Bike to work

Increased bike usage means more bike
maintenance. In our area where it is
dusty and dry that means regular chain
cleaning and oiling. This is a small hassle
compared to the benefits of riding.

Did you catch the NPR story on the increase in numbers of people who bike to work in the US?

I'm not sure if I bike to work. It might be more that I work off my bike. Some people work out of their cars but I work off my bike a good deal of the time -- meeting people on the street, thinking and praying while I ride... Apart from a few years it's been that way since I was a kid. But it is more so now.

"We see that biking [to work] has actually increased over the last decade by about 60 percent," McKenzie says. "Just over three-quarters of a million people bike to work..."

The Census also found that workers with the highest rates of bicycle commuting have incomes of less than $10,000 per year or hold graduate or professional degrees. And when it comes to gender, men are nearly three times more likely than women to use a bicycle to get back and forth to work.