Al Brody is praying for $10 a gallon gas.

No, Al is not crazy. He’s sane. He’s bright. He seems like a nice guy.

But he’s a diehard bicyclist and a tireless advocate for the two-wheeled community who thinks fundamental changes in the way we get from here to there won’t occur until we face European-level gas prices.

Brody’s views are timely, since June is Bike Month in Colorado Springs, and a festival Saturday in America the Beautiful Park kicks off a monthlong series of events. (For details, visit: www.trailsandopenspaces.org/BikeMonth/Index.htm.)

Brody, chairman of the Pikes Peak Area Bike Coalition, has been working on bicycle issues for six years and has seen some movement in making Colorado Springs a place where people might actually be able to use a bike to commute to work.

“Incrementally, at a glacial pace, we are getting there,” he said this week. “I see progress, but not huge progress.”

On May 1, the League of American Bicyclists gave the city a silver award, in part, for its efforts to create a road system that can accommodate both cyclists and motorists.

Brody said many of the cyclists he knows couldn’t understand how the city got the award, since their perception is the city is “terrible” in promoting a bike-friendly environment.

Brody said he thinks the city deserves the award at least partly for its commitment to create bike lanes on new roads and bridges.His goal is to use the award to lobby the city to improve its efforts.

Among the things he’d like to see: a 3-foot passing rule, which would require motorists to give bicyclists that much room while overtaking. He said lots of cities have such a traffic law, and it addresses perhaps the most irritating, potentially dangerous situation cyclists face.

He said the city’s bike trail system is nice, especially for recreational riders. But trails are generally built on rights of way above drainage and sewage systems, so they tend to be in low spots and just in certain areas, thus of limited use for commuting.He said a proposed tunnel on the Rock Island trail at Constitution Avenue and Circle Drive could be a model on how to make such trails useful for bike commuters.

“That should be the standard,” he said. “If you don’t have to stop at intersections, especially in high-traffic areas, all of a sudden bikes could be as fast as a car.”

Brody said he’d also like to see the city do a better job of clearing sand and gravel off bike lanes. He said the anti-skid material laid down after snowstorms can linger for months on bike lanes, making them treacherous to two-wheeled vehicles.

Still, he said there are reasons to be hopeful. The city has about 70 miles of signed bike routes. Bike trails are being funded by the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority. And statistics from a $4 tax on the sale of new bikes show bicycle sales have gone up every year for the past 15, and close to 30,000 bicycles have been sold in the city this year.

“That number means they’re selling more bikes than cars or light trucks in all of El Paso County,” he said. “Somebody is doing something. Something is happening. “They’re out riding.”

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