1,000 New Divvy Bikes Are Headed To Chicago's South And West Sides
By Mae Rice in News on May 20, 2016 9:55PM
The South and West Sides are about to get 1,000 new Divvy bikes and an unspecified number of new Divvy stations, Chicago's Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Divvy announced Friday. The new stations will be installed in coming weeks as part of a citywide Divvy expansion plan announced in January.
The stations' exact locations are "still being finalized," a CDOT spokesperson told Chicagoist. The bikes, however, have already arrived at Divvy's Pilsen warehouse.
The expansion—which will take Divvy to Austin, Garfield Park, Burnside, Chatham, Greater Grand Crossing, Brighton Park and Englewood, as well as some suburbs—appears to be driven by demand. Divvy riding is up 48 percent year-to-date since 2016, according to Divvy. All told, since the bike-sharing program launched in June of 2013, Divvy bikers have taken 7 million trips across the city. Somewhat miraculously, there have also been zero fatalities associated with the program.
Low-income residents of the South and West Sides will easily be able to afford Divvy, too, via the Divvy for Everyone program. Launched in 2015, the program subsidizes bike share memberships for those with income of less than three times the federal poverty level, so that an annual membership costs just $5 a year. Typical annual membership is $75.