The moment it hit me, I was biking into school when I passed under the train tracks with an Amtrak whooshing by overhead; how much stereotypical does it get?
Other signs include an efficient and widely used fleet of buses (some of them hybrids!), prolific farmer's markets, solar trash compactors at the university, and bike racks everywhere, for example by the supermarkets and apartment buildings.
Like I said, it's not perfect. There aren't many bike lanes, although on the smaller and less-used streets this isn't much of a problem. Many of the buildings--both campus and residential--are old and therefore did not consider resource efficiency in their design. There are no solar-panel or wind-turbine roof-mountings that I've seen; but there is a recycling program.
I also realize that "green-ness" isn't the reason most use public transportation. On the small streets near the university during rush hour...it's hell to navigate with a car, and if the time difference in your commute is around 5-10 minutes between driving and taking a bus...better save those $400 and not buy a parking pass. For many, a $100...even a $300 bike is cheaper than a $10,000 car. It's simple economics...
And yet...maybe the fact that it's easier to get around with bikes and buses than with a car in this town is a good sign? Maybe that's what we should aim for--not getting people to be green in spite of the competition, but because it's the easy or economical thing to do? That's a kind of "green" movement I can believe in.
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