Bike 2015 plan features 150 ways to encourage bicycling
The City of Chicago on June 19 unveiled Chicago's new Bike 2015 Plan, designed to guide the city's efforts to promote bicycling over the next decade.

The plan recommends projects, programs and policies to encourage use of this practical, non-polluting and affordable mode of transportation. Three years in preparation, the plan will achieve implement the Mayor Daley's goal to make Chicago the most bicycle- friendly city in the United States.

The Bike 2015 Plan was unveiled at the Bike to Work Day Rally at Daley Plaza, with Chicago's bicycling community attending.

"Chicago has done a great deal to encourage bicycling, and the ideas in the Bike 2015 Plan will continue to help make bicycling an integral part of daily life in Chicago," Mayor Daley said.

Bicycling reduces traffic congestion, conserves limited energy resources, integrates healthy physical activity into everyday travel, and reduces transportation costs," CDOT Acting Commissioner Cheri Heramb said. "This plan lays out the steps so that Chicago's bicycle facilities and programs will rival those of any large city in the world."

Work has already begun on 75 of the plan's 150 strategies, including:

* Constructing 10 miles of new bikeways in 2006, to help reach the plan's goal of a 500-mile bikeway network by 2015.
* Permitting passengers aged 14 to 17 to board CTA trains and buses with their bicycles, on a trial basis, so that Chicagoland high school students can combine transit and bicycle use.
* Hiring 10 "Trail Ambassadors" this summer, a Chicago Park District initiative to make the Lakefront Trail safer for cycling and other trail users.
* Providing free valet bike parking at 11 Chicago festivals in 2006, courtesy of the Chase Bank.
* Establishing a mini-grant program to support community bicycling efforts. Funded by SRAM, a Chicago-based global manufacturer of innovative bicycle components.
* Providing secure bike parking inside 5 - 10 city buildings, to encourage employees to bike to work.

Rob Sadowsky, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation's Executive Director, added, "The plan covers everything we hoped for: from new exciting active living programs such as Sunday Parkways to specific facilities that will make bicycling in Chicago safer and more enjoyable. The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation applauds the City of Chicago on what we see as the most ambitious bike plan in the United States."

A copy of the plan is available at www.bike2015plan.org.