Why Bike to Work?

When is the last time you smelled the honeysuckle in springtime during your morning commute? Or pulled into the parking lot with a big smile plastered across your face, pumped with endorphins and ideas? Or lost weight just by going back and forth to work every day? 

Likely never, if you slide behind the wheel of a metal box and fight the freeway each morning. But what if one day you left the car in the driveway and rode a bike instead? 

You’d actually look forward to going to work, says Larry Bennett, an underwriter for KMUW public radio. “ I arrive at work with a great attitude because I get to hear the birds sing in the morning and I get a close look at flowers in people’s yards along my bicycling route.  I arrive home in the evening with a great attitude because I get to work off the stress of the day by pedaling as hard and fast as I want.,” he says. Though he’s been making the 14 mile round trip through Wichita’s College Hill district. “ I ride a bike to work during three of the four seasons and sometimes even on a warm day in winter.  My commute is rarely boring since the same route looks and feels different with each season.  But every commute in a car is pretty much the same regardless of the time of year.” 

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