Sick of high gas prices? Ride your bicycle Friday on National Bike to Work Day

Despite bike paths galore on Hilton Head Island and new ones on busy Bluffton roads, the rising gas costs haven't led many local workers to give up their motorized wheels in favor of pedal power.

Some bicycle advocates, though not overly optimistic, do hold out hope that little by little people will dust off the old Schwinn in the corner of the garage rather than pull out the Hummer for a half-mile trip to grab a latte.

As for commuting to work, that might be a little too much to ask for, considering there aren't many employers offering showers or places to park bikes.

Plantation gates don't give out passes for bikers. And bike lanes along the highways and busy roads are nowhere to be found.

But the Town of Hilton Head Island has an event planned Friday that might encourage those who have the means to bike to work and are willing to forego a $100 fill-up for a little -- well, maybe a lot -- of sweat to get to their jobs.

This is National Bike to Work Week and on Friday, National Bike to Work Day. The town will allow employees to come in a half-hour late so they can bike to work and take a shower after arrival.

Chris Caird, GIS mapping analyst II for the town, has organized the event, which has 13 participants who plan to gather in two groups between 7:15 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. to bike to Town Hall -- one at Jarvis Creek Park and another near Point Comfort. Employees who live in Bluffton will drive their vehicles over the bridges, meet at the park, leave their cars and hop on their bikes.

"This is the first time the town has done this," Caird said.

Fitness and helping the environment were the catalyst for the event rather than gas prices, but Caird isn't picky when it comes to why people may choose to bike rather than drive.

"My ultimate hope is people will get on their bikes more," he said.

Caird has been practicing what he preaches, spending the week pedaling from his home at The Preserve at Indigo Run to Town Hall.

But bike shop owners and bicycling advocates say he is part of a small minority, one they would love to see grow.

"It's not socially acceptable yet, but with rising gas costs and if people start promoting" bicycle commuting, "I think things would change," says Frank Babel, president of the Squeaky Wheel Cycling Advocacy Group on the island.

Babel has been pushing the town and the plantations to make improvements for commuting bikers.

"We have a very good system of pathways here, but we should have some bike lanes," he said. Bike lanes run alongside roads, allowing commuting bicyclists to avoid the tourist-laden leisure bike paths.

He'd also like to see more places for people to park their bikes and for businesses to offer showers for employees who bike to work.

"Another drawback is most of the plantations don't allow bikers inside," he said. He said he is meeting with plantation owners associations to try to change that.

Across the bridges, Karen Heitman, founder of the Greater Bluffton Pathways advocacy group, has been successful in getting pathways added in the Bluffton area -- on Buckwalter Parkway and around the Bluffton schools complex on McCracken Circle, for example.

"I think Bluffton is lucky we have the bike path network that we do have so those people who live close to where they work have the opportunity to bike to work," she says.

But she hasn't seen as much biking as she'd like.

She says that 25 percent of the morning rush hour traffic is made up of parents driving children to school. "I'm hoping that within the next year, the schools in the Bluffton complex will do education programs to get kids walking and biking to school," she said.

Red Gray, manager of Hilton Head Bicycle Co., says he sees few bike commuters.

"I just don't see people riding their bikes to work," he said. And "if you live off-island, it's impossible to get over" thebridges.

He does know of four island residents who ride to Starbucks or McDonald's every Sunday morning on the island.

Mac McJunkin, owner of The Bicycle Link bike shop on the island, says he's nearlygiven up hope for mass societal shifts toward a biking lifestyle, even with high gas prices.

"Why talk about hybrid cars when you can ride a bike?" he says. "It's pretty frustrating."

Then again, if gas prices hit $5 or $6 a gallon, he says, "Maybe then we'll see some changes, but it won't happen fast."