>Those systems are extremeley limited in terms of coverage relative to Metro North/LIRR in NYC or Metra in Chicago. A huge amount of the residential development in northern VA is out in Fairfax County, and that area is just now getting a Metro line. Moreover, the metro stops in Vienna, Fairfax, etc, are god-awful. They're built in the middle of the woods so you have to drive to them. A sensible rail system needs to have high density development around the station.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here?

The DC area systems are pretty young relative to the ones you're comparing it them to. The NY subway has been around since 1904. The DC Metro broke ground in 1969 and opened 1976. This is significantly different from systems like Metra or NJT which subsumed existing commercial tracks.

How densely populated will Fairfax be in 2084?

DC versus wherever else was never my point though. It's about people with cars who choose to brave some of the worst traffic in the country rather than driving the local Metro station and zipping on in.

Personally, driving all the way downtown takes about 1:15, taking the Metro is 12 minute drive to the station followed by a 35 minute train ride which I can spend reading to within a block of my workplace.

>Meanwhile, Metro North, LIRR, and NJT go pretty much anywhere people live in Westchester, Long Island, or NJ. And the train stations are all approachable on foot. I walk 4 minutes from a 40 story high-rise in Westchester to the train station. That's 4 minutes from getting on my elevator to being on the platform.

That's great. Plenty of people who ride the DC Metro have the same experience, there are 85 stations.

How many of those approachable train stations have 3500+ parking spaces or are served by 50+ buses?

Apples to oranges.

They're different systems serving different geography at different points in their development - any of which is surely better than driving.

You asked why people don't take the Metro or MARC/VRE. I explained that it doesn't go to where people want. Having to use two modes, driving then rail, is a huge deal breaker. From where I used to live, I'd have to fight through route 7 traffic for 20 min to take a 35 minute train ride, or I could just keep driving for another 45 min. When you factor in parking the time saving is nothing. Yet in the NYC metro, I live as far away as I did in DC, and can easily walk to the train. As a result, something like 10x as many people use commuter rail in the NYC metro per capita. And Westchester isn't exactly super densely populated. It's just smartly designed, unlike the horribly sprawling DC suburbs. You have walkable little towns of 5,000 people served by a rail station instead of the cluster fuck that is Fairfax County.

Traffic is god's punishment to northern Virginia for letting subdivision developers basically do all the urban planning for the last 50 years.

I don't get why anyone would live in the DC region and not live near a rail station. I don't see the allure of NoVa outside of Arlington and Alexandria.

NoVa is getting a bit better with some town center developments in Fairfax, but it's quality of life is far behind other jurisdictions.

I live in Montgomery County right by a red line station. I have the good suburban schools, relatively low crime, plenty of stuff to walk to and an easy commute into DC via the metro (or buses). I just don't get the people in the DC region who spend hours upon hours commuting in cars. Yes, we Marc and VRE aren't the same level of what some other cities have, but we do have rail service and metro is one of the top public transportation systems in the country (second most used behind a much larger city).