Comfy New Commuter Bikes for Getting Around Town
Neither age nor inexperience need be a barrier to bikingBy Adam Voiland
If $4-a-gallon gas has you looking for relief, consider: A concerted effort is underway to attract casual bike riders into the fold. The lure is a range of new commuting bikes that promise to make everyday travel by bicycle as comfortable and fashionable as it is cheap. And if time is the excuse you give for being a bit of a slug, what better way to fit a workout in than to make it your transportation? "It's convenient; it keeps me fit; and it's economical," says Scott Infanger, a professor at the University of North Alabama in Florence, Ala., who regularly bikes his daughter, Elizabeth, 7, to school on the way to his nearby office in an effort to teach her that bicycling is a legitimate way to travel. With Elizabeth hitched behind on a trailer bike, it takes about 10 minutes to get her to school, Infanger says, about the same amount of time the 1½-mile trip takes by car.
In a country where most grown-ups regard bicycles as kid stuff, there are plenty of signs that attitudes are beginning to shift. Bike stores and manufacturers across the nation are reporting a significant uptick lately in sales. "They're selling out of all the commuting bikes—all bikes, by the way—that they can get their hands on," says Bill Fields, a consultant who has followed the bicycle industry for decades and anticipates a 20 percent bump in the "comfort bike" category, which includes commuting bikes, by year's end. Meantime, a bill that will allow employers to offer financial incentives to bicycle commuters is winding its way through the House and Senate. A bike-sharing program launching this month in Washington, D.C., which allows members to use bikes from 10 rental locations with the swipe of a card, has spurred interest in other cities. And, in Austin, Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong recently opened a cycling shop that caters not to racing enthusiasts but to commuters. Barack Obama has met with bicycle advocates and promised to increase funding for bicycling projects.
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