Mirror, mirror on the wall – which is the greenest city of all?
That is the question posed by Car.com’s second annual Green Cities Index which shows which areas have the most interest in hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles. The index ranks cities across the USA by evaluating the number of hybrid searches as a percentage of overall car searches in each market and then ranking them.
Eight of the top 10 cities on the list can be found in just three states – Oregon, California and Washington – as the Pacific North West continues to show the greatest eco-conscious.
Eugene in Oregon finished at the top of the list ahead of its Oregon neighbour Portland and Santa Barbara in California. Meanwhile, it is cities in the south that are lagging behind with seven of the bottom 10 cities coming from Mississippi, Texas or Louisiana – Laredo in Texas finished at the bottom of the list.
Another interesting note is that in addition to the West Coast cities, it is often cities with colleges that rank high on the list. In among the top 15 cities are several smaller cities with large state universities such as Charlottesville, VA and Gainesville, FL.
Here is the top 10 in full:
1. Eugene, Oregon.
2. Portland, Oregon.
3. Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo, California.
4. Monterey-Salinas, California.
5. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, California.
6. Charlottesville, Virginia.
7. Medford-Klamath Falls, Oregon.
8. Chico-Redding, California.
9. Juneau, Alaska
10. Seattle-Tacoma, Washington.
