Divvy and the Schools

I noticed that a number of teachers at my Kids' school are now riding.   But the number is still small.  I also see a number of Divvy stations within two blocks of the school.    And I know many of the teachers live within a few blocks of other Divvy Stations.     Teachers are, for the most part, young and healthy and care about society.  (Otherwise they wouldn't be teaching in a Chicago Public School).   Has Divvy ever considered an outreach to the teachers?   Say a 2 or 3 week period early in the School year where teachers can use the Divvy System for Free as a test?   My guess is that a pretty large number of them would join.  

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Permalink Reply by Grace Van Moer 8.25 mi on September 11, 2014 at 6:03am

Not a teacher, but chiming in that I love the placement of Divvy station right at my child's school.  Dad & the kiddo ride to school together in the morning.  I take the el from downtown job, get the kiddo & his bike and grab a Divvy for the ride home after school.  Lucky that we have a dock less than a block from our house (at another school no less).  

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 11, 2014 at 6:17am

Cool idea. 

I've noticed that the Divvy station right in front of Jones College Prep (State & Harrison) seems very popular. No idea what percentage of users are teachers or staff.

Permalink Reply by Jordan M S on September 11, 2014 at 4:12pm
In my experience (which is VERY extensive), the number of teachers who bike is really low. I don't mean that it's below average - just that there are very few who do it. Every CPS location has ample car parking for a reason. When the kids see my helmet, their response is always confusion: "Why would an adult get around by bike?" This makes for a great teaching opportunity, and I would be enthused about the Divvy stations near schools if there was an attempt to associate biking to the greater aspects of community and livability and navigability that it brings, but I have never seen Divvies used by kids or faculty. Those who want to bike do bike (and not with Divvy), and the faculty who do ride are about one per school and stand out, for the most part because they also happen to be the cool teachers ;) I'm all for economic incentives to ride, but not in terms of Divvy.
Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on September 12, 2014 at 6:29am

I am not doubting you or suggesting you are wrong.  It just doesn't reflect my experience at my Kids' Northside CPS School.    I noticed the riding by teachers increasing significantly over the past four years.    Right now we have probably 5 teachers/staff that ride regularly to school     The Vice Principal, who left to become a principal at another CPS School, also rode to school and carried his rather nice bike to his office every day.   And the age range of the riders is also pretty broad.   That being said, pretty much all of the teachers at this school are "cool".   

I am speaking to Divvy about this and have gotten one of the more active teachers to place a flyer and encourage the other teachers to participate.  I know during the "bike to school" event last year, we had something like 15 teachers participate.  But then the school is on a major bike lane and near several other well known bike routes and the teachers at the school are some of the best in the system....  (I also  know a teacher at Lane Tech that is looking forward to a Divvy Station near Lane.  At that point, he plans to ride every day.  )

As for students, you won't see them on DIVVY's.  Riders have to be over 16.   But again, at my kids school, we have  pretty good number of riders including one very determined now 7th grader who rode just about every day last year.... including the arctic cold and the heavy snow...

The parents are also clearly part of this.  We have at least 8 Mom's and Dad's that commute to work by bicycle and a number of other parents who ride with their kids to school and may or may not be commuting...   (I don't know, because I haven't asked)

I guess we are the exception to the rule... and hopefully we will spread.....   We have talking about adding additional bike parking for the past year....
Jordan Schlife said:

In my experience (which is VERY extensive), the number of teachers who bike is really low. I don't mean that it's below average - just that there are very few who do it. Every CPS location has ample car parking for a reason. When the kids see my helmet, their response is always confusion: "Why would an adult get around by bike?" This makes for a great teaching opportunity, and I would be enthused about the Divvy stations near schools if there was an attempt to associate biking to the greater aspects of community and livability and navigability that it brings, but I have never seen Divvies used by kids or faculty. Those who want to bike do bike (and not with Divvy), and the faculty who do ride are about one per school and stand out, for the most part because they also happen to be the cool teachers ;) I'm all for economic incentives to ride, but not in terms of Divvy.

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