Chicago bike sharing will be known as Divvy, be Chicago flag blue

Chicago Tribune.

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Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on June 26, 2013 at 1:26pm

Thanks for posting this, chixie!  I just downloaded the app that Hilkevitch mentions in this article to my Android phone (it's available for iPhone as well) called CycleFinder.  CycleFinder is put out by Public Bike System Company (Bixi, the Montreal-based partner to Portland's Alta). The app is oddly linked to two other cities, Aspen (Colorado) & Chattanooga (Tennessee), so I can find an open share bike in either of those towns as well as Chicago.  There is a nice timer feature that allows you to keep an eye on how long you've had your Divvy, so as not to exceed 30 minutes.  No available bikes or kiosks appear on the app's Chicago map or list, so it's dormant until they flip on the switch either tomorrow evening (for the pre-launch ride) or Friday morning for the official opening.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on June 26, 2013 at 2:29pm

Neat app. But it does show the distance from your location to the bike station in kilometers. Do those Canucks really think that that we Americans understand that?

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on June 26, 2013 at 2:51pm

We Americans will have to join the rest of the world eventually.  5/8 mile= 1 km is a pretty easy conversion to do, especially if you just think of "a little more than a half mile."

Or, if you're a total math geek, you can just recite the sequence of Fibonacci numbers; each number in the sequence equals miles while the next number up in the sequence equals the number of kilometers:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…

where 3 miles equals 5 kilometers or 8 miles equals 13 km.

Weird but true:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/cool-ma...

 

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on June 26, 2013 at 2:57pm

Isn't it farther if we measure it in kilometers?

Permalink Reply by Michelle S on June 26, 2013 at 3:13pm

Did I miss the announcement as to the exact time the system will be launched on Friday? I was hoping to ride a Divvy bike to work on Friday morning, or at least to go home in the evening.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on June 26, 2013 at 3:25pm

1. Not sure about the time.

2. Even if they open in time for your morning commute, there may not be many stations operating in the loop near your work, due to the Blackhawks celebratory parade.



Michelle Stenzel said:

Did I miss the announcement as to the exact time the system will be launched on Friday? I was hoping to ride a Divvy bike to work on Friday morning, or at least to go home in the evening.

Permalink Reply by Michelle S on June 26, 2013 at 3:34pm

I don't think that all the Loop stations will not be stocked, just on or very near Washington, I presume? It's all quite vague.

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on June 27, 2013 at 6:08am

Chicago's bike-sharing program set to launch Friday

Stations along Blackhawks parade route will open later

By Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune reporter 6:41 p.m. CDT, June 26, 2013

The first 700 bicycles painted "Chicago blue" will make their debut on city streets Friday, vastly outnumbered and upstaged by red and black.

For any celebrants along the Blackhawks parade route who might want to pedal part of the way on one of the new Divvy bike-share program bikes, though, you're on thin ice.

Of the more than 40 bicycle docking stations scheduled to be in operation Friday for the launch of the service, none of the handful of stations along the Hawks Stanley Cup victory route will be open, officials said.

"It's for the safety of the people and the equipment," said Elliot Greenberger, marketing director for Divvy, which is operated by Alta Bicycle Share Inc., Chicago's partner in the $22 million bike-share experiment.

Seventy-five stations downtown and in River North will be fully stocked with the three-speed bikes and ready to roll by Sunday, Greenberger said.

The Divvy program was to begin June 14. It was delayed because equipment arrived late and over concerns that more testing was needed to avoid software and equipment problems that occurred with the fledgling bike-share program in New York, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.

The Divvy's daily rental fee is $7, which allows an unlimited number of trips up to 30 minutes each over a 24-hour period. After 30 minutes, additional fees apply.

More than 1,500 annual memberships, priced at $75 and $125 based on the features included, have been sold since registration began at the end of May, Greenberger said.

A pre-launch event for up to 200 "founding" annual members will be held at Daley Center Plaza on Thursday evening, officials said. Participants who have RSVP'd and registered their key fobs, which are needed to unlock Divvy bikes at the stations, will be able to check out bikes and ride them to other docking stations.

A list of Divvy stations is posted at each station and available online at divvybikes.com.

Also by Thursday evening, the locations of all active Divvy stations and a real-time tracking system that shows available bikes and empty return slots at each station will be listed on Cyclefinder, an app available for Apple and Android devices.

Under its city contract, Divvy must operate 3,000 bikes and 300 stations by the end of August and expand to about 4,000 bicycles and 400 stations covering much of the city by next spring.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-divvy-bike-sharing-...

Permalink Reply by Apie (11) on June 27, 2013 at 6:25am

I saw Gabe Klein on television last night, he said there was a divvy app to show how many bikes/spaces are available at each kiosk.  Is that app available yet?

Permalink Reply by Andrew on June 27, 2013 at 6:34am

As per the article Gene just posted, yes.

Apie (10.6) said:

I saw Gabe Klein on television last night, he said there was a divvy app to show how many bikes/spaces are available at each kiosk.  Is that app available yet?

Permalink Reply by Duppie on June 27, 2013 at 6:43am

It's called CycleFinder, availalable on iOS and Android. (Personally, I think the Android versions is more polished)

Apie (10.6) said:

I saw Gabe Klein on television last night, he said there was a divvy app to show how many bikes/spaces are available at each kiosk.  Is that app available yet?

Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on June 27, 2013 at 6:44am

The app is available. Search the iTunes App Store or Google Play store for "Divvy" and you should find an app called Cyclefinder. Links below:

For iOS, you can also try my app, Chicago Bike Guide, which has Divvy integration, directions, resources, and much more. 

Cyclefinder is quite different from the Citibike NYC app, which was custom designed for Citibike. Cyclefinder is a generic app for three systems that use bicycles from Public Bike System Co. (PBSC). The stations are not yet loaded into the app but will be later tonight, according to Divvy's Twitter feed. 

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