Divvy

I've noticed that a number of us primarily use Divvy to get around. I figured I'd create this thread to discuss all things Divvy. Compliments. Complaints. Suggestions. All welcome.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on December 20, 2017 at 11:30am

Not too surprising. Coverage in Evanston is rather light, and I think was influenced by sponsorship. The one at Church and Dodge is probably there to serve the high school. I believe Valli tossed in some sponsor bucks to get the dock there.

Permalink Reply by Steve Fiete on December 21, 2017 at 3:33am

The Valli station is the most lightly used in Evanston.  Divvy works well when stations are near a high density of riders AND they connect to stations where those riders want to go.  For example, home to a train station.  The problem with Valli is it is in a low density residential neighborhood so there will not be many commuters going to and from the train stations.  Also the Dempster/Dodge area does not have enough to be a destination.  Below is a table showing how frequently each station is used as either an origination point or end point for Divvy Trips where at least one end was in Evanston.  The Valli station is used less than two stations in Rogers Park.  These are trips from 7/1/2016 to 6/30/2017.

Most used Divvy Stations with of Trips Starting or Ending in Evanston
 Rank  Station Name Trip Count Pct of Total
1 Benson Ave & Church St 9,479 20.7%
2 Sheridan Rd & Noyes St (NU) 5,970 13.0%
3 Chicago Ave & Washington St 5,240 11.4%
4 Chicago Ave & Sheridan Rd 5,138 11.2%
5 University Library (NU) 5,023 10.9%
6 Central St Metra 2,241 4.9%
7 Central St & Girard Ave 2,233 4.9%
8 Dodge Ave & Church St 1,737 3.8%
9 Eastlake Ter & Rogers Ave 1,136 2.5%
10 Elmwood Ave & Austin St 882 1.9%
11 Sheridan Rd & Greenleaf Ave 829 1.8%
12 Valli Produce - Evanston Plaza 703 1.5%
 …       
Permalink Reply by Alex Z on December 21, 2017 at 5:01am

Whoa, I didn't realize there was a station inside the actual NU campus (the library)! That's cool.

Permalink Reply by Charlie Short 2.9 on December 21, 2017 at 6:28am

I think Valli actually paid for that station and the city took a chance for another station besides the high school in that part of town. It would have done much better if they placed it at Robert Crown or the Levy Center (for locations off of Dodge) or they could have put one in the shopping center on Howard (Target/Best Buy/Jewel) and they could have connected to some of the network in West Rogers Park.

Permalink Reply by Allan on January 6, 2018 at 3:47am

How did you access that data, for the number of Divvy trips at each station? I'd love to see how often Divvy stations are being used elsewhere(i.e. Oak Park, far north side of Chicago, south side, and throughout the city).

Permalink Reply by Steve Fiete on January 6, 2018 at 4:47am

Divvy posts trip level data here.

Trip count data by starting trip station is attached here for the time period 7/1/16 to 6/30/17.  Oak Park and Evanston stations were up and running by then.

Usage varies a lot by neighborhood.  Much of the far south side gets relatively little utilization.  Hyde Park is and exception.

trip_count_by_origin_station_20160701_to_20170630.csv

Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on December 21, 2017 at 4:51am

Other than providing valet service at the more crowded stations, is there any reasonable alternative? It would be nice if the bikes had a "smart" lock on them, so one could chain them to a sign post or bike rack near a station when it was full. Of course, they'd have to figure out a way of reporting that the bike had been returned to a station to avoid overage charges.

A lock would also be useful for making quick stops between stations. It's a bit of a hassle to dock the bike two blocks away from your destination when you only need to run in for a minute to drop something off.

Permalink Reply by Alex Z on December 21, 2017 at 5:00am

I guess you could BYOL ;)

Permalink Reply by Steve Fiete on December 21, 2017 at 5:21am

I heard Citibike set up an incentive for members to do re-balancing, and it has worked out well.  They publish where they want bikes moved from and to to those who have signed up for the program and they get points for doing it.  points can then be redeemed for discounts on the membership fees.  In addition to the money there is a social aspect.  The publish the point leaders, so there are people who are really into that.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/02/09/new_york_s_citi_bike...

Permalink Reply by Alex Z on December 21, 2017 at 5:49am

Yes, very cool.

Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on December 27, 2017 at 5:33am

'Some interesting information on Divvy's expansion across the city:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-divvy-inco...

Permalink Reply by Steve Fiete on December 27, 2017 at 6:47am

I did not know that program had ever made money. Good to know that it may not have to always rely on a subsidy from the city.  

Interesting in 2016 the number of rides by people who are not subscribers was down.  As these folks pay $10 per day they generate a lot of revenue, so a drop in their numbers will really matter.  We cannot tell from the publicly available data how many 24 hour passes are sold, but if we assume that a 24 hour pass buyer makes 2 trips on average then the drop in revenue is from 2015 to 2016 is $1.8 million.

Another big revenue generator is overtime charges.  Those are up, but if the number of non-subscribers keeps dropping then they will also start to drop off.  Subscribers go over the 30 minute time limit on about 2% of their trips, where Non-Subscribers go over time on about 25% of their trips.

Non-Subscribers         Annual Subscribers      
      YoY Change         YoY Change
Year Trips OT Trips Trips OT Trips   Year Trips OT Trips Trips OT Trips
2013 356,752 88,763       2013 403,036 7,498    
2014 791,240 186,764 121.8% 110.4%   2014 1,663,394 32,711 312.7% 336.3%
2015 929,612 235,949 17.5% 26.3%   2015 2,251,363 47,999 35.3% 46.7%
2016 858,474 242,523 -7.7% 2.8%   2016 2,736,869 59,412 21.6% 23.8%

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