These Bike Riders Find They Can Car Less : Transportation: Two wheels--and incentives from employers--get commuters to work.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — It was the tale of the tortoise and hare come to life. But instead of reptile versus rabbit, this competition pitted bike against car.

Brian Rapp, an engineer at McDonnell Douglas, was the cyclist. Linda Uman, manager of the firm’s environmental transportation group, did the driving. They set off down a 2 1/2-mile course on Bolsa Avenue early one morning last week, racing from stoplight to stoplight.

As one might expect, the car had the edge in acceleration. But at each red light, Rapp caught up on his road-worn touring bike. When they reached the sprawling aerospace plant, however, it was no contest. The cyclist zipped right up to the bike racks at the front door. Uman, meanwhile, parked somewhere out amid the sea of cars, trudging up to the plant’s front entrance four minutes after Rapp.

Old fables don’t lie.

But the little race also demonstrated an important point--that the bicycle can be a pretty effective mode of transportation for the daily commute to work.

In these times of smog and traffic congestion, hundreds of workers across Orange County are turning to their bikes as a route to work that’s more healthy, less stressful and far more friendly to the environment than cars.

Bike commuters, of course, have been around for years. But new impetus has been added to the movement in recent years with passage of Regulation 15, the sweeping air pollution control measure that requires Southland businesses with more than 100 employees to promote more ride-sharing among workers.

To that end, a number of firms have been making great strides to get their employees out of their cars and onto the seat of a bicycle. A recent survey by the South Coast Air Quality Management District showed that two out of five businesses in Southern California offer incentives to employees who ride their bikes to work.

“Biking definitely has it’s place in the ride-share mix,” noted Claudia Keith, an AQMD spokeswoman. “It’s something companies are looking to offer.”

Several firms have installed showers and locker room facilities so workers have a place to freshen up after the spin to work. Others have offered monetary incentives. And some have even given free bicycles to employees who don’t have them.

At the Nabisco plant in Buena Park, for instance, the company budgeted enough money to buy eight bikes for employees willing to commit to riding to work at least three times a week for six months.

The company also agreed to reimburse those already commuting by bike with $400 each if they met the same criteria. More than two dozen of the plant’s 400 or so employees are bike commuting today, putting the firm well on the way toward meeting its Regulation 15 requirements.

Officials at the city of Irvine, meanwhile, opted to loan bicycles to employees. Several bikes that were impounded by police and never claimed were cleaned up and repaired by a mechanic.

So far, 15 people have borrowed the bikes, but officials expect that number to increase. Of the 520 people who work at the civic center, 150 of them live within 5 miles, an easy commute by bike, noted Jennifer Koffler, the city’s ride-sharing coordinator.

“This is the wave of the future,” Koffler said. “The people who are doing it are losing weight, they’re finding it’s not as hard as walking, and they don’t have to get in a car with someone else like they do with car pooling.”

Jim Von Tungeln, chairman of Irvine’s bicycle trails committee, has already logged 1,500 miles this year commuting between his home and job as a schoolteacher in Santa Ana. Already an avid cyclist, Von Tungeln decided to make commuting part of his riding program after his employer offered money as an incentive.

“It’s extremely stress-relieving after dealing with those students all day,” Von Tungeln said. “By the time I get home, my wife asks, ‘How were the kids today?’ and I have to think about it because it’s been a while since I’ve seen them.”

Rapp also fits his bike commuting into a regular regimen of riding. Rapp figures that between commuting and riding for recreational purposes on the weekends, he puts 220 miles on his racing bike most weeks.

But for “lots of guys” at McDonnell Douglas, bike commuting is all the riding they do, he said.

“It gets you in great shape,” Rapp said. “It’s good to get out in the fresh air. And it’s much better for the environment.”

Uman, the aerospace company’s ride-share coordinator, noted that many cyclists have been commuting to the plant for years. There are now more than 100 people who ride their bikes every day, she said.

But with Regulation 15, McDonnell Douglas has tried to boost those numbers. The company did a demographic study and found that about a quarter of the plant’s 8,000 employees live within 5 miles.

With that in mind, the firm has set a goal of trying to get 800 employees--one out of 10 people now at the firm’s Huntington Beach facility--to ride their bikes to work most days, Uman said.

Many people who drive a short distance to work rationalize that they’re adding less pollution to the environment than someone with a longer commute, but that isn’t necessarily the case, she said. The bulk of the air pollution emitted by cars comes as the engine warms up and cools down, which occurs during even the shortest drive.

In an effort to get more people on bikes, the firm last week held a sweepstakes to give away 50 new mountain bikes. More than 260 people entered, with the winners to be selected in the next few weeks.

Each person picked must fill out an application pledging to ride to work at least three days a week for three months. After that, the bike belongs to the rider.

“Hopefully they’ll continue to ride it to work,” Uman said. “If the program is a success, we’ll purchase more bikes.”

In addition, the firm is putting in showers and lockers for cyclists at two different spots on the sprawling complex, where work is being done on the Delta rocket, the planned NASA space station and various “Star Wars” defense projects.

Uman said company officials are also discussing the possibility of offering money as an incentive to people who commute by bicycle regularly.

As Rapp demonstrated during his race against Uman, which was part of the promotional effort last week, bikes can have a decided advantage over cars, particularly when it comes to the company parking lot.

“When you get to this plant, you have to park your car and walk,” Uman said. “It takes me probably seven to eight minutes to walk in. A bicyclist just rides up to the door, puts the bike in a rack and walks right in.”

Uman said most of the people who try cycling to work quickly become hooked.

If she sees one potential roadblock, it’s a certain apathy on the part of some cities toward cyclists, Uman said. All too often, some municipalities drag their heels when the topic of putting in bike lanes comes up, she said.

“They’ve got to get behind making it a safe way to get to work,” she said. “If they can help do that, I think we’ll see a big upsurge.”