[BevoLJ]

I didn't address Brazos Bend and Hood Counties because they are not relevant to this discussion. Just because they are closer doesn't mean they are more relevant. If a significant portion of their population was commuting to the metro then they would be in the metro. But they aren't so they aren't included. And if they aren't commuting to the metro why should they be included in a study on traffic in the metro?

All of the metros in the OP have "entire swaths of people" who don't have access to public transit from that metro. Dallas is in no way unique in that regard. Austin is no different. Neither is Houston.

You just put up some of the DFW ones with out your public transit, here are Austin's,

Bastrop - 74,141
Caldwell - 38,066
Hays - 157,107
Williamson - 442,679

DFW is not alone in that.

For some reason you seem to want to use distance as the measuring stick. It is not a good one. For one the areas with little population that are distant from the metro have little population. The small populations don't have any real effect on the final numbers, and the little effect they do have is negligible since all metros have small populations around, again DFW isn't unique in that. If those places did have large enough population to support public transit, then they would probably have it. If they are large enough to support public transit and they don't have it, then that is very significant and is something that should be reflected in the numbers.

I think you might be looking at the numbers differently than it is intended. What I get the feeling that you are looking for is a study on the people living there, not on the metro. Like I get the feeling you are looking for a study on if people have the choice and options are they, or aren't they, willing to use mass transit. If that is what you are looking for the of course this study is going to reflect that poorly. This was done by pulling the numbers off the census results. It isn't some huge study don't by some Washington D.C. think tank or something like that, to show how individuals are behaving. This to me is more about how a metro area behaves.

In that regard to how the metro area behaves then the metro's failure to provide transportation options is one of the most significant aspect of the discussion and should be reflected as such in the numbers. Not including them would make the entire ranking utterly pointless.