San Antonio Has The Hands-Down Best Public Transportation In Texas For One Simple Reason

San Antonio, Texas, has a lot going for it, for both residents and vacationers alike. Whether you're visiting the chic neighborhood of Alamo Heights for its vibe and nightlife, or hitting one of San Antonio's exceptional Tex-Mex restaurants, you're never going to run out of things to do. However, there is one aspect of this vibrant city that you may not know about. According to Consumer Affairs, San Antonio has the best public transportation system in Texas. In fact, it's the only Texas city to make the company's top 10 "Cities with the Best Public Transit" list in 2024. San Antonio, and its VIA Metropolitan Transit bus system, was sixth on the list, only beaten out by New York City; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Richmond, Virginia; and San Diego, California. While there are several reasons for this, one simple one stood out, and that's safety, according to the website MySanAntonio. 

The top 10 list gave out some information on safety and scored the top cities out of a total of 20, taking serious injuries and fatalities into consideration. San Antonio got an 18.44 out of 20. It had 1.61 safety events, zero fatalities, and zero injuries per 1 million miles traveled, beating out other major cities. A spokesperson for VIA told MySanAntonio, "VIA takes safety seriously — it's top of mind for everyone in the agency, from our front-line employees who are operating our vehicles and ensuring they're running smoothly to our executives." 

Besides the Consumer Affairs study, we came to the conclusion that San Antonio has the best public transport in Texas by checking websites like MySanAntonio and WalkScore. We also looked at Reddit's r/sanantonio to get public sentiment in addition to the ratings.

Safety is a big issue, but that isn't the only reason for the high rating. Another is that 100% of the VIA bus stations are ADA-compliant, according to Consumer Affairs. Yet another is that the average fare per one-way trip is a mere 58 cents. Additionally, WalkScore listed transit-friendly cities by walk, transit, and bike scores, and while Houston was listed above San Antonio, it's still the second-highest on the list in Texas. However, one reason that it may not be at the top there is that, despite past efforts, San Antonio doesn't have a light rail system. The city's VIA buses are also underused, according to MySanAntonio. Consumer Affairs reported that there are 12.6 rides per resident, per year. In comparison, NYC had 144.2 annual public transit trips per metro area resident, and LA had 29. Still, expansion is reportedly on the way, and with low fares and high safety ratings, it's a perk to take advantage of. One thing to keep in mind, according to some posters on Reddit's r/sanantonio, is that you're going to have more luck taking the bus the closer you are to the downtown area, and some Redditors complain that the public transportation system can be slow and unreliable.

If all of this has made you want to visit, the closest airport to the city is the San Antonio International Airport, just 10 miles away from downtown. You can take a VIA bus right from the airport to downtown in around 30 minutes for $1.30, as of this writing. (Bus transfers are free.) Finally, if you're hitting San Antonio, you can take the bus system to the Dolorosa Between San Saba & Santa Rosa stop, and take a two-minute walk to Market Square, the largest historic Mexican market in the U.S.