Saturday, August 24, 2013

New Divvy stations are popping up everywhere

by Michelle Stenzel

Chicago's Divvy bike sharing system has been up and running now for eight weeks. At first there were only 75 stations installed, but the Divvy crew are installing more every day, and currently there are more than 160 in use citywide, with a goal of 300 stations by summer's end on September 22, 2013.

Those of us in Lincoln Park are lucky to have had a number of stations since the launch, and you may have noticed new ones popping up in the neighborhood over the past weeks. I went around and snapped pictures of a few of them.

One of the new stations is at the busy corner of Clark/Diversey/Broadway. This 11-dock station is on Diversey, on the sidewalk next to Walgreen's. This is a very busy shopping area, and I'm sure this will be a popular station for picking up or dropping off bikes. 
The Divvy bikes at Clark and Diversey are ready to roll. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
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Further south on Clark, there's a new station on the intersection with Webster. This station is on Webster itself, and people pulling bikes out will have to be mindful of passing motor vehicle traffic, as things are tight. Luckily, most drivers already drive slowly along here, and the sight of a rack of bright blue bikes will surely make them proceed cautiously. There really is room enough for everyone to use the street safely, as long as everyone pays attention to the task at hand.

The Divvy station on Webster at Clark Street holds up to 15 bikes. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
Even further south on Clark, a new station has been installed at the intersection of Clark and Lincoln. This is a big station with 19 docks. It's very convenient for those who want to Divvy it over to the Green City Market across the street, or to go to the Hotel Lincoln's coffee shop, restaurant or rooftop bar. This station is close to my home, and it's been fun to observe the huge rate of people undocking and re-docking bikes at all times of day, including leisure users on weekends and commuters during the workweek. I'm predicting this will be one of the most-used neighborhood Divvy stations.

The new Divvy station on Clark at Lincoln is near Green City Market and Hotel Lincoln.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
The Halsted Street shopping area now has one station serving it, on Dickens Street. This station is somewhat hidden from view. As you can see from the picture below, it's a few yards west of Halsted,  on the sidewalk alongside Nine West. The Divvy sign and a sculpture somewhat obscure a view of the bikes from someone walking on Halsted. It would be ideal to have all Divvy bikes in a highly visible spot, like right on Halsted; however, it's likely that the constraints we are under due to the parking meter lease deal (only 70.5 years to go, folks!) made that impossible. So this station won't catch the eye of new users, but of course it will be useful to anyone who is already aware that it's there because they live in the neighborhood, or they have a Divvy map on their smartphone.

The Divvy station on Belden off of Halsted is somewhat hidden from view. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
The Oz Park area now has a Divvy station, on Webster at the intersection with Lincoln/Larrabee, right at the Tin Man statue. This station will be convenient to the many people who play tennis or softball at Oz Park. It will also be a great place for a bike-less adult to grab a bike in order to participate in a Lincoln Park Kidical Mass ride, which departs from Oz Park!

A new Divvy station on Webster at Oz Park is near the beloved Tin Man statue. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
The intersection of Lincoln and Webster is actually pretty forlorn-looking at the moment, with construction sites on two corners (the old Lincoln Park Hospital site), and an unrented space where 
7-Eleven used to be. Only Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, Divvy bikes and the Tin Man are keeping the intersection lively. (You might already know that the businesses on Lincoln here near the former Children's Memorial site are suffering; please make an effort to support them with your consumer dollars! Shop and dine locally!)

The Lincoln and Webster intersection isn't very lively right now, due to construction and an empty storefront.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
Here's the map of where all the current Divvy stations are in Lincoln Park, as of today:

A map of the Divvy stations installed and running as of August 24, 2013. (Map from Divvy website.)
There's pretty good coverage for Lincoln Park already, with one obvious huge gap in the Lakeview/Fullerton/Halsted/Diversey quadrant, so hopefully a station or two will be added to there very soon to serve people who live, work or shop in the Clark/Wrightwood area. Also, the Armitage El stop doesn't yet have a station, nor does the Armitage shopping corridor east of there.

So 24 of the planned 44 stations in or bordering Lincoln Park are installed already. Here's map that has all the current stations in blue and future stations in yellow:

This map shows current Lincoln Park Divvy stations in blue and future stations in yellow. 
As the density of stations grows, you'll find that the usefulness of the Divvy system will grow along with it. By this time next year, you'll be wondering how you ever managed without bike share.

Go forth and Divvy!
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2 comments:

  1. Yesterday I took Divvy from Ravenswood down to Lincoln Park. Surprised by all of the station density already! Some of the docks are pretty small, but hopefully they'll be balanced correctly most of the time. Some of the few you mentioned – Oz Park, for example, were empty yesterday when I rode by a few times!

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    1. Empty stations are a bummer for those who come and expect a bike to be available to them, of course, but on the other hand, they reflect that the bikes are definitely being used, which is wonderful. I'm sure the Divvy datacrunchers will track all those things and adjust the size of the stations as needed. Thanks for commenting, Shaun! -- MS

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