With the wind swirling and the sleet falling, Eric Grove pointed to the rack outside his downtown shop and proudly noted the number of bikes locked in its frame.

While riding to work isn’t a requirement for employment at this downtown business, it is, Grove said with a smile, strongly encouraged.

“We’re going to see more and more people getting on bikes and wanting safe routes back and forth to work,” he said. “People have to get comfortable with where the routes are and get used to finding routes with lower traffic.”

Grove, owner of Great Divide Cyclery, is something of an insider when it comes to Helena’s broken network of bike lanes and hidden routes. Two years ago, he commuted to work on his bicycle every day, proving it was possible even in Montana’s wild climate.

Grove also helped develop the city’s nonmotorized transportation plan. Using his experience as a bike commuter, he helped identify popular destinations and ideal routes through town to reach them; a map the city could grow on.

With fuel prices pushing $4 per gallon and showing no signs of coming down, commuting by bike is catching on among residents who are using pedal power to get around town.

Bob Jahner and his wife, Jan, began commuting by bike two years ago when fuel in Montana cost an average of $2.49 a gallon. While they’ve found ways to deal with morning traffic across Montana Avenue and other busy intersections, they’d like to see the city do more to facilitate commuters like them.

“One of the things the city could do is develop maps and routes more extensively than it has, and it could encourage people to use them and put up bike racks around town,” Jahner said. “If you’re going to be serious about creating a town that encourages this kind of activity, you’ve got to take care of those things.”

Grove and Jahner, along with other cycling commuters, are waiting for the city to improve its system, whether by connecting routes and enabling access across Interstate 15, or simply creating marked bike lanes through town.

“It seems like now, it’s obvious, those things should be in place and they’re not,” Grove said. “We’re a little behind the curve, but it’s headed in the right direction.”

Allen Cormany, the city’s neighborhood transportation coordinator, said the city recently formed the Non-Motorized Travel Advisory Council to address the issue.

The nine-member council, which has met three times since its inception, is working to create a network of bike and pedestrian paths across the city. It is also looking to identify ways to fund the projects.

“One of the focuses they’re looking at is biking and pedestrian and trail projects in the city, and how to expand on the existing system we already have,” Cormany said. “We have some funds available for biking and pedestrian and trail work. We just need the council to take a look at these projects and, off the list it comes up with, see which projects are worth doing first and worth funding.”

After working in engineering for 18 years, Cormany is familiar with the process and the time it takes to move from concept to completion. Good ideas, he noted, must be designed. Designs must go to engineering. Contracts follow and bids must be let for construction.

That aside, he added, the city stands behind the needed improvements. It is, he said, working proactively to get ahead of the curve.

“There are things that won’t happen overnight,” Cormany said. “We know our bike lanes and bike routes are pretty few. One thing we wanted to do is expand off of our existing system.”

While more residents are hitting the streets on two wheels to beat record-high fuel prices, commuting by bike in Helena isn’t always easy. It’s not the hills or bouts of wind, bike commuters say, but the current lack of infrastructure.

After years of debate, bicycles still aren’t permitted on the Walking Mall. Cycling lanes around the city are hard to find. Many roads lack shoulders or sidewalks, forcing cyclists to merge with fast-moving traffic or seek alternative routes.

“Our infrastructure just isn’t there yet,” said Kevin Colvill, shop manager at Big Sky Cyclery. “There aren’t a lot of shoulders to pick as you ride into town. But as the demand increases, I suspect the infrastructure will be put into place.”

Colvill ran a bike shop in Missoula in the mid-1980s. Back then, he said, even Missoula — known as a bike-friendly city — lacked the infrastructure needed to ensure cycling was a safe and realistic form of transportation.

But the cycling community grew and the city’s infrastructure improved. It may have taken five to seven years to achieve, Colvill said, but Missoula now offers a far-flung network of marked bike routes and lanes, giving residents a safe option to driving.

In time, Cormany said, Helena’s own system will grow as well. Initial projects could begin next summer.

“In five years, we’ll have two or three projects we’re in the process of doing or completing, with three or four coming down the line, maybe 18 months later,” he said. “We’ll start to connect the dots and fill in the gaps. It just takes time to get it done.”

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston@helenair.com