Transportation Access in Houston

Our ability to easily access safe, affordable, and reliable transportation shapes how we interact with our larger community

Houstonians tend to love their cars and love driving them. But they also have few other options to meet their transportation needs, forcing thousands of residents to bear the costs of a personal car or forgo accessible transportation altogether.

The data

Houstonians overwhelmingly depend on private vehicle ownership to meet transportation needs

Even in the famously car-centric United States (where 92% of households own a car), Greater Houston is a relative outlier for its reliance on private vehicles (and robust car culture). Over nine out of 10 Harris County residents own at least one car, and more than half own two or more. Vehicle ownership rates are even higher in the suburbs than in the city. 

While this system ensures that drivers can take their car anywhere, it offers few options to Houstonians without a private vehicle. Additionally, relying on a system of freeways and private cars makes accessing transportation difficult for residents without a driver’s license. These Houstonians often struggle to meet their transportation needs for the same reason why Houstonians rely on private vehicles to get around: driving is incentivized by inadequate public transportation and poor walkability in most of the city.

In 2021, 7.1% (122,775) of households in Harris County reported having no vehicle. Similarly, the proportion of households with no vehicles in Fort Bend county increased from 2.2% (5,514 households) in 2019 to 3.5% (9,789 households) in 2021. Montgomery County had the lowest proportion of households 2.4% (5,514) with no vehicle.

The increase in the share of households with no vehicles in 2021 suggests an increased reliance on public or alternative methods of transportation particularly in Harris County. Limited public transportation choices mean many households are forced to purchase an additional vehicle, adding burdensome car payments to a household’s annual budget.

Less than 5% of Houston-area workers use public transportation

One of the most dreaded aspects of life in Houston’s three-county region is “rush hour.” As a result of the pandemic, the Census Bureau began tracking whether workers worked from home, in addition to the typical methods: driving alone, carpooling, using public transit, walking, and cycling.

Nearly all workers in Houston’s three-county region either drive alone to work or work from home, leaving a small minority to navigate the region on foot, by bike, or using public transportation. In Fort Bend County, known for its large workforce in professional and technical services, 20.6% of workers do so from home, and an additional 69.4% drive alone. A similar proportion of workers in Harris County drive in alone to work. In Houston’s three-county region, Residents of Montgomery County are the most likely to drive alone to work (73.6%).

Access to public transportation is inadequate

A lack of public transportation contributes to the primacy of private vehicle ownership in Houston. Public transportation in Greater Houston is administered by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, commonly known as METRO. METRO offers commuters bus routes, light rail lines, and a host of other services designed to serve Houston’s sprawling suburbs. While upcoming travel improvements as a part of the METRONext program aim to expand METRO’s services, most Houstonians currently struggle to access public transportation.

Improving METRO’s services would increase access to transportation for those without private vehicles and offer residents more ways to traverse the city. It would also reduce the car dependency that creates traffic and increases commuting times for everyone on the road. Houstonians may always love our cars, but we should have other accessible ways to effectively travel around Houston.

Only 4.4% of Harris County residents and 3% of Fort Bend and Montgomery County residents live within a quarter mile of any public transit station. The result of this is that for over 95% of Houstonians, accessible public transportation is unavailable.

Harris County has the most households within one-fourth mile of a public transit stop. Access is lower in Fort Bend County and Montgomery County — both areas with longer-than-average commute times. The Fort Bend and Montgomery transit lines also provide little in the way of neighborhood connectivity, serving almost exclusively commuters to job centers and no local bus service beyond the METRO service area.

Poor walkability necessitates driving

Poor walkability is also a major contributor to Houston’s overreliance on cars for transportation. The National Walkability Index — the EPA’s assessment of the pedestrian-friendliness of an urban area, ranging from a low of one to a high of 20.

The National Walkability Index rates Harris County as slightly more walkable than the average American neighborhood with 11.43. Fort Bend and Montgomery County are less pedestrian friendly; they receive a 7.97 and a 6.65, respectively.

Most of Harris County’s walkable neighborhoods are clustered around downtown Houston. While some communities there receive high scores, the majority of land in Harris County has below average walkability. The same is true in Fort Bend and Montgomery County. Despite a few exceptions, most of the Houston suburbs are unwalkable and without public transportation. This leaves residents with no option but to drive, creating traffic and leaving those without a car unable to access adequate transportation.

Sidewalks remain a luxury in Houston

Contributing to Houston’s walkability issue is a lack of sidewalks. Houston scores poorly in terms of sidewalk distribution — the ratio of sidewalks to streets.

In all three counties, the sidewalks to streets ratio is below 1.0 (a 2.0 score represents an ideal score, with each mile of road flanked by a sidewalk on each side). Harris County scores the highest with a ratio of 0.95, followed by Fort Bend County at 0.75, and Montgomery County at 0.14. Ideally, every street would have an accompanying sidewalk, but only 47% of Harris County’s roads, 37% of Fort Bend County’s roads, and 7% of Montgomery County’s roads have sidewalks. 

Without sidewalks, we are more likely to drive which adds pressure on our aging infrastructure and contributes to poor air quality. Not only are there tangible costs, but research shows that communities with sidewalks are more likely to know one another which helps build social ties and gives us the feeling of belonging and community — critical ingredients for a thriving neighborhood.¹

Sidewalk density measures the average number of linear miles of connected sidewalk per square mile of land. Lack of safe pedestrian infrastructure can discourage people from walking even short distances.

Harris County has the most neighborhoods featuring more than 30 miles of sidewalk per square mile, followed by Fort Bend County. Virtually all neighborhoods in Montgomery County have less than five miles of sidewalk per square miles except The Woodlands. Montgomery County lags far behind the rest of the region at just over half a mile of connected sidewalk per square mile of land on average. 

Because of a lack of sidewalks, biking networks, and adequate public transportation, the neighborhoods east of I-45 are the least walkable. Poor walkability in this region has a disproportionate impact on the Black communities that historically live in the area. Despite 11.5% of Black residents of Harris County not having access to a private vehicle, Houston’s predominantly Black neighborhoods remain unwalkable and without sufficient public transportation. Thus, the result is significant disparities in transportation access by race. To ensure that all Houstonians are able to traverse the Houston area, these racial disparities must be confronted and eliminated.

Helpful Articles by Understanding Houston:

• Examining Houston’s Reputation as a Car City
• Exploring the Legacy of Redlining in Houston
• Houston is Big
• Is Houston really that affordable?
• Houston is Changing