Howard Mindel’s day begins at 5:15 a.m.

The 57-year-old DeKalb resident climbs aboard his Cannondale ST600, 21-speed touring bike and begins the 11-mile ride into work from his home off North Druid Hills Road.

At 6 a.m. Mindel arrives at his office in downtown Atlanta where he works as an electrical engineer for the Army Corps or Engineers.

At 3 p.m. he loads back onto the bike and completes his 22-mile round trip. That has been Mindel’s routine almost every day since 1996.

“I started because of the Olympics. Everybody was saying there would be traffic jams everywhere,” Mindel said. “I’m glad they portrayed all that gloom and doom because that’s what got me started.”

Mindel said he has been an avid bike rider since 1973, so after the Olympics left town he continued the routine.

“It gets me to work, it keeps me in shape and it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “That’s why I keep doing it.”

And with increasing traffic congestion headed downtown each day, Mindel said riding his bike is a convenient way to travel.

“It’s not much slower than the fastest way I can get to work,” he said.

If the weather is bad, or if he has to transport something to the office, Mindel still avoids driving and uses MARTA buses and trains, a process that he said can sometimes take longer than his 30- to 45-minute bike ride.

For his dedication for using alternative forms of transportation, Mindel was recently honored by the Clean Air Campaign.

Earlier this month Mindel was named a recipient of the 2009 PACE Awards. He was honored, along with three other metro Atlanta commuters, for preventing 50,000 pounds of pollution by choosing other forms of transportation rather than driving alone.

“These commuters demonstrate the real impact that individuals can make in the fight for cleaner air and increased mobility,” Clean Air Campaign Executive Director Kevin Green said about the commuters.

Mindel said the hardest part about the ride is being a part of traffic.

“A lot of people are hesitant about riding in traffic,” he said. “I had to get used to riding at night and in traffic.”

Though he said he has had some near misses, Mindel said he has never been in an accident on his bike.

“The most hazardous thing out there is someone behind the wheel of a car on a cell phone.”