Last month, the Chicago City Council approved a plan to partner with Portland, Oregon-based Alta Bicycle Share to operate the City’s first large-scale bike-sharing program until 2027.  The bike share program received $18 million in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement program funding for the first phase, which calls for 3,000 bikes and 300 docking stations to be installed by the end of 2012, with an additional 1,000 bikes and 100 stations in 2013 to be funded by a U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER grant.