Mass transit in Baltimore? St.Louis?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Work related question, told my wife we could probably get an unbiased answer after hours from the folks "on my football board".

Just wondering how integral mass transit was in Baltimore and in St.Louis?

Point to the question is a client has asked us to explore doing some advertising in the stations/bus stops in one market or the other (they're both part of a test marketing campaign) and a big factor in which one to chase first tomorrow morning would be whether mass transit is more relevant/used/prevelant in one place or the other. Target is 35+, skewing male (but not exclusively male), pretty broad span of income ranges (say above poverty but below dirty rotten filthy stinking rich).

Thoughts, opinions, etc. much appreciated.

[lordscarlet]

I will ask my B'more coworkers tomorrow, but I imagine it's hard to get a definitive answer without finding someone that has lived in/near both cities.

[panerd]

Work related question, told my wife we could probably get an unbiased answer after hours from the folks "on my football board".

Just wondering how integral mass transit was in Baltimore and in St.Louis?

Point to the question is a client has asked us to explore doing some advertising in the stations/bus stops in one market or the other (they're both part of a test marketing campaign) and a big factor in which one to chase first tomorrow morning would be whether mass transit is more relevant/used/prevelant in one place or the other. Target is 35+, skewing male (but not exclusively male), pretty broad span of income ranges (say above poverty but below dirty rotten filthy stinking rich).

Thoughts, opinions, etc. much appreciated.

I am not an expert on mass transit but my anecdotal evidence is that a large percentage of the people who use the metro buses are poor people who live in the city and come out to parts of St Louis County to work. When gas was $4 a gallon there was some increase in middle class people going the other way but once gas dropped back down they actually closed a lot of the bus stops in the county. I do read the ads though on the bus stops when I drive by them. Usually for concerts and not much else.

As far as light rail goes, they just shut down a highway a few years ago to rebuild it and decided not to include a rail down the middle of the highway as the costs far outweighed the benefits. Should give you an idea of how popular it is here. About the only time the trains are busy is during Cardinal/Rams/Blues games.

[lynchjm24]

I've been to Baltimore 10 times. They have mass transit? Could have fooled me.

[stevew]

I used to ride the bus quite a bit back in the day. I can't believe you'll get much of a demographic spread. Unless Baltimore is radically different than Hampton Roads.

[tarcone]

The mass transit system in St Louis is in shambles. Always broke. They cut back on the bus routes to only the routes inside the I-270 loop due to lack of ridership. The light rail is a nice system, but very limited. Like Panerd says, just not real popular.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thanks to everybody for the feedback. Kind of confirms my very first blush (relatively uneducated) expectations to some extent, that neither market has a supermegamajor mass transit system that's a vital part of everyday life for a broad spectrum of the population. Not criticizing either city about that, it just isn't something that exists everywhere.

[cuervo72]

I've been to Baltimore 10 times. They have mass transit? Could have fooled me.

It's not very good mass transit, as it doesn't seem to cover all that much of the city.

There's the Light Rail (which I'm surprised doesn't kill daily, seemed like it went right through streets) which comes from the North (Hunt Valley) down through the city, and Metro which has endpoints in Owings Mills (NW) and the Hopkins Medical campus (the station is actually underneath it). I used the latter daily for a few years, and the Owings Mills area certainly grew a lot during that time. There are a number of stops in between those that are in pretty questionable neighborhoods. Not that JHMI isn't, but you could reach a ton of docs there.

I never once set foot on the Light Rail, though apparently it does go down to BWI. It also stops by Camden Yards (Metro stops a few blocks north at Lexington Market).

[claphamsa]

every time i go to baltmore i use the light rail... it has no use other than getting to and from the stadiums.... and its not very good for that. but then again, its baltimore.

[Young Drachma]

I lived in suburban Illinois for almost five years and people there loved the light rail. But...I don't know that any of them used it for anything other than games.

[Celeval]

Agreed on Baltimore - light rail is useful traveling from BWI into Baltimore (or DC), and going to the ballgames - there is a stop right outside of Camden/whatever the Ravens stadium is these days.

[Buccaneer]

When I traveled to the DC-Baltimore corridor, I purposely pick a spot near the light rail and use that exclusively to travel into either cities. One there, I would not consider riding local mass transportation (unlike SF or the Northeastern cities).

[lordscarlet]

Local transit in DC is fine. :)