There are three bike-to-work rides scheduled for this Friday in Detroit

• Woodward Ave ride (Royal Oak/Ferndale/Midtown) to Campus Martius
• Jefferson (Grosse Pointe/East Side/Rivertown) to Campus Martius
• Michigan Ave ride (Dearborn/Mexicantown) to Campus Martius

All of the ride information, including the stops along each route, are included on the Detroit Synergy web site.

Information on volunteering for this event is also on the web site.

There’s are also bike-to-work events scheduled across Michigan. The Michigan Municipal League’s Let’s Save Michigan site has a good listing of those rides. You can also sign their pledge, though it’s unclear just what that does for you.

And, this Saturday is a Henry Ford bike to work day. As you may know, Ford was an active cyclist. In fact, he was the first bicyclist in Detroit to Share the Road with a motorist — Charles B. King. He often rode his bike to work as his house in the Boston-Edison neighborhood was conveniently located near both his Highland Park and Piquette factories.

This Saturday ride — as the flyer wisely notes was a work day back then — starts from Ford’s house and ends at the Piquette plant where the Model T was invented.

Reuters recently wrote about new research on the benefits of “green exercise.” Apparently just five minutes is all need, which is good news for bike commuters.

Researchers from the University of Essex found that as little as five minutes of a “green activity” such as walking, gardening, cycling or farming can boost mood and self esteem.

“We believe that there would be a large potential benefit to individuals, society and to the costs of the health service if all groups of people were to self-medicate more with green exercise,” Barton said in a statement about the study, which was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Many studies have shown that outdoor exercise can reduce the risk of mental illness and improve a sense of well-being, but Jules Pretty and Jo Barton, who led this study, said that until now no one knew how much time needed to be spent on green exercise for the benefits to show.

And don’t forget to mark your calendars. Bike to Work day in Detroit is May 21st. You can start from Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe or Dearborn. All rides head to Campus Maritius.

Here’s an interesting blog out of Toronto called Urban Country that we stumbled on via a Howard Meyerson Tweet.

The blog article in particular is about biking to work:

Here in Toronto, the City has been handing out awards to bicycle-friendly businesses since 2001. The 2009 Bicycle-Friendly Business Awards will take place on January 19th, 2010 at the Gladstone Hotel and we will find out who this year’s most bicycle-friendly businesses are.

The consulting company that employs me imason inc. is an example of a bicycle-friendly workplace, and I felt compelled to highlight my workplace in the promo video above.?imason allows employees to bring their bicycles directly into the 8th floor office, storing them at the back of the office, while also providing shower facilities for those who feel compelled to shower after cycling in to work.

Do you work for a bicycle friendly employer?

SEMCOG recently launched a new MiBikematch service and the Free Press has an article it.

MiBikematch, a service to match up bike riders who would be more comfortable taking the trip with another rider, has been launched, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments said Wednesday.

Users register there, entering their starting point, destination, days they ride and their work hours. That information is compared to other users for potential matches. Participants may contact potential riding companions through e-mail or the Web site. The service is free, SEMCOG spokeswoman Iris Steinberg said.

The program is part of an effort by state and local agencies to encourage folks to think beyond driving to ease congestion and improve air quality in a state among the tops in the nation in the percentage of drivers commuting alone by car.

Note that after signing up, you can select how you prefer to commute: by bike, car pool, van pool, or some combination of those.

It’s apparent that in order to make this service a success, we need a lot of bike commuters signing up.

$5 per gallon of gas would hurt the program either.

Steve Roach, the League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB) Director for Detroit and the Pointes, was recently profiled in Grosse Pointe Today.

Roach, 48, is a lawyer at Miller Canfield in downtown Detroit. Several times a week, weather permitting, he leaves his car at home and commutes from his Grosse Pointe Park house to his office by bicycle. The 8.5-mile route carries him into decaying neighborhoods, over rutted pavement and sometimes through sweltering heat, but all of this doesn’t stop him, or even slow him down, and it certainly doesn’t bum him out. Exercise is its own reward.

“It occurred to me that it takes me at least 20 minutes to drive (to my office), and I started thinking I bet I could ride (there) in 20. I’m able to clear my head and enjoy it. For an extra 20 minutes of commuting a day, I get an hour’s worth of exercise.”

Through my job as Detroit Greenway Coordinator for MTGA, I get to work with Steve quite often. He’s definitely one of the shining stars within the LMB.

And on our most recent Detroit rides we even rescued a baby goat. Serious.

While he’s been very supportive of the Detroit biking and trail efforts, he and others are also working to make the Pointes more bike friendly. One suggestion is having bike lanes on Jefferson, or at least some Share the Road signage.

Here’s a video from the Grosse Pointe Today article as well.