{"id":402560,"date":"2026-09-17T14:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402560\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T14:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:52:16","slug":"orlando-ranks-8th-worst-for-u-s-public-transit-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402560\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando ranks 8th worst for U.S. public transit: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Orlando is among the worst large urban areas in the country for public transit, according to a new report from ConsumerAffairs.<\/a><\/p>\n

The report ranked Orlando No. 8 among the 10 lowest-scoring public transit systems in the 50 largest U.S. urban areas.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs said it analyzed the 50 largest urban areas using federal data and ranked systems based on usefulness and accessibility, affordability, and operational safety.<\/p>\n

According to the report, Oklahoma City ranked last, followed by Jacksonville, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Columbus, Memphis, Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Orlando, Cleveland and Louisville.<\/p>\n

Affordability, safety hurt Orlando\u2019s ranking<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs said Orlando\u2019s lower ranking was driven mainly by affordability and operational safety.<\/p>\n

According to the report, Orlando had the fourth-least affordable public transit system among the 50 areas analyzed.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs said passengers in Orlando paid an average of $1.06 per boarding.<\/p>\n

The report estimated that someone who regularly commutes by public transit would spend about $530 a year on fares.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs said median earnings for Orlando residents who commute by public transit were $22,150 a year. That means estimated annual fares would represent about 2.4% of their earnings, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Report cites safety data<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs also ranked Orlando No. 17 among the worst cities for operational safety.<\/p>\n

The report said Orlando had about 3.14 collisions, fires or derailments for every million vehicle miles traveled in service in 2024.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs also said about four people were killed or injured in major safety and security events per million vehicle miles traveled in service that year.<\/p>\n

The report said its safety data came from the Federal Transit Administration\u2019s National Transit Database.<\/p>\n

Public transit use still rising nationally<\/p>\n

The report said most U.S. workers still drive alone to work.<\/p>\n

In 2024, 69.2% of workers drove alone, while 3.7% took public transportation, according to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by ConsumerAffairs.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs said Americans took 7.7 billion public transit trips in 2024, up 24% from 2022, citing the American Public Transportation Association.<\/p>\n

The report said San Francisco-Oakland had the highest overall public transit ranking, followed by New York-Jersey City-Newark, Washington-Arlington, Seattle-Tacoma and Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

Expert cites common problems<\/p>\n

Paul Goyette, a research project manager at the University of South Florida Center for Urban Transportation Research, told ConsumerAffairs that weaker transit systems often share several problems.<\/p>\n

Those include agency instability, lack of local support and funding, and rider distrust caused by route reductions, safety concerns and inconsistent customer service, according to the report.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs noted that a low ranking does not mean public transit disappears, but said those systems may create more friction for riders than higher-ranked systems.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Orlando is among the worst large urban areas in the country for public transit, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[836,147,145,101658,28,160156,139,141,140,12476,144,146],"class_list":["post-402560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-affordability","tag-central-florida","tag-channel-9","tag-consumeraffairs","tag-florida","tag-operational-safety","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-public-transit","tag-wftv","tag-wftv-channel-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}