Chicago and Philadelphia are both really good cities to live without a car in; 24-hour public transportation, and everything one could possibly need actually within the city. I currently live in Ann Arbor, MI (fighting my way back to Chicago), and this is one of the worst public transportation systems I've encountered — especially when one considers that the city's entire economy and culture is directly tied to the University of Michigan, you can't get a bus between 10pm and 6am, Monday-Friday, and not on the weekends between 6pm and 8am.
Los Angeles public transit isn't as good as Chicago or Phila, but it's still no-where near as bad as Ann Arbor's -- the trains may stop at 2am(??? -- yep, before the bars close), but the major lines in LA proper and all through to Long Beach run 24-hours. It flabbergasts me that people claim you can't "survive" Los Angeles car-free, but I managed to.
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Los Angeles public transit isn't as good as Chicago or Phila, but it's still no-where near as bad as Ann Arbor's -- the trains may stop at 2am(??? -- yep, before the bars close), but the major lines in LA proper and all through to Long Beach run 24-hours. It flabbergasts me that people claim you can't "survive" Los Angeles car-free, but I managed to.