Some rush hour commuters are hitting the road on two wheels.

Those wheels are powered not by fossil fuel but by kinetic energy, the power of motion.

Local hospitals are encouraging employees to burn this type of energy to get to work. It's part of the organization's wellness initiatives.

The benefits, though, can go beyond improved health. St. Alexius Medical Center nurse Diane Vetter saves a little money on fuel.

It leaves more money to pursue her hobby.

"I put it into my other habit of quilting," she said. "It's more a reshuffling of money."

Since she started riding her bike to work in June, she's noticed more people doing the same. At the hospital, more bike racks were installed, and a camaraderie has formed among fellow bike commuters, she said.

Vetter enjoys the time she spends riding to work. It takes about 15 minutes to ride 1.8 miles to or from work.

"Ireally enjoy the fresh air," she said. "I like to see the sunrise, reflect and say prayers."

At Medcenter One, the hospital challenged its employees to ride or walk to work. It's giving away movie tickets twice a week as incentives and a gift certificate to Scheels at the end of the challenge in August.

"The cost of fuel is an incentive not to drive," Medcenter One dietician Nicole Enzminger said.

She marks off days on a calendar that she walks to work. It leaves people in a better mood when they bike or walk, she said.

"I never thought about walking to work until now," Enzminger said.

It's a common sentiment for people who walk or bike for leisure. Vetter, the nurse at St. Alexius, likes riding her bike in the summer, but said she hadn't thought of riding to work until this year.

This method to work lets her get her exercise in, and have more time for the other things she enjoys in life.

For biking to work, she wears a bike helmet for safety and gloves for comfort. Her bike also is outfitted with a headlight and taillight for safety. She also has an odometer and speedometer that she clips to the handlebars of her bike.

"It's nice to know how far you go,"Vetter said.

She obeys traffic laws. She errs on the side of caution that vehicles and people don't see her, even when she has right of way, she said.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@bismarcktribune.com.)