Compared to, say, NYC or London or Paris or Hong Kong or Singapore, Philly's public transit sucks. But it's far better than 99% of cities in the US. Philly is a great place to live car-free, provided you choose your neighborhood carefully. I don't have a car, and I'm very happy here. It's also one of the main reasons I moved here.

I mean, I live here car-free and my opinion is that public transit is quite good compared to other US cities. I stick to buses, regional rail, and the trolley system. Philly is also incredibly walkable. I chose to live in a neighborhood where everything I need is within walking distance.

Septa, like many transit systems in the US, is a bit outdated and clunky (we only got key cards a few years ago). Efforts to upgrade are slow.

It's better than transit in 99% of US cities. You can easily live car free in Philly as it's also one of the most walkable cities in the country. As a frequent transit user (mainly the BSL), I can tell you that I've never had any issues with safety. On the MFL, you might see some unpleasant druggies from time to time, but it's still safe to ride. Most of the people saying how awful things are in the city that are on this sub don't live here, have an agenda, and/or definitely don't use transit.

If you moved to Center City you won't even need to use transit much since it's so walkable. And the bus system is good too btw.

I've lived here all of my life and never really had too much of an issue with the El or bsl, people are more bold about smoking wherever and there are more junkies, but it's not unbearable. Develop a good rbf and stay aware of your surroundings.

Buses are cleaner and more incident free in my experience, but they can be infrequent, depending on the route. They also have to deal with traffic. In the septa app you can use the transitview option to see where buses are on the route live.

I take the broad street line and El because they are much faster to get around and fairly frequent. Just be aware of your surroundings for people who might cause trouble. Yeah youll find some addicts on the train but they keep to themselves in my experience.

Your experience will depend where in the city you move to, center city gets more frequent service than far flung neighborhoods.

IMO it's all about having options. If you are living somewhere that you are locked into a single possible route, you are going to have a bad time when that route is delayed or infrequent. If you choose to ignore a route (subway) then you bring that problem onto yourself. SEPTA underserves huge portions of the city, giving them only obvious viable route to get wherever you are going. But you can often find other options... Can you take a bus across to the next RR line along? Bus to subway? RR Transfers? I've started planning my transit along those lines and have found some really cool trip options.

The trolleys & bus situation is mixed -- the network is pretty dense, but you have to build in extra wait time because you often don't get real-time location updates / arrival estimates. SEPTA has advanced a plan to reduce some bus routes but increase frequency on the popular ones, which I would love given where we live, but a lot of people are up in arms about it and it seems in doubt.

P.S. Do you bike? We moved here last year, and one of the things we put a big premium on was living reasonably close to the Schuylkill River Trail. That puts us about 15 minutes from center city and lets us visit our friends in the almost-burbs (like Manayunk) -- and crucially, it's safe.

Do not form opinions about the city based on the subreddit. It is regularly brigaded by people who only watch crime news and the citizen app.

There is also a divide based on gender, and this I understand. What might be fine for a lone guy on the subway might not be safe/safe enough for a lady riding alone.

The El is the main public transit that has problems. It runs through Kensington and that means a lot of opioid addicts use it for both transit and somewhere to shoot up.

The rest of SEPTA is significantly more tame.

You will never hear someone say "oh my ride was so nice" because that's just not how public transit works. The best it can be is boring. You're not flying Qatar Airways.

I used to take the subway and el all the time. Now unless I am in a hurry and no buses are coming, I avoid them. For what it's worth, the maybe less than ten times I've taken the El or subway in the last year, it has been totally fine and nothing has happened. I just have a lower tolerance for risk since becoming a parent, and almost all of the crazy stories you hear happen on the el and subway. You can also look into getting a bike.

It exists, it's better than some other cities without transit at all. If you live in the Center City area and generally don't have to leave the city, it's typically okay but is not nearly as reliable as it should be. If you have to travel out of the city it can be pretty difficult at times depending on where you're going and how much time you're willing to allocate to traveling.

I moved to Philly in 2006 from one of the boroughs of NYC. It was definitely a positive move for me and I did not and do not have a car in Philly. There were lots of taxis plus Septa back then, plus bikes and Philly Car Share and Zipcar. Since 2021 there are no more taxis, so you’ll need to take SEPTA or Uber or Lyft. The car shares (day rentals) seem to have disappeared.

The first time I went into the City Hall subway station it was a shock. Even coming from NYC it was the most dilapidated station I’d ever seen. I did ride the MFL and BSL up until 2020, the pandemic. I’ve ridden them about 2x since Covid without incident, but in terms of sketchiness and cleanliness, they are worse, and junkies abound especially in any underground station. I ride the bus when I can’t walk and regional rail is fine but the schedules have decreased in frequency since Covid for the suburban rail due to decreased ridership, wfh.

There’s a few components to this. One, the transit system here is pretty disjointed. You have trolleys, buses, subway, El, regional rail, and non-SEPTA transit like PATCO.

The experience can be very different from one to another.

And within a single mode of transportation, (like the El), it can vary depending on which part of town you’re in. (E.g., it gets worse as you enter the part of the city ravaged by opioids).

And Center City is actually not that big. You can walk/bike it.

So, the unfortunately non-simple answer is it really depends on where you live and which part of public transit you’re taking.

the worst experiences i've had with public were on the EL or the broad street line. buses, pretty great (except my particular bus was sometimes not on time or just didn't show) trolleys always fine and on time in my experience.

i avoid the underground interchanges whenever possible.

edit: i was in a bad emotional state, but once i sat in a car on the el with one other person, and the car smelled like someone just shit in it. i did this because everyone who came into the car immediately left. i didn't want to be around people. also check the cloth seats before you sit down

It was alright ten years ago but it’s fallen pretty far, especially since COVID. Everyone I know just does Uber or Lyft around the city now. Sucks but it is what it is.

you can absolutely live car free, but it’s not gonna be fun or convenient. it’s very nice to have available though, but your points are correct lol