Laketran Working To Be Biker Friendly

National Bike To Work Day is this Friday and Laketran wants to be part of bikers' commutes.

Chris Twarogowski, a mechanical engineer of Mentor, has been biking to work since 2005.

"When gas spiked in 2005, I sold my 10-mpg SUV and bought a bicycle," he said.

At the time, Twarogowski worked in Willoughby and biked about 12 miles each way.

When his job relocated to Gear Company of America in Cleveland, his commute more than tripled. Twarogowski decided he needed to add public transit to his commute.

"When my job relocated in 2008, my family was pretty used to the savings of only having one car," he said. "I couldn’t see paying the price of another vehicle that would sit in a parking lot 40 hours a week and in the garage another 8 hours at night while I slept.

"My 80-mile round trip commute is now just a 3-mile round trip bike ride between my home and the Park-n-Ride lot.”

Twarogowski said it was even cheaper for him to bike to the bus stop and use Laketran than it was to ride a 90-mpg Vespa. He said he saves about $70 a week with the combination of bike and bus.

The majority of Laketran’s Rack-n-Roll riders use the local-routes buses because they are equipped with bike racks. Additionally, Cleveland commuters can take advantage of bike lockers at Park-n-Ride locations in Mentor, Madison and Wickliffe.

"Comparing January through April 2011 bike rack usage to January through April of this year, usage is up 94 percent," said Andy Altenweg, Laketran’s deputy general manager.

Laketran has carried 1,964 bikes so far this year. For the entirety of 2011, Laketran carried 5,456 bikes on board its in-county, local bus routes, averaging about 25 bikes on-board for each day.

For more information about Laketran and bikes, visit Laketran's web site.