It doesn't have public transit comparable to Chicago, New York, or even San Francisco, but it is a much younger city than those and has much different dynamics both historically (was really built out in the 50s and 60s with suburbs in mind) and politically (fiscal conservatives are huge here).
I typed pretty much the following paragraph in another comment, so forgive me for being annoying but I want to stress it:
Despite that, and despite that the DART rail to to the best of my knowledge didn't exist 20 years ago, you can take the rail to the far northwestern suburbs (Carrolton), the far northern suburbs (Plano), the northeastern suburbs (Rowlett), the west (DFW airport), and all of the lines reach into different parts of South Dallas and connect areas like Oak Cliff, Fair Park, Deep Ellum. The TRE connects Irving and Fort Worth. Buses cover a much wider area.
The trains do run a less frequent weekend service, but they still run to every single one of those areas. Considering the political culture here and the fact that DART loses money I'd say that is a damn miracle.
You can make the comments you want about the car culture here, but that is true for any suburban city in America. People will say the same thing about LA drivers.
I wish Dallas was better but it is doing damn well for itself.
It doesn't have public transit comparable to Chicago, New York, or even San Francisco, but it is a much younger city than those and has much different dynamics both historically (was really built out in the 50s and 60s with suburbs in mind) and politically (fiscal conservatives are huge here).
I typed pretty much the following paragraph in another comment, so forgive me for being annoying but I want to stress it:
Despite that, and despite that the DART rail to to the best of my knowledge didn't exist 20 years ago, you can take the rail to the far northwestern suburbs (Carrolton), the far northern suburbs (Plano), the northeastern suburbs (Rowlett), the west (DFW airport), and all of the lines reach into different parts of South Dallas and connect areas like Oak Cliff, Fair Park, Deep Ellum. The TRE connects Irving and Fort Worth. Buses cover a much wider area.
The trains do run a less frequent weekend service, but they still run to every single one of those areas. Considering the political culture here and the fact that DART loses money I'd say that is a damn miracle.
You can make the comments you want about the car culture here, but that is true for any suburban city in America. People will say the same thing about LA drivers.
I wish Dallas was better but it is doing damn well for itself.