Only two days until my first big bike adventure! Regular readers, of course, will remember that my parents unexpectedly got me a new bicycle last week, inspired by the fact that bikes are so cheap in suburban St. Louis and so expensive here in Chicago. And regulars will also remember that I haven't been able to actually take the bike out yet for its first long test run, because the temperatures here in Chicago (and nationwide, really) have been unseasonably insane, and it's not until Friday that we're supposed to have a day that doesn't reach into the 90s (33 Celsius).

So instead I've been spending the week doing my first-ever research into just what bicycling resources I might be able to find online; this is "The Most Bike-Friendly Big City in America," after all, or at least Mayor Daley wants Chicago to be known as this, and a major part of this plan apparently involves just an overwhelming amount of free government resources concerning the subject. So I started by visiting three simple pages - the Department of Transportation's Bicycle HQ, the Mayor Office's Bicycle HQ, and the home page of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a private advocacy group that happens to work very closely with the Mayor's Office, to come up with all the cool new cutting-edge ideas they're always implementing. And sure enough, the rumor is true - all three sites have just this overwhelming amount of information, and it's quite plain that the Chicago government isn't just blowing smoke when it comes to this subject, that they really do want millions of more people to become bicyclists in this city, and to get rid of their cars for good.

One of the simplest and most effective things, for example, is a full-color map the city publishes, showing each and every of the hundreds of bike-optimized options found on the streets of Chicago these days. See, part of the mayor's big bike plan is to not only use government money to encourage people to bike, but to use government money to improve the actual infrastructure of the city as well, to make it a lot easier and safer to actually bike here if you choose, which in my opinion is where most American cities get their bike plans wrong. There are over 90 miles of Chicago streets, for example, that have special painted bike lanes on each side, which motorists are forbidden by law from driving or parking in; the Mayor's Office even has a special phone number that bikers can call while out to report people who have parked in bike lanes, which expedites the towing process. And even better, there are actually over 200 miles of streets here that have the extra space for a bike lane; the city is simply "recommending" these extra 110 unmarked miles right now as further bike routes, and are busy as we speak getting them all designated as legal bike "lanes" with the full markings and all the rest. Now add the hundreds of miles of exclusive bike lanes and paths the city maintains, the 51 indoor parking lots found at various el stations, the bridges with special bike overpasses and the like, and you're starting to see a very complicated system of bike optimizations for a city that's not exactly small to begin with.

So this map is a really nice resource to have available, because it shows all the options in convenient graphic form, and allows you to easily build an itinerary for getting from one side of the city to the other using as many official bike lanes as possible. My first long trip, for example, coming this Friday, is going to be to the Loop and back, just to see for myself how easy or difficult it is to commute to one's office job from one's neighborhood apartment (which is yet another thing the Mayor's Office is heavily trying to convince people to do these days). And according to the map, I start by biking from my apartment to the lakefront, using Buena Avenue (0.5 miles; this is the only street on my route that has no special bike optimizations); then from there I bike on the lakefront path to North Avenue (3.25 miles, on a path exclusively designed for bikers); then a quick sideways jaunt on North Avenue, over to Wells Street (0.5 miles; this is one of those streets with an enlarged bike section but not yet an official bike "lane" designation); then once on Wells, it's a straight two-mile shot to the Loop, on a street that has an official bike lane running the entire distance. Once in the Loop, Clark is the street designated for southbound bicycle transporation (there are only four streets in the Loop designated as bike-friendly, one for each direction you might need to go); I simply take it down to Monroe, walk the bike the two blocks to State Street, and in theory lock it up at the free indoor parking at the Monroe red-line el stop, which is supposedly monitored continuously by CTA offficials and the police. Total distance: 6.5 miles, only 0.5 of which involves a street with no government-sponsored bike optimizations. Amazing!

At the same pages already mentioned is also all the basic legal information you'll need to know as a Chicago bicycler; the most important one, and the one that all Chicago bicyclers should absolutely know, is that in the eyes of the law, you are a motorist when on a bike and not a pedestrian. This means, for example, that it is absolutely illegal for anyone over the age of 12 to ride a bike on any sidewalk, anywhere in the city, at any time of the day or night. Yes, so every time you see some oblivious fuck tooling down the sidewalk on their mountain bike, and almost running over a pedestrian every ten feet, they are breaking the law! This also means, for example, that you are expected to follow all motor-based laws while riding on the street; yes, you're required to stop at stoplights, yes, when turning left you must yield to oncoming traffic, yes, you are expected to signal with your hands when turning or braking, yes, you will be legally liable if you're weaving between stopped cars at a light and get smacked by a door that someone suddenly opens. Usually, of course, bicyclers aren't afforded much respect from motorists here in the US, and certainly are not usually acknowledged as fellow law-protected vehicle owners; it'll be interesting, then, to see if this is different in Chicago, because of the insanely high amount of bikers in our particular city, and whether drivers are better "conditioned" to consider us their equals while on the street.

Oh, and there are lots and lots and lots more resources I found at those sites for bicyclers as well - an online form for registering your bike with the city, an online form for requesting a city-funded bike rack at any intersection in the city you want (did you know that Chicago installs over 700 new bike racks every single year?), tips on how to best lock your bike, tips on how to ride in rain and snow, tips on how to maintain and repair your bike. Jesus, man, it just goes on and on and on and on and on. But I'm about out of memory for today's entry, so I guess it'll haveto wait for another time - just check out the sites mentioned, if you want to do a little online exploring on your own.