"The NACTO Guide is a really important step for cities to say it is okay to be different then a rural area. We are not better…we are just different and we would like to apply these different principles," says Chicago Commissioner of Transportation Gabe Klein.

Streetfilms brings you these highlights of the Chicago stop on the tour, where representatives from the transportation departments of NYC, Portland and San Francisco shared lessons from developing bike infrastructure in their hometowns.

Watch this film in Spanish Guadalajara, Mexico is showing how amazingly transformative a ciclovia-style road closure can be for its citizens. In 7 years, their inaugural Sunday event Via RecreActiva has grown from just 7 miles with 35,000 participants to 41 miles with 400,000 users every Sunday. It goes from 8 am to 2 pm. It covers 6 municipalities. The diversity of activities features traditional ciclovia staples like aerobic classes and music, but also some new wrinkles including free haircuts for children and a city that clearly knows how to hula hoop!

Another unique aspect of this story is that one of the forces behind the success of the Via RecreActiva is a civil association called Guadalajara 2020, a group of primarily made of  business owners, real estate people and entrepreneurs who envision Guadalajara to be a healthier, greener and more humane city.

That mission includes bringing better transit to the city, making it safer to walk & bike and create equality and empowerment among its people. Perhaps it is best put by Guadalajara 2020's President, José Palacios Jiménez, who told us:

"...we would like to be able to remove the cars from the entire city. Because with all the information we manage to get, we are able to understand that the biggest problem of humanity are the cars."

Guadalajara does feature  public spaces on par with the greatest in the world, but also faces many extraordinary challenges with horrible traffic and unsafe pedestrian environments on nearly every street.  It's refreshing to see business folks not only speaking out and understanding the real solutions, but investing their funds to create an organization like Guadalajara 2020.

By installing eight bike racks, DOT created a "daylighting" effect, improving visibility at the intersection. The bike parking is much less intrusive than parked cars and helps everyone at the intersection see everyone else. Oh yeah, and now there are a dozen new places to park bikes without taking away any space from Smith Street's busy sidewalks.

For another look at on-street bike parking, check out Streetfilms' 2008 tour of Portland, Oregon's bike corrals.

So we figured let's celebrate the end of 2011 showing some of people out on their bikes Streetfilms style. (And we threw in a bunch of real FACTS in case CBS2 news decides to take a gander.)

His team wasted no time. Chicago DOT installed the city's first protected bike lane on Kinzie Street before Emanuel's first 30 days in office were over. Leading Emanuel's DOT is former Washington, DC DOT Commissioner Gabe Klein, who clearly understands the connection between safe streets and the health of a city.

Last month Streetfilms traveled to Chicago to speak with the commissioner, ride on Kinzie Street, and bask in the city's cycling excitement.

And one piece of local trivia. The Blommer Chocolate Store is right on the Kinzie Street protected bike lane and boy does it smell good. It figured prominently in my all-time favorite response to an interview question about biking.

People just have a lot of fun. You'll see families, students, and older citizens heavily sprinkled throughout the critical mass. Drivers who usually rule the congested roads seem to mostly tolerate the inconvenience. The police largely ignore the whole thing. Helping matters is that each of the rides is theme-oreinted: one month it might be to celebrate Mexico's Independence.  Another week it could be comic books. This month was particularly fun since it was all about celebrating the Day of the Dead!

Streetfilms would like to thank Guadalajara 2020 for making it possible to make the journey to document this wonderful event & sponsoring the film.  And to Gil Penalosa, Executive Director of 8-80 Cites, for organizing the details.

Groningen is the largest city in the northern region of the Netherlands. With 57 percent of all trips in the city made by bike, it has acquired the title "World Cycling City." In Groningen, even the large multi-lane roads have been tamed for safe cycling.

At this intersection on the main ring road around Groningen, cyclists get their own green phase. When the bike signal says go, cyclists at any point in the junction can travel in any direction, including diagonally. Engineer Hillie Talens explains how it works in this short video, which kicks off a series of Streetfilms we made on trip to the Netherlands with a delegation from Bikes Belong.

The Twin Cities are undergoing a steady transformation into a more bike-oriented region thanks to nearly 100 miles of greenways and off-street paths, giving residents safe and quick travel options. By far the best-known of those paths is the 5.7 mile long Midtown Greenway, which connects cyclists to destinations through the heart of Minneapolis, from east to west. As you'll see, the path isn't just giving people a great place to bike, walk, and run -- it's attracting development and new businesses as well.

Thanks to the Bikes Belong Foundation for funding this Streetfilm, our third in a series on innovations in Minneapolis. Check out the Nice Ride MN and Sabo Bridge Streetfilms if you haven't already!

