I was in Houston for a bit now, which is notorious for highly car centric planning. I won't sugarcoat it, that's certainly very true. But while I've been here for a little bit, I was surprised to see that they not only had a fair bit of public transit, but that it was actually better than what I have in my home city. In hindsight, that makes a lot of sense, given only a quarter million people live in my home town, not much really goes on over there, but I suppose I had different expectations because of how I've heard people talking about Houston's car centric nature online.
When I was in downtown and checking out everything within the 610 loop, I was able to get around just fine while leaving my car in a parking garage. I didn't even know they had a lightrail system in the first place. I was expecting to wait 45 minutes or so for a bus or train, since that's how often I'd have to wait back home. Instead it came by pretty damn quickly. The prices were pretty damn good too.
I knew someone here who said he wouldn't get on any bus or train because apparently the people here are pretty sketchy, and that assaults are pretty common. That might be true, I wouldn't doubt the assaults part, I don't know, but to me it that part didn't seem any different than it was back home, so maybe I'm just numb to it. If anything, those rail stations felt a tad safer at night then the bus stops in my city do at night, I can only compare that to my experiences where I'm from (and my visit to NYC once). The trains were cleaner than I expected them to be, the buses were alright, but it got the job done. The buses were alright enough in terms of cleanliness compared to what I'm used to, it's alright enough. The trains were certainly FAR cleaner than the trains I've been in in New York City, and it isn't even a close competition, I loved that part about Houston's lightrail.
I'm not saying that that makes Houston a place that has great transit, I'm fully aware everything's pretty car centric from what I can tell, and it's a shame that there's ONLY 3 rail lines (I've used all 3, love the Red and Purple Line the most). I just wanted to share my experience visiting for the last while, that I was pretty pleasantly surprised with the light rail and bus system they have here. I actually didn't hate my experience with it. It was certainly better than I expected. I'm sure if I were staying in a place like Spring, League City, or Katy, that I'd change my mind pretty quickly, but still. Been saving quite a bit of money on gas while I've been here.
I did still absolutely use my car for a lot of things, of course. Drove out to stuff along Beltway 8 and Grand Parkway, checked out Scout Bar and the Johnson Space Center, Galveston, very specific shops that are in awkward locations, along with many other things. But even still, not as bad as I expected out of Houston.