As a bike shop employee, Alix Greenwell has a reputation to uphold when it comes to commuting to work.
It usually means that rain or shine she dons the appropriate gear and pedals the 2-mile trek from her North Lawrence home to Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, 802 Mass.
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"Considering we're a bike shop, we all kind of pride ourselves on doing it no matter what," said Greenwell, 28. "We all have the gear to get there without being a mess when we show up to work."
Needless to say, Greenwell has appreciated this year's mild winter weather.
"Last winter, I was shin-deep in snow and I had to walk my bike," she said.
Many Lawrence residents some with cars, some without opt to use pedal power instead of gasoline to fuel their commute to work or school. It's a lifestyle decision with pluses and minuses that doesn't work for everyone.
Only 1 percent of Kansas commuters in 1990 used a means other than a personal vehicle, carpool, public transportation or walking to get to work, according to U.S. Census data.
A 1997 University of Washington survey of bicycle commuters in the United States and Canada defined the average bicycle commuter as a 39-year-old male. In Lawrence, however, the number of Kansas University students who pedal up Mount Oread every day for classes likely would drop that age average.
Weather was the main hindrance that kept survey participants from bicycle commuting more often.
Top motivations for biking to work or school included health and fitness, environmental concerns, congestion, cost of gas, and parking cost and availability, the study reported.
For Dennis O'Malley, a chemistry professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, biking to and from work is an opportunity to gear up for the morning and wind down for the evening. He's been doing it since 1984.
"It's a little bit of exercise," he said. "It's a thorough break with the day. I just enjoy it for all those reasons."
Another perk: O'Malley drives his car so little that he only has to gas up once every two months or so.
"Mostly when I'm running around town, I do it on the bicycle," he said.
Although O'Malley can bike to the Haskell campus from his home on 27th Street in a direct path that's about a mile and a half long, he usually leaves early enough to pedal a 4- or 5-mile course for exercise and enjoyment. He keeps a spare set of clothes at school so he can clean up and change before class starts.
At the other end of the spectrum, Greenwell has her commute down to a time-saving science. She's devised a route to work that gets her there in less time than if she drove.
"There are less stoplights the route I take on my bicycle than if I was driving," she said. "I've got a shortcut that gets me on the levee, so I avoid car traffic altogether for a good portion of the way."
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