The first cable-stayed bridge of any kind in the state, it’s breathtaking, even to the people who have been riding it for years. It provides a safe, continuous crossing and offers up a glorious view of the downtown skyline (especially at sunset!). The sleek Hiawatha light rail line runs beneath it, and there are benches to sit on and take everything in.

Used by an average of 2,500 riders a day, peak use can hit 5,000 to 6,000 per day on some gorgeous summer weekends, according to Shaun Murphy of the Minneapolis Department of Public Works.

The bridge was named in honor of Minneapolis' Martin Olav Sabo, a former U.S. Representative from the 5th District who helped secure much of the $5 million needed to build it. Thanks to the Bikes Belong Foundation for enabling us to feature this majestic piece of bike architecture and to show that investing in cycling and walking is well worth every penny for our communities.

"When we build very high quality bicycle infrastructure, besides protecting cyclists, it shows that a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally as important to one in a $30,000 car," said Peñalosa. And as mayor, he walked the walk, extending the network of protected bikeways to every community.

"He spent all of the money that he had developing public space for pedestrians and bicycles," said Carlos Felipe Pardo from SlowResearch.org. "If you go to other places, you have people in the mud walking but the cars on a perfect road and here it is the opposite."

Now the investment in cycling infrastructure is paying off. After starting off with hardly any bike commuters, Bogota is pushing a five percent bike commute mode-share.

Flashforward to 2011 and with over 1100 bicycles and 110 stations D.C.'s Capital Bikeshare's is amazing testament to having to "go big or go home" when deploying bike share programs.  Currently the largest bike share system in the United States, the District's 2.0 version gives users much more flexibility and options to accomplish short errands, commute to work, and to integrate other transit modes into their daily lives.

In fact, the next phase of expansion has just been announced, with 18 more stations and 265 more bikes coming this Fall.

The handsome red bikes are easy to ride, with one swipe of a keycard you're off and biking. During the am and pm commutes (and lunch hours) you'll see the bikes in very heavy rotation.  But what left Streetfilms most flabbergasted was how many people were riding them in full business attire in the hot & humid summers around the Capital. If that isn't a sign of success, what is?

Streetfilms would like to thank the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) for partnering with us on this project.

Streetfilms would like to thank our dedicated viewers for sponsoring this episode of My NYC Biking Story.

We talked with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak who told us about how they got Nice Ride MN off the ground:

"We were gonna have to build a really big system.  So I went to Blue Cross and I said we wanna do this. It's gonna be a major health initiative it's gonna cost $3 million dollars, we need you to put up a million dollars.  And they looked at it, and looked at it, and they said 'yes'....I was totally blown away.  And then we leveraged another million and a half from a federal grant - and again, this was Oberstar - so we got that $2.5 million."

"But then because it was such a huge success Blue Cross invested another million more and we got [other organizations contributing]."

Of course any public bike share system offers its own unique challenges and is gonna need support from the community to be a success.  Thanks to the Bikes Belong Foundation we're able to provide this short snapshot of the Nice Ride MN system, how it works, and where it's headed.

Central to the story is a comparison of New York to what is experienced in London, Paris and Copenhagen.  Interviews and footage shot in these cities showcase how limiting automobile use is in recent years has improved air quality, minimized noise pollution and enriched commercial, recreational and community interaction.  London's congestion pricing scheme, Paris' BRT and Copenhagen's bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure are all examined in depth.  New York City, though to many the most vibrant and dynamic city on Earth, still has lessons to learn from Old Europe.

Yesterday afternoon, Streetfilms got tips from fans saying the physically protected bike & pedestrian median was finally open. By the time we got there, scores of folks were already taking advantage - many with big, hearty smiles when they saw the path was welcoming their first ride on it.  We tried to give you the full experience from as many angles as possible during this nearly half-mile journey, another protected bike facility in New York City.

Amazingly, one of the most congested, noisy, chaotic and ugly spots in the city, now feels like an oasis of green and safety.  Dare we even say, pleasant!  And more importantly: it now allows cyclists to avoid multiple blocks of annoying navigation to and from Queens Boulevard.  It also gets rid of dangerous wrong way riding by cyclists by finally accomodating their desire to travel east.

New York Mets mascot Mr. Met was on hand to lead the riders on a loop around CitiField.  Though led around by pedicab, Mr. Met is keeping himself in great shape at 49.  He posed for plenty of photos with an awful lot of female admirers, and there was no sign of Mrs. Met.  Hmmmmm....

Streetfilms would like to thank Tread Bike Shop for sponsoring this chapter in our My NYC Biking Story.