Steve Hulme has gone through three bikes and pedaled more than 80,000 miles through heat, slush and rain to get around Boise.

The 47-year-old Bench resident wouldn't have it any other way.

"When I hit 100,000, I'm going to celebrate by buying myself a new bicycle," Hulme said.

An estimated 3.2 million people in the United States bicycled to work at least once a week in 1999, according to the city of Seattle's bicycle program. Bicycle commuting isn't tracked in Boise, but Hulme and other avid cyclists say interest is growing slowly.

Employers -- such as St. Luke's Regional Medical Center -- have added incentives in recent years to get more employees to consider cycling and other forms of alternative transportation.

The downtown Boise hospital, which was running out of car parking, offers cyclists locks, a secure compound with bike racks, showers, $40 a year to one of three bicycle stores, and will pay to fix flats for employees who get them at work. As many as 220 employees bike to work in the warmer months, and about 30 do so in the winter.

Hulme, who works at Boise Cascade as a computer programmer, bicycles to work year-round.

He started in 1985 after a co-worker at Boise City Hall told him how much she liked cycling to work.

"She enjoyed it so much, I finally decided I ought to see why she was so excited about it," Hulme said.

Hulme bought a mountain bike, and started commuting on it from his home off Vista Avenue to downtown. He wasn't sold on his new transportation right away.

"I didn't know if I was in shape to ride a bike," he said. "I knew I had to ride up that hill every afternoon, and that seemed scary until I tried it a few times."

Hulme, who has since moved across the street from Cassia Park, rides his bike every day to work, during lunch breaks around town, and to church on weekends.

He and his family own a car, but Hulme said he only uses it for a few errands. He rides because it's less expensive than driving, it's easier on the environment, and it gets his heart pumping.

"I have found (cycling) is a great form of stress relief and exercise, as well as getting where I want to go," Hulme said. "Nobody has ever mistaken me for Greg LeMond or Lance Armstrong, but I'm sure my cardiovascular health is better than it would be otherwise. And that's the main reason I ride -- because it makes me feel so good."

He times his one-way 4-mile work commute at about 13 to 15 minutes.

"I challenge anybody to leave my neighborhood at the same time and meet me at the front door (of Boise Cascade). I'm pretty sure I'd be waiting for them," Hulme said. "I'm not out looking for a parking space."

Hulme, a father of four, is always trying to get other people to ride.

"My family is sick of me trying to encourage them," he said.

On a recent day, he counted 18 cars going past him on Latah Street, and 16 were occupied only by the driver.

"That seems to me a real inefficient use of the infrastructure," said Hulme, who grew up in Boise. "It just disturbs me to see what was once a two-lane road now a five-lane road crammed with cars during rush hour."

About two years ago, cyclists protested in Boise, criticizing the city for becoming less bicycle-friendly and asking for more bike lanes. Ada County now has 86 miles of bike lanes and adds them to all road projects that are part of the Ridge to Rivers trail system, as well as to other roads, depending on cost and right-of-way.

Former Ada County Highway District Commissioner Gary Richardson, a bicycle commuter whose push for alternative transportation sometimes made him politically unpopular with developers, wanted to start a bicycle advocacy group, but it never got off the ground.

Hulme figures the reason he hasn't seen more people join him during his 16 years of pedaling to work is the convenience of the car.

"The automobile is real seductive. It's so easy to get into your car and turn the key and step on the gas. It does all the work," he said. "If gas were $4 a gallon, maybe more people would ride. Look at Europe."

Hulme, though, is happy to share his advice for cycling in Boise with anyone who asks.

"I've ridden most every place in this town."