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Editor's note: By day, David Alexander, 35, is the assistant director of computer services at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. On weekends he's a competitive cyclist.

Is traffic bringing you down? Are you wasting your workout time stuck in traffic? Is the price of gas stressing you out? If you answered yes to any of these questions, bicycle commuting might be for you.

A few weeks ago I was like most Baton Rouge residents. Driving to and from work was automatic and I rarely thought about it twice. I found myself driving home as fast as possible so that I could get home and squeeze in a workout. The real irony is that I'm a competitive cyclist who regularly logs between 200 and 300 miles per week. A workout for me may consist of riding my bike a distance 5 to 10 times further than my commute.

So why was I wasting time sitting in my car? These thoughts crystallized into a plan the week after hurricane Katrina, when my regular 15 minute drive home ballooned to over 35 minutes. In my gridlock-induced reflection time I decided that I would begin riding my bike to work.

My goal was to keep things as simple as possible. When it comes to exercise, the easier an activity is to do the more likely you are to stick with it. My first step was to find a way to store work clothes at the office--after all, one does work up a sweat during a vigorous bike ride in the morning humidity. My employer, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, makes this easy by providing both lockers and showers for employees throughout the facility. To lighten the daily load I would have to carry, I decided to drop off a week's worth of clothing and towels over the weekend. With that taken care of, the only thing I would have to carry each day on my ride was lunch.

The final step was to choose the route I would use. I used a new Internet tool called GMaps Pedometer. It utilizes Google Maps to calculate the mileage of any route you select. In this way I was able to very accurately determine the length of my commute and minimize my exposure to high traffic streets with little or no shoulder.

Bicycling to me is the greatest sport in the world, but it isn't without its dangers. Cars regularly honk and swerve wildly around cyclists on roads such as Highland and Perkins. In 2002, I was on a group ride on River Road that was struck by a truck. Two of my friends were killed, and I was injured as well. Baton Rouge has a long way to go before it can be considered a bicycle friendly town, like Austin or Boulder, Colo. Commuting is one way to promote awareness.

What will it take for you to try bicycle commuting? I would recommend getting your bike checked out by a local shop to ensure it's in good working order. Then invest in a helmet if you don't already own one.

If your office doesn't have a shower available, perhaps there is a health club or some other option nearby. Finally, use some of the Internet resources I've found (see chart) to make your ride a reality.

If bicycle commuting sounds like it may work for you, step away from the car and give it a shot. Or perhaps you can make bicyle commuting easier for others. Either way, you can help make Baton Rouge a more bike-friendly place. And share the road--it is the law, after all.