That's right, Friday is national ride your bike to work day. I won't be participating, since Friday is my day off, but I'm giving myself a pass, because I ride my bike to work everyday that I do work anyway.

There are many reasons to ride your bike to work, not the least of which is that it's a whole lot cheaper than driving. For instance, I have a special bike that I only use for riding to and from work. I bought it about a year ago, and it cost me about $300. Throw in a few more bucks for a good lock, and some other accessories, and we'll say that I spent about $400 in all. How quickly do you go through $400 worth of gas?

Obviously, the figure depends on what kind of vehicle you drive, but I'm willing to bet that even someone driving an ultra-efficient hybrid to and from work will go through more than $400 wroth of gas in a year. And my bike will last a lot longer than one year.

I know it can sometimes be hard to ride a bike in the winter, but now that summer is here, excuses are waning. It's time to get out and ride. Even some of my co-workers here are considering riding bikes. I think it's time you did to.

I found this nifty tool today, which can help you calculate the cost/benefit of riding a bike, versus driving a car on your daily commute. It's a table on the bottom of the website. Check it out if you get the chance, you might be surprised at how much you'd save over the course of a year, even if you only rode to work once or twice a week.

Alright, I'll get down off of my bully pulpit now. Have a good weekend.