This Road Worrier considers himself brave enough for enduring the commute each morning with a surly fourth-grader and her second-grade nemesis battling in the back of a cozy Honda Civic.

The 4,831 Triangle residents who signed up for the SmartCommute Challenge as of Monday afternoon clearly have more ambitious goals.

The annual nonprofit campaign (www.smartcommutechallenge.org) to get people to car pool, bike or hop on buses to work kicked off April 15 and will run through May 30. If the goals of reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality don't spur you to skip driving alone to work, Challenge organizers are dangling, among other prizes, two plane tickets and a week's stay in a hotel anywhere in the continental United States for participants.

(No word on whether your odds of winning the grand prize would be improved if you promised to bike to RDU with all your luggage.)

The annual challenge draws many repeat participants who have mastered bus schedules and biking shortcuts through residential neighborhoods. And those veteran SmartCommuters have long overcome any hang-up over showering after a sweaty ride to the office.

Buddy system works

Some newbies need gentle prodding, however, or a work buddy willing to show them the way. Shari Budihardjo, a program area coordinator for RTI International, took her first ride to work from Durham into Research Triangle Park with Pablo Torres, a bike-savvy colleague.

"It was actually great to be able to have somebody jump-start me, because knowing me, knowing my own character, I probably would have had all the intentions and not started until maybe months later," said Budihardjo, 30.

The 50-minute ride included a peaceful cruise down the American Tobacco Trail and an uneventful finish on a bike path along Cornwallis Road. The second ride, a solo trip two weeks ago, featured a flat rear tire, which added 20 minutes to her ride as she patched the damaged tube.

"I had my husband pick me up for the ride home," she said. "I wimped out. I don't think I wanted to go all the way home on a patched tire."

Torres, 29, said he and other biking enthusiasts at RTI hope to organize more "buddy rides" for inexperienced cyclists interested in pedaling to work.

"I think it's initially there's a huge mental barrier to overcome," Torres said. "It's easy to become intimidated with the logistics of it, 'How am I going to carry my stuff on my bike? Where am I going to shower?' Or this and that, but once you have a system, it's pretty simple, depending on who you work for."

Pretty simple, that is, if you work for RTI or another employer that provides a locker room and showers for workers who aren't eager to subject colleagues to their morning commute's sweat.

Oh, for a shower!

For Jerry Phelps a program analyst with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the 18-mile ride from his Chatham County home requires more planning. His wife also works at the NIEHS offices in Research Triangle Park, so typically they will drive in together, with his bicycle strapped on the back of the car for his ride home.

Phelps, 48, said he hopes to make at least half of his round-trip commutes by bicycle through May. But if Phelps wants to bike to work, there's no shower facility awaiting him, which leads to what he describes as "a bird bath" in the restroom with splashes of water from the sink to cool off.

"I try to make myself look as presentable as possible," he said.

Odds are, he still arrives at work looking more presentable than this Road Worrier's children after 25 minutes of scrapping in the back seat of the Civic.