Monday, September 9, 2013

A Divvy Day


Chicago is starting to catch up with the rest of the world. When in Paris, we came across several commuter bike rental stations that sadly we could not use without a "chip" in our credit card to check out.  This summer Chicago launched Divvy Bikes, a bike rental program across the city paid for by tax dollars of people like yours truly.
The premise is that people will rent a bike for a short commute, say to get from the Metro commuter train station to their office.  There are two options for payment: 1. Annual Pay ($75) or 2. 24-Hour Pass ($7). For both rental systems, you're allowed to check a bike out and rent it to any other station within a 30 minute increment.  If you're checked out for more than 30 minutes at a time, you pay a fee ($2 for each additional 30 minutes).  However, for both options, you're allow to check out as many times as needed. So technically, if you had to get to Point B from Point A, you could stop along the way at as many stations as needed without paying anything extra. Got it? Confusing, I know.
 
You pay with credit card and are given a code on a printed receipt.  You punch the code into a bike lock (within five minutes of receiving it; otherwise it expires) and away you ride.
Every summer my group likes to try to get out of the office for lunch a few times for a unique activity. In the past we've rode the water taxi and this year someone convinced us to Divvy (yep, it's a verb now).
 
Our biker gang of six checked out bikes on fine day and went for a ride to and along the lakefront bike path. The bikes have a "basket" up front complete with an elastic band to secure a briefcase.  They only have three speeds and the first is a joke (it's so easy your legs pedal fast and you look like an idiot). The majority of the time I rode in the third speed; but that doesn't mean much because you can't go very fast.
Not too shabby of a view for lunch, right? The only bad part was returning to work. Next time you're in town, consider a Divvy! Just please be smart enough not to ride on the sidewalk. Deal?

1 comment:

  1. We have that here in Toronto and they are very popular. I have my own bike as the "memberships" are quite steep here in Toronto and you have to even pay more if you go beyond 30 minutes at a time as they are meant to just take you from point A to B quickly.

    It's a neat concept !

    ReplyDelete

Blogging tips