BY JOHN RICHARDSON

MaineToday Media, Inc.

So you're thinking about dusting off the old bike and pedaling to work. There are a number of good reasons, including $4-per-gallon gasoline, global warming and those extra pounds you'd like to burn off.

Standing in the way, however, is an entire transportation culture that's built around cars and trucks and is openly hostile to anything that can't keep up. Still, the number of people biking to work this summer is clearly way up, although no one knows by how much.

And the trend, together with better safety laws, appears to be making the roads a little more welcoming, bikers say.

Volkhard Lindner of South Portland has been riding bikes to school and work for 40 years, first in Germany, where he grew up, and then in American cities from Seattle to Portland.

"Biking is a lot more part of the culture" in Europe, he said. "It's seen more as a means of transportation, where here it's seen more as a form of exercise."

Some American cities, such as Seattle and Portland, Ore., are known for their bike lanes, trails, parking facilities, safety laws and education programs, among other things.

Maine isn't a horrible place to ride, said Lindner, who bikes year-round to his job as a medical researcher in Scarborough. He and others are quick to encourage more people to make the switch, as long as they know and follow the safety rules. But Mainers have plenty of good excuses to stay in their cars and pickups.

Sprawl has put a lot of us out of comfortable pedaling range, for one thing. The average Maine commute is nine miles, although many of the people who can least afford gasoline live 20 miles or more from work. Our roads are designed for Ford F-150s, not Treks.

In cities such as Portland, there are notorious hazard zones for bikers -- try Congress Street through Stroudwater or Tukey's Bridge, to mention a couple. Country roads tend to be narrow with no shoulders. And during pothole season, which peaks in April but never entirely ends, the edges of those roads can resemble mountain bike courses.

Even the traffic lights are against bikers. Motion sensors don't detect bicycles (or motorized scooters and motorcycles, for that matter), so law-abiding riders sometimes have to wait for a car to come along to trip the sensor and change the light.

But the most intimidating thing for many would-be bike commuters is the traffic. While long-time riders insist it's possible to commute safely, they also tell stories of being beeped at, yelled at, cut off and, in some cases, knocked down. Lindner has had drinks thrown in his face. Sometimes, he said in a faint German accent, "they show you the bird."

"They like to scare you, so they come up from behind and scream at the top of their lungs," he said. "You have to be a pretty good biker when people are giving you one foot as they pass you."

But that is changing now, and many motorists are sharing the road, according to Lindner and other bikers. A state law passed last year requires cars and trucks to give bikes at least three feet of clearance as they pass.

There hasn't exactly been a police crackdown to enforce that one, but the law has had an educational effect, bikers say.

"There are clearly some who know there's a three-foot law now," Lindner said. "Some are very conscientious and really watch out for you."

Where's that tire pump?