While respondents only give transportation reliability an index score of 5.9 (lower than Hong Kong’s and London’s matching scores of 6.5, but ahead of Toronto’s 5.6), for the most part those surveyed do feel that, despite recent delays, public transportation gets them where they need to go, with 86% stating it is ‘acceptable’ or ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’

While 48% of respondents are not willing to pay higher fares, 41% of those surveyed would be willing to pay higher taxes to fund improvements in infrastructure.

In terms of roads and bridges, however, roughly one-third of residents in New York — as well as in Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Sydney — say these infrastructure elements are getting worse, explaining why roads are viewed as the first or second priority for infrastructure improvements in all of these cities.

“We’re going to continue to innovate and use technology to give our customers more options, convenience and ability to control their costs.” – Timothy P. Cawley, President of Consolidated Edison

Overall, New York residents ranked fast rail connections to the airport third after solar power and fiber-optic broadband in terms of its impact on their quality of life. But this technology was viewed as particularly important by middle and upper income respondents, who identified it as the number one technology out of the 11 listed.

This aligns with the importance all New Yorkers surveyed place on public transportation in general. When asked about infrastructure improvements, respondents identified upgrading public transportation as their priority for the future, with enabling new forms of public transportation coming in sixth on the list.

“In the last century, the Port Authority was on the cutting edge of technology when it physically connected New Jersey to New York under the Hudson River. In the 21st century, connections are digital as well as physical - from cell service to free Wi-Fi...” - Kevin O'Toole, Chairman of the PANYNJ and Rick Cotton, Executive DirectorPort Authority chairman: What we're doing to modernize 100-year-old PATH

Some 40% of New Yorkers surveyed are confident in the city government’s ability to protect infrastructure from natural disasters; 49% are confident in the city government’s ability to protect infrastructure from terrorism; and while 43% of respondents have been informed of drills or exercises to help prepare their city for emergency situations, 34% have not.

“As we have seen time and time again, our subway system is impacted by the forces of nature. Just as our employees work around the clock to clean up after a storm, we must also proactively protect our infrastructure.” - New York City Transit, President Andy ByfordNYC Transit plans flood resiliency project for April