Cathy Green gets to work every day without starting her car.

Since 2003, she's commuted on bike from her home in Maryville to the Horseshoe Lake Animal Hospital in Collinsville. She's one of a growing number of people using Metro East bike paths for more than recreation.

"With the gas prices, it saves me a lot of money," she said. "And I enjoy being outdoors, seeing deer along the trail is nice and calming."

Green takes Madison County Transit's Schoolhouse Trail, one of the dozens of bike trails scattered throughout the area. Though the trails carve out an alternative highway of sorts, main roads closer to businesses and homes have a way to go when it comes to being bike-friendly.

"The majority of the roads are not bicycle- or walker-friendly," said Bryan Werner, planner for the Metro East Park and Recreation District. Bumps in the road that may go unnoticed to motorists can be a hazardous to bicyclists, and many intersections lack push buttons for crossing signals and sidewalks.

Cyclists are hopeful, however, that a push from the state to make streets "complete," which accommodate all travelers, will make trips easier and safer for residents opting to bike.

"Those kind of commutes are becoming more common. At least we've opened the community to a new way of thinking," said Taulby Roach, project coordinator for St, Clair County Transit District.

"It will make a big difference in the community when people accept it as a normal mode of transportation."

Green highway

"There's more than 100 miles of trail in the Metro East," said Steve Parks, who owns The Cyclery and Fitness Center, an Edwardsville bike shop, and "it seems like it's growing every day."

He's right: In mid-August, St. Clair County Transit opened a trail extension to connect Southwestern Illinois College to the Swansea MetroLink station. Many of Madison County's bike trails are close to bus stops or connected to bus transfer stations. Public transportation is what's making much of the Metro East bike-friendly.

"It's unusual for a transit system to run bike ways," said Jerry Kane, director of Madison County Transit, which operates seven bike "loops."

"We're integrating it with transit so people can get to work without ever starting their car," he said.

A car-free commute from the Metro East is still a ways off, but trails in Madison County do connect Granite City, Collinsville, Maryville, Glen Carbon and Edwardsville to as far north as Alton, and even across the river to St. Louis. On weekends, Kane said, trails are full of cyclists who bike or drive in from Missouri.

Plans in St. Clair County anticipate linking Swansea to Belleville's public square via bike path.

Even with an extensive cycle-highway, a bike-able Metro East depends on making the roads that go from home to the trail more bike accessible.

"We've built the infrastructure," said Parks, the shop owner. "But you do have to go a little out of your way if you're going to take the paths."

Sharing the road

Cyclists agree, Edwardsville leads the way in bike-ability. Expansions to Illinois State routes 157 and 159 widened shoulders make it easier for cyclists to use main roads, Parks said. Edwardsville, as well as Belleville and O'Fallon, have even added bike lanes to roads, designated space for cyclists,

Street improvements like this are part of Illinois' "complete streets" law, which requires the state to consider cyclists, walkers, transit users as well as motorists when designing roads.

"The idea is that when there's a road that goes through a town the state tends to prioritizes moving cars quickly between communities and people left there with road that is enormous doesn't promote local economy and healthy transportation options," said Stephanie Seskin, state and local policy manager for the National Complete Streets Coalition.

This is something Columbia, Ill., is trying to combat, said the city's community development director, Paul Ellis. They plan to add more fixed speed limit signs that display drivers' speeds as well as bump-outs that they anticipate calm traffic downtown. Improvements like these are crucial to shaping the Metro East's image as a bike-accessible community, officials say.

"It's the way of the future," Werner said.