even New York, which is famous for having airports that are hard to reach via mass transit, has gotten better in recent years. The JFK airport air train (pictured) opened in 2003, and while taking the subway from Manhattan to Jamaica to get on the air train isn't very practical, taking the Long Island Rail Road from Penn Station to the air train is a breeze. Sure, the overall usefulness of the system is hurt by the fact that you have to transfer. But it can still be a lot easier, cheaper, and often faster (depending on traffic) than a cab or an airport shuttle. And as Paul Krugman points out, getting to Newark airport in northern New Jersey isn't particularly difficult, either. LaGuardia is the real outlier—the best New York has to offer in terms of viable mass transit options to the worst airport in America is the M60 bus.

What do you think? Besides MSY and LGA, which major airports in America are the worst in terms of their connections to public transit? Which are the best? (Personally, I love DCA's transit connections. Getting there from downtown Washington is quick, easy, and cheap. For that reason alone, I try to use DCA whenever possible.)