Bike to Work Week has cycle of personal benefits

Each morning Bob Bennett hops on his red cruiser and pedals to the front door of his North Idaho College office – a weekday commute that leaves him fit, invigorated and with a little more jingle in his pocket from the saved gas money.

“I actually feel better when I ride,” Bennett said. “It’s 25 minutes that I don’t have to think about anything. I’m a kid.”

That’s the exact idea behind Coeur d’Alene’s Bike to Work Week promotion that starts Monday. The city wants to encourage people to leave their metal boxes on wheels parked, opting instead for a bicycle.

May is National Bike Month, which has been sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists for 50 years.

“Everybody that rides their bike is one less car on the road,” said City Attorney Mike Gridley, who often bikes to City Hall and is the coordinator of the city’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee.

He said the city is striving to build more walking and biking routes so it will be easier for people to wean their automobile dependence.

Besides better bodies and more money, biking to work contributes to cleaner air and a better environment, Gridley said.

Coeur d’Alene has promoted Bike to Work Week for several years but is putting more emphasis on it this year with television and radio announcements.

Gridley said high fuel prices, nearing $3 per gallon, may make it a more popular idea than ever.

Bennett began riding to work after buying the cruiser – complete with a bell that he chimes at people as a quick hello. But it also relieves some of his guilt for owning an SUV.

And it helps with the parking problems at NIC.

He said most drivers are respectful and share the road, but he still sticks to the less-congested streets when peddling from his house near the base of Canfield Mountain.

Gridley said biking is becoming more prominent with high-profile events such as the Ironman triathlon in June. Each spring riders in bright-colored Spandex fill the roads – athletes on training rides.

Local engineer Scott Krallman normally rides to work year-round, thanks to studded tires that get him through the snow and ice.

But this year he’s training for Ironman and is driving his gas-efficient Honda Civic to work so he can leave at lunch to get in a swim.

Krallman rides mostly for the health benefits and appreciates the Centennial Trail that gets him from his Post Falls house to Coeur d’Alene.

“I just do it for my own conscience,” Krallman said.

For more information on Bike to Work, contact Coeur d’Alene City Hall at (208) 769-2300.