If you’ve resolved to get more excercise, save more money, or lighten your environmental footprint in the New Year, here's a way to achieve all three goals at once: Ride your bike to work once a week. As gas prices soar and traffic congestion worsens, more and more Americans are choosing two-wheeled transportation.

For great resources about how to navigate your city by bike, visit Thunderhead Alliance, a national coalition of state and local organizations advocating safe cycling routes and strong pedestrian rights for healthy commuters. Its member organizations are in over 100 cities in 47 states nationwide.

Two examples of successful local cycling groups are Transportation Alternatives in the Big Apple and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation in the Windy City. They play both a political role – working with local governments to develop new bike paths and cycling laws – and a social role, organizing leisurely group rides and races around town.

Photo credit: Chicagoland Bicyle Federation