Friendly Reminder: Please Don't Throw Divvy Bikes Into Lake Michigan
By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 14, 2017 7:09PM
Facebook / Photo: Paul Bick
With summer here in full force, it's a good time to take stock of the annual hot-weather need-to-know tips. Stay hydrated, of course. Don't leave pets outside in the heat or in hot cars. And if you use the city's bikeshare service, remember to return your Divvy bike to a docking station rather than throwing it into a body of water.
It seems like it should go without saying, but apparently we need reminding. A photo of a lonely Divvy, submerged in an unidentified body of water, was posted on Wednesday to Reddit, where it quickly racked up the up-votes and raised up the eyebrows.
I don't think that is a Divvy station... from chicago
It turns out the bike was found on Tuesday morning at Fargo Beach, in Rogers Park, according to Paul Bick, who originally posted the photo in the Rogers Park Neighborhood News Facebook page. Bick fished it out and walked it back to the docking station near the Jarvis 'L,' he wrote in the post.
A happy ending to be sure, but the whole thing reminded us of a similar instance that happened in Chicago around the same time last year.
In June of 2016, a photo of bike stranded in the water made the rounds after it was uploaded on the Instagram page of Odd Obsession, the great Bucktown video store, and the Leyla Ruins Everything Facebook page. According to DNAinfo, a Divvy team retrieved that bike, which they found at North Avenue beach.
We've reached out to Divvy to see if they've rescued any other drowning-victim bikes as of late, and to find out just how the hell often this kind of thing happens.
It's probably also a good to time to remind bikeshare folks to make sure their bikes are properly docked before they mosey off. Because it would really stink if somebody who thought they returned that bike were on the deposit hook.