While Baltimore's transit lags behind other East Coast cities such as Washington DC and Boston, it is not that different than other midsized cities such as Denver, St. Louis, and Houston. Note that some mid-sized American cities do not have any rail transit, such as Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Indianapolis.

The transit diagrams shown here are for general comparison and are not to scale. A robust transit system is defined by more than just length and quantity of its lines. However, it is clear from these diagrams that Baltimore and other American cities are far behind the leading transit cities of the world, a group that includes New York, Paris, London, Moscow, Tokyo, and even Hamburg and Mexico City. Shown below are just three examples from this group. Visit UrbanRail.net to learn more. (Graphics on this page are from UrbanRail.net.)