Kill 2 Evils with 1 Bike

My wife just called, which forced me over to my cellphonetalking position at my office window. I looked out at the long wintery shadow of the foundry on the nonwintery green grass. We've been talking a lot about the weather 'round here lately - especially since we spent 4 days up at Houghton Lake (Northern Lower Michigan) at my parents' house and there was no snow (it wasn't even cold enough to make snow - we tried!). Tip Up Town is scheduled for a few weeks from now and the lake isn't frozen. I guess the west and plains got the snow normally allocated for all of us this season.

We're going to try to get by with just 1 vehicle starting Friday - a nice treehuggerish thing to do. I actually don't think it will reduce our footprint any since we'll probably do the same or maybe just slightly less driving. We have talked a lot about getting me a good road bike so I can pedal the 18 miles to work. I figure it will take about an hour once I'm in shape for it. Well, the bike isn't in the budget for the near term, but the weather got me thinking (uh oh).

As you might have guessed, treehuggers are rightfully BIG on biking. Not only does our environment need a rest, but most of us rest way too much. Why don't more of us bike to work? I'm not kidding. I am confident that at least 30 people at my office live 5 or fewer miles from work, where there are showers and changing areas. So, if they could get to work in 20 minutes, take a quick shower, and have their workout done for the day, why not kill two evils with one bike?