The Bike 2015 Plan

By striving to make Chicago "the most bicycle-friendly city in the United States," 48 Mayor Daley envisioned the popular public bike rental program he studied firsthand in Paris in 2007. With funds for such undertakings difficult to find during the recession, however, those plans were put on hold. And with recent reports from Paris of widespread vandalism and theft - 18 months after the rentals were introduced, more than half the original fleet of 15,000 specially made bicycles have disappeared and the JCDecaux company said it can no longer afford to operate the city-wide network - it is more unlikely that Chicago will follow in Paris' cycling tracks. 49

But with the ambitious Bike 2015 Plan, the city is actively striving to meet its aim of having 5 percent of all trips less than five miles be traveled by bicycle. The Plan "identifies 150 strategies for city agencies, the private sector, and the bicycling community to make bicycling an integral part of daily life in Chicago." 50 Its achievements include: establishing 35 miles of new bike lanes and marked share lanes, with more planned for 2009; installing 3,500 bike racks downtown; and establishing the first downtown bicycle parking facility, McDonald's Cycle Center in Millennium Park, in which there are 300 spaces to park a bicycle and lockers rooms with showers for bike commuters. 51

Taking the city's lead, various Chicago facilities in town have begun offering bikes for tenants or employees, including the Sears Tower and the Field Museum. 52 St. Xavier University launched a bike rental program, spending $60,000 on a fleet of 65 French bikes, which can be ridden free for the first quarter of an hour and cost 60 cents for each subsequent 15 minutes. 53

Chicago's efforts to promote the spirit and enjoyment of bicycle riding are admirable, with examples such as the annual Bike the Drive event on Memorial Day weekend, during which Lake Shore Drive closes for bicyclists. Activities such as these pump up Chicago's growing national reputation as a biking city in additions to supporting efforts to promote biking as a green alternative. Named one of the top 10 most bike-friendly cities in North America by ForbesTraveler.com, Chicago is likely to move up in the rankings quickly. 54

Among the other goals of the Bike 2015 Plan include: a bikeway network that connects Chicago neighborhoods, making all of Chicago's streets safe and convenient for bicycling, and providing convenient connections between bicycling and transit by building bike shelters at CTA stops. One sizable project, priced at $2.3 million, is the mile-long biking and walking path, the Sauganash Trail, which would be built on a former railroad embankment on the Northwest side. The hope is that it will be extended to connect to other bike paths in the future.55