Surprising Statistic

Dallas drives into top spot for car-free cities in Texas

Dallas, Interstate 75, traffic, traffic jam, congestion

Despite traffic woes, Dallas is the No. 1 car-free big city in Texas.

You might not be able to tell by the frequently clogged traffic on Woodall Rodgers Freeway, I-35, or I-635, but Dallas is the No. 1 car-free big city in Texas. However, Houston and San Antonio are tailgating on that ranking.

In another lane are Fort Worth and Austin, which are the most car-dependent big cities in Texas.

A CultureMap review of estimates for 2011-15 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey shows 10.1 percent of households in Dallas didn’t have vehicles during that period.

Here are the 2011-15 figures for the four other major cities in Texas:

9.3 percent of households in Houston didn’t have vehicles.
9 percent of households in San Antonio didn’t have vehicles.
6.6 percent of households in Austin didn’t have vehicles.
6.5 percent of households in Fort Worth didn’t have vehicles.

One explanation for Dallas’ standing as the top car-free big city in Texas is its AllTransit score from the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The score measures a city’s public transit connectivity, access, and frequency.

Dallas has the highest AllTransit score — 6.8 — among the state’s five major cities. Next is Houston, with a score of 6.2, followed by San Antonio at 5.7, Austin at 5.5, and Fort Worth at 3.1.

Interestingly, Austin is the only Texas city that appears on the Money Crashers personal finance blog’s ranking of the 10 best U.S. cities to live in without a car. In naming Austin to the list, the blog cited Austin’s bike-friendly culture, bus system, commuter rail system, and presence of pedicabs.

Going even further, the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the Frontier Group think tank in 2015 declared Austin was the No. 1 city for leading “full and engaged lives without owning a car.” The groups took into account the availability of car-sharing, rail-hailing, bike-sharing, and other tech-oriented transportation services.

“Expanding the availability of shared-use transportation modes and other technology-enabled tools can give more Americans the freedom to live ‘car-free’ or ‘car-light’ lifestyles — avoiding the cost of owning, insuring, maintaining, and garaging a private vehicle,” the groups wrote in a report. “Even when these services provide access to a car, they still make it easier for Americans to reduce their auto dependence by enabling easy access to a vehicle without the constant use associated with ownership.”

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happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports