Divvy bikers took a record number of trips in 2017

Divvy riders hit the pavement hard in 2017, biking 7.3 million miles which is equivalent to 293 trips around the Earth. The Chicago bike sharing program declared 2017 a successful year with more new members and rides taken than ever before, according to Divvy.

Upwards of 37,000 annual members joined Divvy, an increase from 33,000 in 2016. The number of trips taken also increased from 3.6 million to 3.8 million. The program also expanded service this year to the South and West sides with 400 more bikes.

Throughout the year more than 337,000 day passes were sold—that chalks up to about $3.3 million (if we’re just counting regularly priced day passes at $9.95).

In 2016, the city’s income from the bike share program was $1.97 million which was a 30 percent dip from previous years, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The total income from the program for 2017 hasn’t come in yet, according to the Department of Transportation’s Assistant Commissioner, Sean Wiedel. He expects that number to roll in “slightly higher,” than 2016 though.

This year Divvy tested out a Ventra integration that would allow bikers to purchase passes with their fare card. There’s no timeline set for when the integration would be implemented, but Wiedel said, he expects to see the change in 2018.

Peak season for Divvy was the summer and by Labor Day 2.5 million trips were taken which was an 8 percent increase from last year. Bikers rode over 22,168 times on July 8th and Divvy had 13 other days exceeding 20,000 rides.

The top one percent of riders rode Divvy more than 535 times in a year, and that means there must have been some pretty dedicated winter bikers out there.

The most popular station award goes to, no surprises here, Navy Pier. And the most frequented route was the from the Navy Pier station to the Lake Shore Drive and Monroe station.

Heading into 2018, riders can expect to see the promotions such as HOLIDIVVY and Hot Dog Divvy again and maybe even a few new surprises for Divvy’s fifth birthday.

• Chicago sees drop in Divvy income following expansion into South, West sides [Chicago Tribune]
• Divvy expanding with another 40 stations in 2017 [Curbed Chicago]
• City continues testing Ventra integration with Divvy bike sharing [Curbed Chicago]