Today’s Detroit News has an article titled Cutting the Cost of Commuting. It discusses how some Michigan companies are helping their employees cope with higher fuel costs.

What’s great is the more progressive companies like Google and Herman Miller are promoting bike use.

Google’s Ann Arbor office donates $5 per day to a charity of choice for those who walk or bike, according to spokesman Patrick McLaughlin. About half the workforce take public transportation, walk, bike, or carpool.

Brian Walker, CEO of Zeeland-based furniture manufacturer Herman Miller and an avid bicyclist, decided to discourage the use of cars altogether when he implemented a “bike pooling” system that matches other cyclists by location and schedule.

Rather than offer stipends to buy gas, the company provides one-time reimbursements of $100 for bicycles, $50 for helmets, and $500 for hybrid cars.

Here’s more video from NBC Nightly News on America’s growing switch to bike commuting. As noted, many cities across the U.S. have the infrastructure to help their residents make that switch. Unfortunately that is not the case in nearly all of Detroit’s suburbs.

Many cities… have a well-established infrastructure of bike lanes, bike-friendly public transit systems, and bike parking, making switching from four wheels to two easy for drivers fed up with high gas prices.

As we noted earlier, Governor Granholm started occasionally biking to work.

Our Governor also said that MDOT was looking at building more bike lanes. We made some calls to MDOT to learn more.

This is apparently “a new challenge to MDOT to get more on-road paved shoulders to assist with bicycle travel.” The are especially looking opportunities where they could connect with existing regional bike networks using state trunk lines.

This is very welcomed news for Michigan cyclists.

Also, Michigan’s governor riding to work did get some ink in the Chicago Tribune recently:

You know times are tough when the governor of Michigan, the top executive in the state that put the nation on wheels and sold a generation of Americans on the virtues of gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, is now riding her bike to work.

This symbolic gesture by Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm—pedaling a couple of days a week to the state Capitol in Lansing—is part of an evolving behavior shift by individuals, employers and governments struggling to adjust to the hard reality of gas at more than $4 a gallon, as well as higher energy costs overall.

The Oakland Press reported about Michigan’s Governor commuting by bike to the State Capitol:

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is riding her bike to work a couple of times a week, an example of a way she says Michigan consumers can save money.

The 49-year-old governor lives just southwest of the city center, about 3 miles from her office near the state Capitol. She rode her blue bike to work Wednesday, accompanied by her security detail.

The state Department of Transportation is looking at state roads to figure out where it would be safe to add bike lanes and is planning to expand park-and-ride lots and add more, since some are at capacity as more drivers carpool to save money, Granholm said.

Heather Newman of the Free Press also blogged on this:

Granted, Granholm’s three-mile commute isn’t exactly a grueling workout. But most of us make plenty of short trips – to the dry cleaners, or the local supermarket/convenience store, or the movie rental place – that we could probably reach easily on a bike. Or walk to, for that matter.

It’d save a little gas, and it might add a few calories to our daily workout. It’d cut down just a bit on our personal smog emissions. But more importantly, it’d contribute to giving us all a more healthy, active lifestyle – one fueled by the recognition that our legs can, in fact, take us to meaningful places.

Today’s Detroit News has an article on road users switching modes from cars and trucks to cycles — both motorized and not.

Local shops say customers also are dusting off the bikes and cycles they own, fueling a significant increase in demand for tune-ups and repairs.

“We’re seeing bikes that haven’t seen the light of day in years,” said Liz Szewczyk, an employee at Continental Bicycle Shop in Hazel Park. Not only is the maintenance and repair business booming, she said, but also the sale of commuter bikes — those that come with fenders, lights and other safety features for longer commutes.

“When gas was $3.50 (a gallon), customers started trickling in,” Szewczyk said. “Then it hit $4 and (business) went poof.”

The Detroit Free Press also ran a similar piece yesterday.  It includes an interview with Andy Staub from Beat the Train:

Andy Staub, 42, also relies more on his bike, but for commuting 12 miles from his Dearborn Heights home to his job as a slitter operator at Olympic Steel in Detroit.

He used to bike mainly for sport a couple of days a week. But due to gas prices, he’s added a third day and is considering a fourth.

The commute takes him about 50 minutes by bike, compared with 25 minutes when he drives his 1998 Jeep Cherokee.