Chicago's Divvy Bike Share Program Is On The Verge Of Hitting 10M Riders

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Dec 29, 2016 9:45PM

The milestones just keep coming for Chicago's cycling infrastructure. Chicago is ending 2016 as the most bike-friendly city in the U.S., and now the city's celebrated bike share program is on the verge of hitting the 10 million rider mark.

The Mayor's office announced Thursday that the bike share service has logged 9,985,000 trips since it was founded in 2013, and the city expects to clear the final 15,000 rides it needs in January, if not sooner. New York City and D.C.'s bike share programs have already logged more than 10 million rides each.

You can track just how close Divvy is to reaching its milestone on the program's website, where ridership data will be updated every five minutes as the bike share gets closer to its goal. Divvy will also be giving a free membership to the 10 millionth rider and three more memberships the rider can gift to others.

A few numbers that show how Divvy faired this year: The program saw a 14 percent increase in user trips this year for a total of over 3.5 million rides. 85 new bike share stations were added around the city this year, and 1000 new bikes.

“Reaching 10 million trips in just three-and-a-half years is a testament to the growing popularity of biking in Chicago,” Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld said in a press release. “We hope that crossing this threshold will inspire more people to take advantage of Divvy for getting around Chicago, whether it’s as annual members or using convenient daily passes.”

The announcement also lists the most popular Divvy stations by ridership in 2016. Predictably, they are mostly downtown:

Streeter Dr. & Grand Ave. (Navy Pier)
Lake Shore Dr. & Monroe St.
Theater on the Lake (Fullerton Beach)
Lake Shore Dr. & North Blvd.
Clinton St. & Washington Blvd. (Ogilvie Station)
Michigan Ave. & Oak St.
Millennium Park
Clinton St. & Madison St.
Canal St. & Madison St.
Canal St. & Adams St. (Union Station)