Why I bike to work

People have all sorts of theories about why I bike to work. I've had people call me a tree-hugging hippie for riding my bike. I figured that since today is Earth Day and there are all sorts of encouragement to ride your bike today (and May, which is just around the corner, is national bike month), I'll list my reasons.

1. Biking is good for the environment. It just is. And if that makes me a tree-hugging hippie, so be it. I also recycle anything I can.

2. Biking is good for me physically. It forces me to get regular exercise. My doctor likes this. So do my hips. Regular exercise is also supposed to help boost your immune system, and with my asthma making me especially susceptible to severe respiratory infections, I'll take any boost I can get.

3. Biking is good for me mentally. It's much less stressful than trying to find parking in this city. It helps to relieve stress. There's nothing like a good hard ride when I've had a stressful day to release all the pent up energy. Exercise releases endorphins, and endorphins make you feel good.

4. Biking is good for my wallet. With rising gas prices, biking is making more and more sense. It also doesn't cost anything for me to lock up my bike, so no parking meter or garage fees. Not to mention it would have cost me over $100 a month to park my car where I work...which is about 2 1/2 miles from home where I can park my car for free (and $100 is two weeks of groceries, thankyouverymuch!).

5. I enjoy it. Seriously. I have honestly always enjoyed biking. I find it freeing.

So that's it. I'm sure I could come up with many more reasons if I really thought about it for awhile, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind.