> asking someone in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex
> to adopt a transportation lifestyle like that in Eugene,
> Oregon, for example, should be met with laughter.
The problem is not asking people to adopt transportation lifestyles; the problem is saying 'no' to those who could adopt one if only there was adequate infrastructure. You don't build a transit network and say "Ok, now use it or else!" ...
In the mean time, while it would be nice to be able to let people in Austin get out of their cars and get on a bus, what Texas really needs to do is get people out of their airplanes! The four cities of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston are responsible for at least 200 airline flights every day; your part of Texas needs an HSR loop.
Of course this has been proposed before, but it was soundly rejected by the entrenched interests of the airlines who serve those routes: Southwest, American, and Continental. It would be a straightforward operation to use the existing Texas Eagle route for Dallas - Austin - San Antonio, and utilize the Sunset Limited route (which is barely being used by Amtrak these days; 3x/week?) for San Antonio - Houston. The full loop is ~750 miles.
/jordan