Divvy is the

bicycle sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bot ...

in the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

, currently serving the cities of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and Evanston. The system is owned by the

Chicago Department of Transportation The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT ) is an executive department of the City of Chicago responsible for the safety, environmental sustainability, maintenance, and aesthetics of the surface transportation networks and public ways withi ...

and has been operated by

Lyft Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dynamic ...

since 2019. As of Sept 2021, Divvy operated 16,500 bicycles and over 800 stations, covering 190 square miles.

History

In 2007, Chicago Mayor

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

visited Paris, France, where he tested their

Vélib' is a large-scale public bicycle sharing system in Paris, France. Launched on 15 July 2007, the system encompassed around 14,500 bicycles and 1,400 bicycle stations, located across Paris and in some surrounding municipalities, with an average da ...

bicycle sharing system and was "greatly impressed". He determined that a similar system would work well in Chicago. After returning from his European trip, Mayor Daley requested proposals from private partners to create a bike share system for Chicago. Two potential operators came forward but submitted plans that would have been too expensive for the city to fund. In May 2012, the City of Chicago awarded Alta Bicycle Share (acquired by Bikeshare Holdings LLC in 2014 and renamed to

Motivate Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...

) a contract for "the purchase, installation, and operation of a bicycle sharing system". On June 28, 2013, Divvy launched with 750 bikes at 75 stations in an area from the

Loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

north to Berwyn Ave, west to Kedzie Ave, and south to 59th St. A planned expansion of the number of stations in spring 2014 was delayed to 2015 due to supply shortages.

Unionization

In October 2014, TWU (Transport Workers' Union) Local 100 of New York City filed an election petition with the NLRB seeking to represent "almost 70 full-time and part-time workers, including mechanics and truck drivers, who are paid $12 to $16 an hour." The unionization effort came after employees of

Citi Bike Citi Bike is a privately owned public bicycle sharing system serving the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, as well as Jersey City, New Jersey, and Hoboken, New Jersey. Named after lead sponsor Citigroup, it w ...

in NYC, owned by the same parent company Motivate (formerly Alta Bicycle Share), joined TWU Local 100 in September 2014 and alongside similar efforts by employees of Motivate in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

( Hubway) and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

(

Capital Bikeshare Capital Bikeshare (also abbreviated CaBi) is a bicycle-sharing system which serves Washington, D.C.; Arlington County, Virginia; the cities of Alexandria, Virginia and Falls Church, Virginia; Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County, Virg ...

2019 expansion

In March 2019, Mayor

Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...

proposed a 9-year contract to grant

(owner of

) exclusive rights to operate the city-owned system and receive a portion of the subsequent advertisement revenue. The deal required Lyft to invest to add 175 stations and 10,500 bikes to the system, expand to all 50 city

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

by 2021, and add electric pedal bikes which could lock to both Divvy stations and conventional bike racks. Lyft would additionally be required to make annual payments to the city starting at and increasing by 4 percent each year; the city would share in at least in advertisement revenue each year. The proposal passed a Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee vote in the City Council on April 8 and was approved by the full City Council on April 10. As of September 2019, Divvy had 608 stations (594 stations in Chicago and 14 in Evanston).

Branding

The name Divvy is a playful reference to sharing ("divvy it up"). Divvy’s light-blue color palette and four stars evoke the

Chicago flag The flag of Chicago consists of two light blue horizontal bars, or stripes, on a field of white, each bar one-sixth the height of the full flag, and placed slightly less than one-sixth of the way from the top and bottom. Four bright red stars, ...

. The double Vs in the Divvy logo refer to the shared-lane markers painted on bike lanes throughout the city, and are a nod to how the city prioritizes bike safety, paving the way for new riders. The naming, logo, and brand strategy for the system was developed through a partnership between the global design firm

IDEO IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environ ...

and the Chicago brand strategy studio Firebelly Design. IDEO led the project's research, conceptual brand development, and naming phases; Firebelly team led the identity design, communication system and brand guideline phases. The first 4,000 Founding Members received limited edition black keys; regular members received blue keys.

Equipment

Divvy bicycles are

utility bicycle A utility bicycle, city bicycle, urban bicycle, European city bike (ECB), Dutch bike, classic bike or simply city-bike, is a bicycle designed for frequent very short, very slow rides through very flat urban areas. It is a form of utility bicycle ...

s with a unisex step-through frame that provides a lower center of gravity and ease of access to a wide range of heights. All bikes are painted "Chicago blue", with the exception of one "unicorn bike": a bright red bike, dubbed #Divvyred. The one-piece aluminum frame and handlebars conceal cables to protect them from vandalism and inclement weather. The heavy-duty

tires A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineering), t ...

are designed to be puncture-resistant and filled with nitrogen to maintain proper inflation pressure longer. Front and rear flashing LED lights are integrated into the frame, which weighs approximately . Divvy bikes have three speeds, a bell, and a front rack. The bikes are manufactured in the

Saguenay, Quebec Saguenay ( , , ) is a city in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, on the Saguenay River, about north of Quebec City by overland route. It is about upriver and northwest of Tadoussac, located at the confluence with the St. ...

region by

Cycles Devinci Cycles Devinci is a Canadian bicycle manufacturer established in Chicoutimi, Quebec in 1987. In addition to a full line of road, mountain and hybrid bicycles, it also manufactures the BIXI-brand of bicycle used in bicycle sharing schemes in citie ...

PBSC Urban Solutions PBSC Urban Solutions, formerly the Public Bike System Company, is an international bicycle-sharing system equipment vendor with their headquarters based in Longueuil, Quebec. The company develops bicycle-sharing systems, equipment, parts, and s ...

supplies bicycles, docking stations, and payment kiosks for the system. Through the end of October 2014, the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

partnered with Divvy to release five black and red Blackhawks-branded bikes.

History

Unionization

2019 expansion

Branding

Equipment

See also