Chicago’s Divvy Bike Share System Ridership Grows as Stations Added

July 23, 2013

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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