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

Chicago Tribune.

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on May 30, 2013 at 10:13am

And here's Streetsblog Chicago's less-polite rebuttal to the Hilkevitch piece:

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/05/30/hilkevitch-plays-dumb-with-an...

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Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on May 30, 2013 at 10:40am

I love that there's both a polite and a not-so-polite one response out there. Well done, gentlemen.

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on May 30, 2013 at 11:16am

Oh, I'm not afraid to criticize the city when appropriate: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/03/08/why-chicago-is-lagging-behind...

Fortunately, when it comes to transportation, there's been a lot to cheer about with this administration.

Kevin C said:

John's not a reporter. He's a cheerleader.

Michelle Stenzel said:
"Hundreds of excited citizens sign up in advance for bike share in first few hours, with absolutely no glitches reported" wrote no reporter, ever. Except for the Streetsblog guys, of course. Especially John.

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Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on May 30, 2013 at 11:33am

No, not a pioneer. But every City is different and if you approach every city like they are the same, things will not necessarily work. In New York, for example, they decided to go with 45 minutes instead of 30. New York certainly has lots of "unique challenges" and thus needed more time. I personally would have preferred a 45 minute time in Chicago as well as, well, distances can be longer and traffic can be worse. For example, DC doesn't have grade crossings and doesn't have bridges that go UP. How long does a Bridge opening take? Is the nature of Grant Park/Millenisum Park being on the "edge" of the City make it different than the Mall which can be approached in DC from just about every direction? Does the fact that Chicago has worse streets than DC and New York make a difference? What about the fact that people in Chicago are, uh, fatter on the average than DC? The bicycles, at least in New York, have a contractual 250 LB weight limit. Mind you, they say that they won't enforce it, but if that's close to design weight, and Chicago has much worse streets, maybe the breakdown experience will be worse? As for "theft" of bicycles, that's really not an issue for the users of the system. It is unlikely that they will be "stolen" while being ridden. I am more concerned, based on historic precedent, that they will be stolen for scrap metal if the DIVVY locations are not carefully policed. We have had some very "active" scrap thieves in Chicago that have stolen neighborhood signs, air conditioning units and the like. We still have some "industry" in the area and thus a more active scrap business. Not so much for DC.

I think it can and will work, but lets not pretend that all of the issues are resolved. They are not.

Jeff Schneider said:In general, it seems that people are forgetting that Chicago is not a pioneer with this system. We don't really have to speculate about how it will work, since there is lot of experience already from other cities. We can read about that and judge whether we want to participate or not.

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Permalink Reply by Shaun Jacobsen on May 30, 2013 at 4:59pm

#87! It opened a little before noon. I was just curious if it would, lo and behold it had opened early.

Like many others I've seen on here, I'm throwing my support in even though I have a bike because it'll be great for bad-weather mornings but sunny evenings, times when I am out too late and don't make the last bus (some of the east-west routes end at 10pm!), or when I just don't feel like worrying about my bike. Also: to get around the Loop during my lunchtime. I can now eat at places a little further away, like Millennium Park (I work in the west loop).

Scotto 6.8 said:

Darn, Member #110 - I had hoped to be in the first 100. Who's got the lowest member# here?

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Permalink Reply by Shaun Jacobsen on May 30, 2013 at 5:05pm

I also wanted to add that it would be wonderful if the city someday added an option to go up to 45 minutes free instead of 30, as in New York. You can also do this on Vélib' in Paris if you pay more per year (39 € instead of 29). It would be a good option for getting to further neighborhoods.

With my current road bike, which is pretty quick, it takes me about 45 minutes to get from Union Station to my apartment in Uptown at 5pm. Sometimes I'll stop at the grocery store on the way back but on those days where I don't ride in to work, it'd be nice to be able to grab a bike, ride to Lakeview for groceries, then hop on a bus. That's just a personal scenario. Anyone else think that 30 minutes will eventually be too short for some trips once the system expands, or is that just me being selfish with the "sharing" aspect? :P

One more thing, on the sharing note.... do we have any idea how many bikes will be at each dock? From what I've heard some of the docks in more popular areas might "dry up" pretty quickly, especially since we're a more "centralized" city in that a ton of employment is in the Loop and the imbalance might be high. I know they re-balance the bikes, but how quickly?

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on May 31, 2013 at 2:40am

On their fb page, Divvy mentioned that the ratio of bikes to docks is about 1:2.

Rebalancing will be the biggest part of their operations. They will continually shuttle bikes from full locations to empty locations.

According to the Divvy rep that I spoke to they have pretty good idea how this will work. e.g. An hour or two before a Cubs game they will empty out the docking stations near Wrigley field. Fans ride their bikes to Wrigley field and will find plenty of space. Same thing with United Center and Comiskey Park.

And as Jeff said, usage data will help better anticpate needs.

Shaun Jacobsen said:

One more thing, on the sharing note.... do we have any idea how many bikes will be at each dock? From what I've heard some of the docks in more popular areas might "dry up" pretty quickly, especially since we're a more "centralized" city in that a ton of employment is in the Loop and the imbalance might be high. I know they re-balance the bikes, but how quickly?

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on May 31, 2013 at 2:59am

Yes! this would make it practical for me to use it as an alternate commuter assuming that a station ends up at the 35th and Archer Orange Line stop/bus terminal.

Shaun Jacobsen said:

I also wanted to add that it would be wonderful if the city someday added an option to go up to 45 minutes free instead of 30, as in New York. You can also do this on Vélib' in Paris if you pay more per year (39 € instead of 29). It would be a good option for getting to further neighborhoods.

With my current road bike, which is pretty quick, it takes me about 45 minutes to get from Union Station to my apartment in Uptown at 5pm. Sometimes I'll stop at the grocery store on the way back but on those days where I don't ride in to work, it'd be nice to be able to grab a bike, ride to Lakeview for groceries, then hop on a bus. That's just a personal scenario. Anyone else think that 30 minutes will eventually be too short for some trips once the system expands, or is that just me being selfish with the "sharing" aspect? :P

One more thing, on the sharing note.... do we have any idea how many bikes will be at each dock? From what I've heard some of the docks in more popular areas might "dry up" pretty quickly, especially since we're a more "centralized" city in that a ton of employment is in the Loop and the imbalance might be high. I know they re-balance the bikes, but how quickly?

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on May 31, 2013 at 3:02am

I also agree that 45 minutes would be better. It takes me around 35 minutes to get from Lake View to the Loop, and I'd like to not have to stop halfway to switch bikes. The limit should be however long it takes to get from the edge of the coverage area to the Loop.