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How Do We Divvy? Data Challenge Winners Find Out
Divvy announced the Divvy Data Challenge's six winners this morning on its website. I talked to three winners to learn how they created their submissions, and what they learned about Divvy users in the process. The Data Challenge began February 11, when Divvy released data about 759,788 trips taken in 2013 and asked the public to create visualizations of numbers and patterns about bike-share in Chicago.
March 25, 2014
Divvy Supplier Sale May Delay Expansion But Station Locations Nearly Ready
The Chicago Department of Transportation and Divvy will be installing 175 bike-share stations this year with a new method that avoids last year's haphazard and seemingly random distribution. Instead, they will be placing all stations in each of 10 selected areas at once. This way, CDOT assistant commissioner Sean Wiedel told Streetsblog, "that area will have an instant network" of stations.
March 14, 2014
Ice Ice Divvy: How Has the System Performed During This Brutal Winter?
[This piece ran last week in Checkerboard City, my column in Newcity magazine, which hits the street on Wednesday evenings. After yesterday's gorgeous weather, with temperatures in the 50s, I was concerned the piece might seem a bit dated today if I syndicated it on Streetsblog. Fortunately, six-to-eight inches of snow are predicted for this evening, so we can look forward to more Divvy slush fun.]
March 11, 2014
As Divvy Grows, Station Placement Should Work for Pedestrians
Last month, I won a digital silver medal in the Divvy Winter Olympics, a challenge put on by the bike-share service to encourage cold-weather ridership. I was one of 3,444 Divvy members who won medals during the promotion. Taking five or more trips between December 1 and February 16 got you a bronze medal, 25 or more trips earned you a bronze, and 50 or more garnered you a gold.
March 5, 2014
Eyes on the Street: What Kind of Person Rides Divvy in the Winter?
This winter, Chicago’s fifth snowiest on record, with over 20 subzero days, has been a test for whether bike-share can be viable year-round in U.S. cities with harsh northern climates. The multitude of baby-blue bikes I observed whizzing by the Daley Center during this evening's rush hour (and, no, Critical Mass hadn’t started yet) suggests Divvy is still going strong. I buttonholed bike-share user Adam Loedint, an engineer, to ask how the system has been working out for him during this unforgiving season.
February 28, 2014
Divvy Surveying Members About Different Pricing Options
Divvy started sending out surveys yesterday asking how members use the system, whether their patterns have changed over time, how often they drive and take public transit, and what would get them to ride a bike more. The survey also asked members for their opinion of hypothetical changes to the system's current price and fee structure.
January 22, 2014
Why Divvy Needs to Densify as It Expands
For a very new American bike-share system, Divvy is doing well, but it has a lot of room to improve, according to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy's new Bike Share Planning Guide [PDF]. The guide includes best practices for designing, distributing, and marketing this new form of transit. While Divvy is still growing and hasn't gone through a full peak season yet, the guide illustrates one area where Chicago should focus on improving its bike-share system: station density.
January 7, 2014
Like Chicago Bicyclists, Divvy Will Soldier on Through the Winter
At last Wednesday's Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council meeting, assistant transportation commissioner Sean Wiedel shared Divvy's cold-weather operating strategy.
December 17, 2013