By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

Danielle Begert doesn’t need a reason to leave her car at home most days.

She’d rather rely on her mountain bike to make the two-mile trek between her house and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, where she works.

“It’s good exercise, mainly,” she said. “Plus, it’s pretty good for stress. It’s nice and peaceful in the morning and it’s a great way to debrief after work.”

She might have opted for her car anyway on Wednesday, due to the drizzly weather.

But she was one the 20 or so St. Mary’s employees who had signed up to participate in Maine Commute Another Way Day.

“I don’t usually like to bike in the rain, but I said I would, so I did,” she said. “Turns out, it was pretty fun. It felt good to get out in the rain.”

That’s the idea behind the event, sponsored by Go Maine.

“We’re just trying to show people how they can get out of their single-occupant cars,” said Go Maine’s Kathryn Buxton. Most commuters don’t realize they have alternatives.

“But if we get them to try it, it might convince them to keep doing it,” she said.

Go Maine is paid for by the Maine Turnpike Authority, the Maine Department of Transportation and the Greater Portland Council of Governments, to encourage alternatives for commuters.

This is the 11th year Go Maine has sponsored Commute Another Way Day, and Buxton said at least 5,000 people and 625 employers participated Wednesday. Sisters of Charity Health System offered participants a breakfast Wednesday morning, and bus rides on Lewiston-Auburn’s Citylink bus system were free all day.

St. Mary’s Gay DeHart was another participant. She lives in Oxford and carpooled with office-mate Mary Ellingwood of South Paris.

They’ve carpooled before, she said.

“But we don’t do it consistently because our schedules are different,” she said. Ellingwood has a young son in day care and needs to be home at a set time every day. DeHart’s schedule is a more flexible.

“I got an e-mail announcing the event, and I went right to her to see if she wanted to do it,” DeHart said.

She’d carpool more often if there was a better way to find people living along her route.

“I’m not even sure there’s any one else from St. Mary’s out our way,” DeHart said.

Begert said she originally planned to trade in her bicycle for Rollerblades on Wednesday.

“The trouble with that is finding a good route,” she said. “The sidewalks on my way to work are not great for Rollerblading, and I don’t want to go into the street.”

Wednesday’s rain convinced her, however. It makes it hard to stop, especially on hills.

“I’ll try it again at some point this summer,” she said. “I just have to find a good route.”