My wife used to take the bus to work in Wilmington, DE. Government-owned and operated bus service. Busses would regularly be 20 minutes off schedule, in a city with little traffic. Drivers would regularly decide to just quit their shift 15 minutes early, passing by stops full of people waiting.

My wife and I rode every day between D.C./Wilmington and Baltimore for two years. $1,700 per month train fare, but a good day was five to ten minutes late. A bad day was sitting in a broken down train for hours while waiting for another train to come rescue. (That happened once a month).

I tried to ride the D.C. Metro to work last summer. One of the best subways in the US (and also one of the most expensive). Last year tracks were literally catching fire. Regularly runs 15-20 minutes late for a 30-40 minute trip.

Our au pair is German. Her mom, sister, and several friends have visited us from Germany. She couldn't drink the tap water in Baltimore, neither could her mom drink the tap water in DC. Every single German to visit my house has remarked how bad the roads are here.

I'm a big believer in publicly run services, at an intellectual level. But out of the various cities I've lived in, I'd trust maybe two (New York and Chicago) to run my internet service. Certainly not Baltimore, Wilmington, DC, or Atlanta.