February
2008
America’s 50 Greenest Cities
… and Omaha’s not one of them.
This is interesting information from Popular Science, regardless. Look at how many of these cities are in California!
When I look at the ratings for the cities, I notice that there are four factors that determine whether or not your city is green enough to make the cut.
1) Electricity, 2) Transportation, 3) Green Living, and 4) Recycling/Perspective.
Pretty vague, right? But I can definitely see why Omaha wouldn’t be on this list, particularly in the second category - transportation.
Omaha is a driving town. The vast majority of Omahans know jack about hailing a cab, taking a train, which side to load onto a subway, or catching the bus.
Sure, we’ve probably done it before. But it’s not something that we’d like to do. We much prefer the convenience of driving our vehicles from Downtown to Village Pointe and beyond. This sprawling city has so little to offer commuters in the line of public transportation that we just recently completed an expressway near an interstate to open up traffic in the middle of the city. We love being independent, and if our commute takes longer than 15 minutes, we might consider moving.
I once called a train line in California in preparation for my first trip to San Francisco, trying to get more information from them about how to use their train, where I could get tickets, how I would get back to my original locale, etc, and the woman thought I was just off the Mayflower, here to discover the New World. I had to explain.
“Look, we’re from the MidWest. We drive everywhere. I have never in my life used a train. I’m used to avoiding the ones that carry coal. Could you please humor me.”
Suddenly she was very understanding, although I don’t think her opinion of me improved much.
I’m going to see if I can find some evidence of Omaha looking to improve it’s public transportation. Will keep you updated.
seriously omaha is terrible at transportation. carpooling is a no-go. but an even worse, unpardonable sin is the lack of bike routes. you can’t feasibly bike around omaha. sure, you can mount your bike on your car, drive to a secluded area and bike along the pre-carved paths, wending your way along scenic routes to your heart’s content. but isn’t biking supposed to be about transportation? and in that way, we fail. you will get run the hell over in omaha biking along the streets, not to mention raise the ire of thousands of drivers. everything here’s a little too spread out for biking to be worth it to run to the store, grab some groceries, etc. the only place worth biking is the old market. but if you’re in the old market, watch for those cobblestone paths. you might catch one and end up face-first on the ground. awesome. i love you omaha. no seriously, i do, but not when it comes to bike paths.
Gene - I agree. When I think about biking to work, I have a hard time imagining how to get there safely. It’s definitely something we need to work on!
I have to vouch for the Omaha bus system, actually. The buses here are clean, on time, and pretty fast. I took the bus once from UNO to my apartment (appx. 67th & Dodge to 38th Ave. & Farnam) and it was only about 10 minutes. (That sort of trip in SF would have taken 30 or 40 minutes). It’s just that there aren’t enough of them. If I only had to travel a small route — say, from Creighton to Metro South at 27th & Q — I’d ONLY take the bus.
But because I work out West, there are no bus options for me. I still love the bus, though, and highly recommend them.
The SF bus system was often up to an HOUR late, and full of druggies going through withdrawal, people eating fried chicken or smoking on the bus, and actually about the same price as Omaha’s. The ticket system was stuck in the 60s; the only reason people rode it was because there’s nowhere to park and because the city is only 7 miles x 7 miles.
I haven’t ever taken the bus anywhere here. When I was in Oregon, I noticed that EVERY street had a bike lane. And, that’s not to say that the car lanes were wide enough that, on a bike, you could feasibly ride in the gutter without being killed. BIKE LANES! Omaha may never have this. There would be some serious overhauling of the entire city’s main roades if this were to come to pass. It’s a shame. Boulder, CO, is the sames way.
I have tried many times to simply ignore the danger and take my bike out to go to work or to hit the store or whatever. It’s just never easy. I don’t know how many hecklers I’ve encountered or how often I have to take roundabout routes in order to get to where I’m headed, but it’s very tough in Omaha to take the biking alternative even if you’re willing to ride in the streets with the cars.
I’m thinking maybe I should try the bus, Katie.
Justin - I agree. Bike lanes in Omaha would take a lot of work, and probably a much larger interest in bike riding than in a new baseball stadium. (Sorry, had to get that in there.
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I’ve always had the assumption that you have to be a brave soul and fairly accustomed to riding your bike if you were to try riding in Omaha. I’m sure that a person could come up with an acceptable route eventually, but it’s sad that it’s so hard here.
[…] One great way to know how to become involved with Omaha’s green initiatives is to visit the Green Omaha Coalition website. The Green Omaha Coalition is working steadily toward a larger membership with more participation from the community. Their goal is to make Omaha one of the greenest cities in the country. Remember this article, about the 50 Greenest Cities? We can be a part of that list, too, especially by partaking in events like Earth Day Omaha. […]