Thanks for all of your positive replies! I'm at work right now but I'll try to snap some photos when I get home this evening if the daylight holds out.
East Hill- Thank you for the invitiation, I'll remember it.
FlatTop- RIBS is certainly a wonderful resource and a lot of fun. It might be easier to run something like that in a small town compared to larger cities. If you are at all interested in starting a volunteer-oriented bicycle repair co-op you should shoot me a PM and I can help you out with that. Same goes to anyone else.
Tude- Congratulations on your success, that's certainly a long time to get around without a car of your own and definitely inspiration for me to do the same. And you're correct, there really is NOT much in the way of flat road.
For anyone who isn't aware, Ithaca is a small town at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake (one of the regional fingerlakes). The lake is long and skinny because it was carved out of the earth by large glaciers eons ago and the deepest part of this part this particular valley filled up with what is now our lake water. So there are large stretches of flat ground if you know your way around this area as well as hills and forests galore. There's also small downtown park for skaters, bladers and bikers and some really sick tracks hidden out in the woods if you know the right people.
ChristAir- I'm glad you agree. I've helped all sorts of people with their bikes and every one of them is equally interested in what is happening.
Anastrophe- Yeah if I need to get really far it's usually with other people and we'd car pool regardless, or else the bus system works just fine.
Fredo- That's pretty much what I'm doing right now and will continue to do for a while. The nice thing about the TCAT buses is that they have retractable bike racks on the front. The only downside is that only two bikes fit at once but I've honestly never run into a problem where I couldn't fit my bike on the rack on account of it being full already. Besides, most of the people who ride the bus are Cornell University students and they seem to prefer their giant family-sized SUVs.