Divvy Releases 2013-2014 Trip Data as Part of City-Wide Data Challenge

Contact:
CDOT Media Affairs
312.744.0707
cdotnews@cityofchicago.org

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Divvy, Chicago’s bike share system, today released data from over 3.2 million trips as part of the second annual Divvy Data Challenge. The contest encourages data scientists, designers, and programmers to analyze and present last year’s trip data in visually compelling ways.

With Valentine’s Day this weekend, love is in the air as Divvy highlights a winner of the 2014 Data Challenge. Divvy riders can visit Serendivvity.net, a website for romance-seekers who are interested in finding love among other Divvy riders. Riders can fill out their age, gender, and neighborhood preferences and the website will direct them to the Divvy stations and times of day they’d be most likely to find a mate.

The website, which was among the “Most Creative” Data Challenge winners in 2014, was built by gravitytank—an innovation consultancy that uses research, strategy and design to help organizations identify and pursue growth opportunities—based on data provided during the 2014 Data Challenge.

The 2015 Data Challenge will be the first time a full year’s worth of Divvy data will be made available to the public. The contest is open to anyone, and submissions are due by March 18 at 11:59 p.m. and can be submitted at http://DivvyBikes.com/datachallenge. It’s also the first time the public will be able to weigh in on the winners. Once Divvy judges evaluate the entries, finalists will be selected to be featured on the newly re-designed RedEyeChicago.com, where the public can cast a vote for their favorite visualizations.

“The Divvy Data Challenge is a fun and fascinating opportunity that lets us visualize the patterns of use from 3.2 million Divvy trips across the city,” said CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld. “We saw some incredible entries last year, and we’re looking forward to seeing what the community develops based on trip data from our first 18 months of operations.”

Judges will select a winner for each of the following categories: “Best Overall Visualization,” “Most Beautiful,” “Most Comprehensive,” “Most Insightful,” and “Most Creative.”

The winning entries in each category will receive a hardware and software package from Microsoft as well as two Divvy memberships, two Divvy t-shirts, and five 24-Hour Passes to share with friends and family. Winning entries will also be featured in a full-page ad in RedEye.

The data for each trip will be anonymized and will include:
• Trip start day and time
• Trip end day and time
• Bike ID
• Trip start station
• Trip end station
• Rider type (Member or 24-Hour Pass)
• If a Member trip, it will also include Member’s gender and year of birth

Full Challenge details and guidelines are available at http://DivvyBikes.com/datachallenge

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About Divvy
Divvy is Chicago’s newest transit system, giving Chicago residents and visitors a bike on-demand at hundreds of stations across the city. Intended to provide an additional transportation option for getting around, Divvy is a convenient, fast, fun, and affordable. For more information and a map of station locations, visit DivvyBikes.com. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is the exclusive system sponsor of Divvy.