My mistake. It's a rather small point though so the general analogy still stands - there are things that work well for Houston but not for New York, and things that work well for New York but not for Houston. The "one-size-fits-all-and-every-city-must-have-transit-like-us" model simply doesn't hold any weight.
I don't believe in that model at all. Rail transit only really makes sense in the larger and denser older cities with significant geographic challenges, as is readily shown by the ridership developed. This would be Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore-Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco.
If lines are built in an intelligent manner, they may succeed outside these regions, as in San Diego or Atlanta. Most of the new rail lines in places like Buffalo, Miami, Houston, Salt Lake City, San Jose, LA, (and comming soon! Phoenix and Charlotte) are unmitigated disasters and boondogles. I believe the jury is still out on Denver, Portland, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Dallas. Seattle should be successful were it done right, but looks to be an epic disaster in the making. Cleveland and Pittsburgh have moved their way out of the naturals column by shedding hundreds of thousands of people from their city core. The major problem is insufficient population density, and lack of a defined downtown. The only real purpose to rail transit is moving lots of people in a tightly defined corridor. This requires a large enough lineal density (say 3000 people per square mile for commuter rail and 10,000+ people per square mile for urban subways and the like) and a large downtown of at least 200,000 jobs in a tightly defined area. The major achievement should be carrying enough people to eliminate one or more freeway lanes at rush hour, meaning a rush hour one way ridership of at least 10,000 people for 6a-9a and 3p-6p. Even better is carrying enough people to eliminate two or more freeway lanes. For example, Washington Metro carries about 200,000 people at rush hour, the equivalent of 20 freeway lanes coming into the city.
The "Light Rail" fad is especially dire in its failure to produce results in many places. Lots of me-too-ism goes with it.