By Lauren McSherry

Bike to Work Day participants stop at Lincoln Park to sign in and get refreshments as part of the campaign to encourage cycling to work and school as an alternative to driving.

Even with gas prices nearing $3 per gallon, saving money isn’t the only reason to bike to work. It reduces traffic and is good for your health.

That’s according to Los Altos organizers promoting the Bay Area’s 11th annual Bike to Work Day, scheduled 7-8:30 a.m., Thursday.

This is the fourth year the Los Altos Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee has organized the event, and the first year for its concurrent Bike to School Day.

“The purpose is not only to encourage people to bike to work and bike to school, but to bike to the downtown,” said Curt Riffle, committee chairman.

Los Altos is one of 72 Bay Area cities hosting the bike-to-work event.

Last year about 70 cyclists stopped at Los Altos’ “energizer stations” for free refreshments and giveaways. This year, the Los Altos Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee hopes for an even larger turnout.

The committee will have two stations located along Foothill Expressway: one at Main Street, near the consignment center, and the other in Lincoln Park.

Volunteers and bicycle advocates will staff the stations and hand out free goodies from local businesses. Cruz ‘n Cafe and De Martini Orchard will supply fruit and muffins. The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, one of the sponsors of Bike to Work Day, will provide sports drinks and energy bars. Two local bike shops, Chain Reaction and the Bicycle Outfitter, will offer bicycle accessories as giveaways.

“We feel strongly about Los Altos as a bicycle-friendly community,” Riffle said. “We thought this would be a good way to encourage people not only to think about cycling in a recreational sense, but to think about cycling as a way to commute to work.”

More than 1 million Bay Area residents live within five miles of their workplace, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a sponsor of the event.

If those commuters switched to bicycling, they could dramatically reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and augment their physical fitness.

About 36,000 Bay Area commuters use a bike as their primary means of commuting to work, according to the 2000 U.S. Census data.

Bike to Work Day organizers expect between 50,000 and 100,000 participants to turn out for the event this year. About a third of the commuters who bike to work for the first time during the event stick with it and continue to ride regularly, according to the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition.

For more information, log on to www.511.org.