The study from Texas Electricity Ratings analyzed commuting patterns across all 50 states, and Texas came in at 47th. The report analyzed a variety of metrics like traffic levels, journey times, transportation choices, air quality and vehicle pollution. Researchers noted that “despite being an economic powerhouse,” with four highly populated and quickly growing cities within range of each other, Texas still lags far behind the Eastern and Western coastal states.
As a whole, southern states make up the bottom half of the rankings.
“Continued population migration into southern states is exasperating existing transportation problems, putting additional strain on infrastructure and planning,” said Matt Oberle COO of Texas Electricity Ratings in a release. “These patterns directly impact not just environmental health but also energy consumption across these regions.”
Because of the sheer presence of cars on our roadways, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has an ongoing issue with ozone pollution. According to the city’s Office of Environmental Quality, cars are the primary source of ozone-forming emissions released within North Central Texas. In 2021, Dallas produced 23.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than any other city in the state. In April of 2025, the area was ranked as the 10th most polluted in the nation by the American Lung Association. The city has a designated air quality program within the Office of Environmental Quality to address pollution, and in their words, “North Texas is bustling.”
Potential Solutions
The Office of Environmental Quality and Oberle recommend the same approach to establishing the most sustainable commuting patterns: incentivising cleaner car choices and expanding public transportation systems.Texas actually has one of the highest amounts of registered electric vehicles in the country, totaling 230,000 as of September 2024, according to the federal Department of Energy. But that’s no surprise to anyone who has spent their idle time in stand-still traffic on the Dallas North Tollway, wondering why anyone would pay extra to custom wrap the already eye-sore of the street-legal tank called a Cybertruck.
Still, Texan investments in Texas-manufactured Teslas and other electric vehicles do not outweigh the pollution output of our highways’ most popular occupants, gas-guzzling Ford F-150s.
What Happened To That Bullet Train Idea?
Expanding public transportation in the state and large cities seems unlikely, as the 17-year-old plans to build a bullet train interconnecting Dallas, Austin, and Houston were delayed. Again.The plan, modeled after similar systems in Japan, picked up steam, pun intended, in 2024 after Amtrak took over project planning. But federal funds necessary for the $30 billion project were withdrawn, and Amtrak backed out of the deal, leaving Texans to settle for the 4.5-hour drive on I-35.
Trains interconnecting portions of the Texas Triangle have been proposed and abandoned for at least 30 years. In 1989, the state Legislature created the Texas High-Speed Rail Authority to study the feasibility of building a line between San Antonio, Dallas and Houston, but the authority was disbanded in five years for financial improbabilities.
In 2009, a bullet train between Dallas and Houston with a station in Austin, traveling over 200 mph and taking only 90 minutes, was drafted by the Texas Central Railway. The rail line communication materials place heavy emphasis on serving the state’s 100,000 supercommuters who travel between Big D and H-Town at least once a week. But support for the costly project is shaky, and the use of eminent domain to construct a cohesive rail line across the state has raised ethical concerns despite the long-term billion-dollar economic opportunities the Texas Central Railway presents.
“Until our airports get bad enough, until our roads get bad enough, until people have this massive outcry and we’re able to concentrate them on something, we’re going to have to find what that single vision is to rally around or we will fall behind the rest of the world,” North Central Texas Council of Governments senior program manager Brandon Wheeler said to Newsweek about the project.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments will meet on Thursday to discuss route realignments. The bullet train could be operational by 2035, but that’s only if planning is completed this year.
Local Transportation Woes
Locally, ongoing legislative challenges and member city opposition have increased tension for North Texas’ public transportation system, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). This has resulted in the largest proposed service cuts in the system’s nearly 50-year history. The board of directors is set to announce its final decision on the service cuts this week.A bill to restructure DART’s financing system, reducing certain member cities’ tax contributions, failed after large-scale attempts from transportation advocates. Similar bills have been filed before, but this session’s version successfully passed the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, but was never scheduled for a House reading.
Five North Texas mayors, serving Carrollton, Highland Park, Irving, Farmers Branch and Plano, petitioned Gov. Greg Abbott to reintroduce the bills in the special session. The issue was not added to the agenda, but it adds to the growing fear that similar legislation will continue to be filed in the coming sessions with increasing support.
Earlier in the summer, community members poured into a packed public hearing that lasted into the wee hours of the night to disapprove of the service cuts, which disproportionately impact travelers reliant on paratransit services.
“You have to make some tough decisions, but those decisions shouldn’t be balanced on the backs of people that can least afford it,” state Sen. Royce West told the board at the hearing held in July.
