I realized over the weekend that I missed National Bike to Work Day on Friday (and Bike to Work Week all last week), so I didn’t get a chance to remind all of you blog readers to bike to work if you can! Even if you missed the national event, do some searching to see if your city has its own Bike to Work Day coming up; a quick search revealed that San Francisco already had their day on May 12, while here in Denver it will be held on June 22, so the dates of the local events seem to vary around the country.

But it’s still National Bike Month, and of course, you don’t need a formal event to hop on your bike for your commute. The weather is warming up, and even if recent storms around the country have deterred you from biking, there will no doubt be a beautiful day in the near future when you could take to the road on two wheels instead of four.

A quick cleanup and change of clothes once you arrive is all you need to be ready for the day. You may even find you’re more energized than usual and can skip your usual cup of coffee. Make it a weekly thing (or even more often) and you’ll start seeing real savings in your commuting costs—especially with rising gas prices. Still need convincing? Check out some of the benefits of biking to work that we posted a couple years ago. Who doesn’t like shiny objects and weird clothes (you know, along with those reduced emissions and savings on fuel)?

Can’t bike to work for some reason? I’m with you there. A long distance and unsafe roads make it difficult for me, though I know some people will drive or take public transportation part way and bike the rest. I haven’t tried that yet, but I still try to take steps to reduce my time in the car.

Telecommuting and an alternative work schedule reduce the number of days that I commute to the office. My community has a lot of trails, so I often bike to the library or store to reduce the number of short car trips that I take. And when my husband and I get together with friends during the summer, one of our favorite things to do is plan the day around places we can all bike together—biking to the park, a child’s soccer game, and dinner all make for a great day of socializing and exercising outdoors. Even if you can’t bike to work, you can likely bike somewhere.

So if you haven’t already, pull out your bike from winter storage, tune it up, put on your helmet and safe riding attitude, and hit the road!

Did you participate in National Bike to Work Day? Tell us about it! Check back tomorrow for more tips on driving less.

Allison Casey is a senior communicator at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which assists EERE in providing technical content for many of its Web sites.