Are there any no car needed cities in Texas? (Houston: apartment, school)

[ThatUsernameIsTaken]

I like what I've been learning about Texas so far, and a walkable city would be even better for me.

[ndcairngorm]

The words "walkable" and "Texas" are mutually exclusive.

[ThatUsernameIsTaken]

Originally Posted by ndcairngorm

The words "walkable" and "Texas" are mutually exclusive.

Damn, well, thanks for letting me know.

[ChristieP]

It's too hot here in the summer (mid June through Labor Day) to walk anywhere!

You could possibly get away with it in a small portion of uptown Dallas...but you'd still have to rely on cabs/Uber occasionally since large parts of the metro area are not served by public transportation.

[ThatUsernameIsTaken]

Originally Posted by ndcairngorm

The words "walkable" and "Texas" are mutually exclusive.

Originally Posted by ChristieP

It's too hot here in the summer (mid June through Labor Day) to walk anywhere!

You could possibly get away with it in a small portion of uptown Dallas...but you'd still have to rely on cabs/Uber occasionally since large parts of the metro area are not served by public transportation.

So it not being walkable isn't because buildings aren't close together, but because it's too hot?

[ChristieP]

Both.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

It's too hot here in the summer (mid June through Labor Day) to walk anywhere!

Typical lame excuse

It's too hot here because conservatives are always whining about "Tree huggers planting too many trees"
And yes, I have heard that from a conservative friend

[texasdiver]

Plenty of people do it in places like Dallas, Houston, and Austin. Especially Austin.

But they are not living a normal middle class lifestyle. You'll have to have your life pretty well organized and live very close to school or work. And a lot of daily activities like getting groceries is going to be a fairly big hassle.

But as others have said, there is really no place where you can live a normal urban car-free life like you might do in places like New York, Washington, Chicago, or San Francisco that have much higher density and good reliable mass transit.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by ThatUsernameIsTaken

So it not being walkable isn't because buildings aren't close together, but because it's too hot?

More than that. Often there isn't even pedestrian access to normal things like grocery stores because the freeways and major streets aren't set up for walking. Simple infrastructure like crosswalks and walk signals is often lacking as are sidewalks. So you can't even safely walk places. The grocery 4 blocks from your apartment might require a 2 mile detour around a maze of high speed freeway access roads that lack sidewalks or shoulders because no one thought to provide for pedestrian or bike access. Or it might be on the other side of an 8 lane surface street and the nearest traffic light that probably lacks a crosswalk but where you can sort of scamper across might be a half mile away.

So it isn't just the heat or distance between buildings. It is the total lack of any sort of pedestrian infrastructure to safely walk places.

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by Dopo

It's too hot here because conservatives are always whining about "Tree huggers planting too many trees"
And yes, I have heard that from a conservative friend

Trees have nothing to do with the summer temperatures here. In July and August, the normal high temp is in the mid 90s, and the low often doesn't even get down to 78. It's just HOT! And this isn't a recent change. It's always been hot in Texas during the summer!