Divvy

Without a doubt, 2013 has been a banner year for bike-share in the United States. Major systems were implemented in New York City and Chicago, and many others debuted or expanded in other cities. In fact, Citi Bike users have biked over 10 million miles and the system is closing in on 100,000 annual members!

Bike and Roll Chicago (a Streetsblog sponsor) recently put out a press release acknowledging that conventional bike rental and bike-share complement each other. It's a smart shift in approach for company co-owner Josh Squire, who had previously protested the bid process for Chicago’s bike-share contract. Squire claimed it was unfair because Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein had done consulting work for Alta Bicycle Share, the contract awardee, although Klein recused himself from the process. In May, however, he gave up his beef, stating, "No matter who ends up operating the program, it’s great for Chicago."

[A shorter version of this article ran in Checkerboard City, John’s column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.]

What would you do if you were driving northbound on Lake Shore Drive near Ohio Street and pulled up on a young woman riding a Divvy bike by the median of the high-speed highway, obviously lost and terrified? I’d like to think most of us would slow down, roll down the window, ask the woman if she’s OK, and offer directions on how to safely exit the drive at Chicago Avenue.

Since transportation commissioner Gabe Klein announced he’s resigning at the end of the month, he’s received plenty of praise for his work promoting safer, more efficient and more vibrant Chicago streets. However, after all the bold initiatives he’s spearheaded, he probably didn’t expect his sendoff to be all wine and roses. Yesterday the Expired Meter featured a guest post by the pseudonymous "Moe Torrist," an open letter to Klein sarcastically thanking him for his work to “eliminate cars from the streets of Chicago.”

Next year, Chicago will expand Divvy bike-share from 300 stations to 475 or possibly 550 stations, and Rogers Park residents are excited about the news that far north side neighborhoods will get at least 15 stations in 2014.

There’s more good news on the Divvy bike-share front. The Chicago Department of Transportation announced this morning that they scored a $3 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant to add 75 more docking stations to the 400 already planned. The system recently reached 300 stations and 3,000 bikes.

Three months ago, on the morning of July 24, I observed the intersection of Dearborn Street and Washington Street to collect data on bicycle traffic on Dearborn’s two-way protected bicycle lane, keeping track of factors like bicyclists' gender and helmet use rates. Last Thursday during the morning rush I returned to the bi-directional bikeway to observe it from another vantage point, in order to gather more information about Chicago’s bike culture.