Rahm Emanuel rides a bicycle

Some of you might not know that Barack Obama’s former Chief of Staff resigned his White House office last October to run for Mayor of Chicago. After a judicial kerfuffle about residency requirements, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week that Rahm is indeed a legal resident of Chicago and eligible to run for the mayor’s office.

Emanuel, who infamously created a hit list of political enemies he wished were emphatically “dead” (his word, not mine) back when Sarah Palin was a nobody in Wasilla, is an avid cyclist who’s as serious about biking as he is politics. He’s a triathlete who has difficulty playing well with others, and he’s known as an aggressive lycra-clad jerk who rides too fast on recreational trails. Expanding Chicago’s bicycling plan is a central part of his proposed transportation plan for chicago.

He wants to accelerate the city’s implementation of the bike plan and make Chicago bike network the most complete in America. He wants Chicago to be a pioneer in creating segregated sidepaths, with a priority on creating lanes on major thoroughfares that link communities to downtown and each other.

He plans to seek funds to convert the Bloomingdale line — an unused elevated railway above Bloomingdale Avenue — into a greenway that connects the Loop to existing bikeways on the west side.

His transportation platform even includes a proposal to expand bicycle parking in Chicago.

Steven Vance has more to write about Rahm Emanuel’s biking proposal. Since the entire US Midwest is frozen under this week, you might as well hunker down and do a little reading.

Via Brendam the Chicago Bike Lawyer.

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