The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation unveiled a list of Top 10 Initiatives for 2006 that places priority on making sure bicycle and pedestrian facilities are built into all road and street projects.

The Top 10 Initiatives were announced Oct. 24 at the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation's Annual Member Meeting at the Chicago Cultural Center where members and the general public listened to a wide-ranging list of goals, including rescuing communities from reckless driving through the Drive with Care campaign, dramatically increasing physical activity through Sunday Parkways, and increasing the level of bicycling for women and people of diverse ethnicities.

"This year's 'Top Ten Initiatives' list seeks to continue the strong work of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation in improving bicycling conditions and reducing traffic congestion," said Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. "We invite all Chicagoland residents to join us in promoting active and healthy living regardless of their choice to bike, walk, and/or take public transportation."

This is the third year the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has released a list of initiatives to communicate its most important efforts for the upcoming year.

The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation's "Complete Streets" campaign is designed to ensure that all streets provide comfortable and safe transportation choices to the people who live, work and travel on them. A network of complete streets would improve the safety, convenience, efficiency and accessibility of the transportation system for all users.

2006 Top Ten Initiatives:

1. Establish Complete Streets as the standard for all transportation projects, planning and funding. Complete streets are safe and comfortable for all modes of travel, including walking, bicycling and public transit.*

2. Launch the Drive with Care campaign to rescue communities from reckless driving through a region-wide initiative that promotes and coordinates education, design and enforcement solutions.*

3. Grow bicycling advocacy's influence among local, state and national political leaders.

4. Promote bicycling and walking through Go Healthy!, a project that offers physical activity prescriptions, individualized information, and incentives to people who want to drive less and travel in ways that improve health and well-being.*

5. Engage women and people of diverse ethnicities in bicycling and the work of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.*

6. Ensure that the new federal Safe Routes to School funding has the maximum impact in Northeast Illinois in encouraging youth to safely walk and bike to school.

7. Stage Chicagoland's first Sunday Parkways, a new event that seeks to dramatically increase participants' physical activity by closing arterial streets to motorized vehicles and opening them only to bicycling, walking, skating, and non-motorized travel.*

8. Reverse the 1998 Boub decision to encourage towns to add bike facilities and designate bike routes and to restore liability protection for on-road bicyclists in Illinois.*

9. Advance Build & Ride and other programs that encourage underserved youth to be more physically active and develop workplace skills through bicycle use and maintenance training.

10. Expand activities which elevate bicycling within our culture by celebrating bicycling's vital relationship to food, shopping, entertainment, work, recreation and daily life.

*Carried over from 2005

For more information, please visit www.biketraffic.org.