By some accounts, Graham Erickson Sr. has nerves of steel.

Every other morning for the foreseeable future, Erickson plans to load his wallet and coffee thermos into the cargo pack on his converted mountain bike, a “rolling creature comfort limo,” and pedal 10 miles to work.

The 35-minute trek — timed on his clock/odometer affixed to handle bars — takes him from Louisiana Highway 1085, east though Louisiana Highway 21 and through downtown Covington before jumping on U.S. Highway 190 during rush hour traffic. It’s there, he said, each pedal forward is like playing Russian roulette with speeding cars.

Graham Erickson Sr. uses his trusty beast, a converted mountain bike, to commute to work, sometimes on a 10-mile trip, to save money on gas. (Staff Photo by Matthew Penix)

“I’m probably one of the only ones to do it,” Erickson said of the drive. “You have to have steely, steely nerves to ride on 190. But I figure the way gas prices are right now, it’s no time like the present to kick it up back up again.”

“It” is bicycling, he said, and with skyrocketing fuel prices teetering near $4 a gallon, some St. Tammany residents like Erickson are turning in four wheels for two as bicycles prove to be a cheaper, albeit sweatier, way to commute.

In Slidell, Sue deRada, founder of BI-PAC, an acronym for Bicycling and Pedestrian Community Action, a non-profit organization touting health and financial benefits of bicycling, has started a riding club every Sunday at 4 p.m. in Heritage Park.

The goal is to gather 10 bicyclists to ride the busiest streets in Slidell, a move she hopes will make new riders more confident and make motorists more aware of bikers so each can ride in harmony.

 “With (gas) prices they way they are, people are going to have to get out there” on bikes, she said. “Why should I pay half my paycheck for gas when I can ride for free?”

It’s a story Rick O’Connell has heard dozens of times.

As the owner of Bike Zone on U.S. 190 in Covington, O’Connell has seen “more interest in bikes than ever before,” during his 15 years in business.

“Almost every customer that comes in talks about the gas prices,” he said. “People are sensitive to gas prices. It gets them thinking of other means of transportation.”

He attributes 20 percent of his sales this year to customers fed up with gas prices, up from almost zero last year. His employees, however, estimate a much higher number, likely roughly 30 to 50 percent.

Meanwhile in Mandeville, Steve Sperier, owner of Spokesman bicycle shop on Causeway Boulevard near Legend’s, said gas prices have fueled a 1,000 percent surge in new bike sales. Sperier, however, is quick to point out the increase still only accounts for 10 percent of total sales, but last year at this time, it was 1 percent, he said.

“Last year, nobody was thinking about it,” he said. “I can’t remember anyone coming in and saying I need a bike because I can’t afford gas prices. This is the first year it happened. And if it’s happening now, it’s only going to continue.”

The League of American Bicyclists agrees.

The Washington, D.C.-based trade group said its been contacted by “hundreds, if not thousands” of residents nationwide who are looking into bicycling as a way to save at the pump, said Jeff Peel, a spokesman for the League.

While it’s hard to quantify Peels’ claims because no surveys or studies on the subject have ever been commissioned, Peel said increased bicycle sales and anecdotal evidence suggests commuter bicyclers are ballooning, he said.

“The gas prices are waking people up to alternatives,” Peel said. “Bike racks at offices or neighborhood stores are filled to the brim where this time last year they weren’t.”

Even city governments are peddling into the fray, he said. From Mississippi to Minnesota and everywhere in between, city officials are applying to be awarded the League’s “Bicycle Friendly Community” status, a designation that says government is promoting bicycling. The city of New Orleans this year was granted an honorable mention for its efforts to install more bike racks and build paths along levees, Peel said.

St. Tammany Parish, on the other hand, has not applied despite owning the Tammany Trace, a 31-mile bike path stretching the entire parish and one the White House has boasted as one of its 50 Millennium Legacy Trails.  But the hesitancy could lie in one fact: St. Tammany boasts no sidewalks or no bike lanes considered crucial for safe travel.

 “That’s our biggest complaint,” O’Connoll said. “People would ride even more to save at the pump if they didn’t have to cut through major traffic.”

 “We have to urge our politicians to listen to us, to put up signs and bike lanes,” deRada said, inspired by a trip to Europe where bicyclers seemed to outnumber motorists. “We need to develop that culture here.”

Brian Parsons may be able to help.

Parsons, the coordinator for the Bicycle and Pedestrian program with the state Department of Transportation and Development, said he’s revamping a 1998 Bicycle Pedestrian Master plan that may improve biking avenues in St. Tammany and elsewhere.

That plan examined when and where bike lanes and paths should be installed along major roadways statewide.

But the $200,000 “plan was never really adopted,” he said. “It kind of sat on the shelf,” meaning when roads were built, bike lanes and sidewalks were not considered in design processes until it was too late.

Now he’s revisiting the plan with New Orleans-based consultant Burk-Kleinpeter Inc., so “I can get into the process from the beginning,” he said.  “St. Tammany is part of the state that really has a lot of riders. We need to look at this closely.”

In the meantime, Parson’s department has developed a “Bicycle Suitability Map” indicating safe roads and routes for bicyclers statewide.

The map, color coded to indicate safe routes, dangerous routes and routes with “moderate traffic,” indicates nowhere in St. Tammany that boasts a route with low traffic.

In fact, most routes boast moderate to high traffic volume, not conducive to safe riding.

For Erickson, none of that seems to matter.

With his “trusty beast” of a bike by his side, the one his coworkers joke is more “Frankenstein” than modern, Erickson plans to have the last laugh.

He only saves 10 minutes when driving yet spends much more on fuel.

“Plus, it’s fun. I’m half tired by the time I get to work, but I have more energy throughout the day when I ride in,” he said. “I’m trying to make this a fairly regular thing.”