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F.K. Day with workers at WBR's bicycle assembly facility in Lusaka Zambia a bike The city council has adopted a program to put 3,000 bikes on the streets of chicago by fall. share and share Leah Day talks with field mechanics in Mwinilunga, Zambia, about a WBR- sponsored training program they completed. profit. With a micro loan, he bought one of F.K.'s bicycles (others are provided to students and Students at Chilayable Basic School in Chongwe, Zambia, after receiving bikes through BEEP (Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program) Todd Ricketts, whose family owns 95 percent of the Chicago Cubs, helps organize a 100-mile ride from Wrigley Field to Miller Park in Milwaukee to raise awareness and money for World Bicycle Relief. Ricketts went on the Africa Rides trip in 2010 and remembers the reaction when he and his companions delivered 100 bikes to a school outside Lusaka, the Zambian capital. "The kids were super excited," he "Everyone turned out to watch. The names would be called, and they'd come forward and be mea- sured for their seat. It was quite the celebration." He witnessed the programs firsthand, from sim- ple work-to-own contracts for students and healthcare workers to micro loans that provide an adrenaline injection for entrepreneurs. Ricketts met one African man in his 60s—F.K. introduced him as "The Transporter"—who built a mini busi- ness empire thanks to his bike. He started out buying one goat in a small town, walking about 20 miles to Lusaka and selling the animal for a $10 healthcare workers on a contractual basis) and used it to carry two goats and cover the ground even faster for double the profit. He hired an employee, got a second bike, then a third. Eventually, he bought land and began growing crops. That made him a moderately wealthy man in Zambia. "It didn't happen overnight," Ricketts says, "but it changed his life dramatically. t's 2012, and Maureen Moyo is now a young woman. Her three-hour journey now takes just one. She and her family can travel easily to the medical clinic if they're sick, and they can make quicker, more frequent trips to the market. A single bike like says. Maureen's can boost the family's income by as much as 35 percent. She's thinking about becom- ing a first- or second-grade teacher, or perhaps she'll go to medical school The impacT I in the capital and become a doctor for her hometown hospital. Her bicycle, simple and heavy, made out of steel and rubber, cost $134 to make. But it gave her everything. The bike is a revolution. MA The Wrigley Field 100-mile ride takes place August 19 at 8 am. It costs $100 to register, and riders have to raise at least $400. Visit worldbicyclerelief.org/ pages/wrigley .field-road-tour. michiganavemag.com 135 More than 8,000 miles away from Zambia, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is planning to release a peloton of bicycles into the streets of Chicago. On April 20, the City Council approved Emanuel's strategy to make the city into a haven for active transportation by developing a bike-sharing operation that will surpass the country's largest, which is in Washington, D.C. He has just the man to do it, too: Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein, who was responsible for launching the Washington version. Part of the plan includes an apprentice program that will teach bicycle mechanics to youngsters across the city. "Kids in disadvantaged communities will get the chance to learn a trade and a skill that will actually make them more employable," Emanuel told WBBM Newsradio in March. The $19 million enterprise calls for 3,000 bikes and 300 rental kiosks across downtown and the North Side this fall. Next year, a federal TIGER grant will allow for the introduction of 1,000 more. "It's going to be a game changer for Chicagoans," Klein says. "It's going to provide an active- transportation option for people who may have seen bikes as something restricted to people who wear Lycra." For $75 a year, everyone from professionals to tourists can pick up a bike from a kiosk, just like the existing parking meters. There's no charge for rides less than 30 minutes, and the stations will be spaced about a quarter of a mile apart. "Our hope is that one day you won't need a car downtown at all," Klein says. "There's a connection, I think, between active transportation and a better quality of life."