Chicago’s Divvy Bike Share System Ridership Grows as Stations Added
50,000 Bike Trips Taken, 175,000 Miles Ridden in First Three Weeks of Operation; Busiest Bike Share System in the World on Saturday; 40 New Stations Installed This Week
Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced that in the first three weeks of the Divvy bike share system in operation, Chicagoans and visitors to the city have taken more than 50,000 trips and have collectively ridden an estimated 175,000 miles.
“In a very short time, Divvy has made a significant impact on the way people move around Chicago,” said Mayor Emanuel. “We are extremely pleased by the amount of participation and enthusiasm Chicagoans and our visitors have shown for bike sharing.”
On Saturday afternoon, Divvy was the busiest bike sharing system in the world as measured by the percentage of available bikes in use, beating the popular systems of Rio de Janeiro, Taipei and New York City, according to researchers at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), an interdisciplinary research group at University College London.
Divvy staff plans to install up to 40 new stations in the next week, ramping up to 300 stations and 3,000 bikes by the end of this summer. The new locations are denoted on the stations map at DivvyBikes.com. By next spring, Divvy will be in 400 neighborhood locations with 4,000 bikes.
Advertisers have also been encouraged by the early results.. Sprint, the global provider of voice, data and internet services, has purchased advertising space at 75 stations for a three-month period.
Each Divvy station has a touchscreen kiosk, station map, and a docking system that releases bikes using a Member key or ride code. Customers can purchase $75 Annual Memberships or $7 24-Hour Passes, which allow riders unlimited trips in that period. The first 30 minutes of every trip are included in the cost of the Membership or Pass, and incremental fees apply to trips that exceed 30 minutes.
Annual Members use a personal key used to quickly unlock bikes from any station. More than 3,000 Chicagoans have already signed up for Divvy Annual Memberships at DivvyBikes.com.
Of the more than 50,000 Divvy bike trips made since the system launched on June 28th, about 75 percent were from customers who purchased 24-hour passes, with the reminder from annual members. At more than 7,200 trips made on Saturday and Sunday, each Divvy bike averaged more than 10 weekend trips.
The system is dubbed “Divvy” to reflect the nature of bike share, where members “divide and share” the use of the bikes. The bicycles’ distinctive “Chicago Blue” paint is the same color as the stripes on the Chicago city flag. Chicagoans can find out more about the system through social media on Twitter at @DivvyBikes and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DivvyBikes.
Stations scheduled to be installed by Monday, July 29 include:
Station Name Docks
Canal St & Harrison St 15
State St & 19th St 15
Sheffield Ave & Wellington Ave 23
Wentworth Ave & Archer Ave 15
Indiana Ave & 26th St 15
Wentworth Ave & 35th St 19
Martin Luther King Dr & Oakwood Blvd 15
Fort Dearborn Dr & 31st St 11
Halsted St & 21st St 11
Clinton St & 18th St 15
Peoria St & Jackson Blvd 19
Carpenter St & Cullerton St 11
Blue Island Ave & 18th St 15
Damen Ave & Cullerton St 15
Damen Ave & Coulter St 11
Ashland Ave & Wrightwood Ave 15
Damen Ave & Wellington Ave 15
Southport Ave & Wellington Ave 19
1451 N Claremont Ave 11
Campbell Ave & North Ave 15
Damen Ave & Division St 15
Western Ave & Winnebago Ave 15
Damen Ave & Augusta Ave 15
Stave St & Armitage Ave 11
California Ave & Palmer St 15
Leavitt St & Milwaukee Ave 15
Canal St & Madison St 23
Green St & Randolph St 19
Loomis St & Jackson Blvd 11
Morgan Ave & 14th Pl 15
Racine Ave & 13th St 15
Congress Pkwy & Ogden Ave 15
Ashland Ave & Lake St 19
Ogden Ave & Race Ave 15
Clark St & North Ave 15
Greenview Ave & Fullerton Ave 15
Paulina St & Diversey Pkwy 15
Southport Ave & Belmont Ave 15
Lincoln Ave & Diversey Pkwy 15
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