I used my annual pass for the first time yesterday -- twice actually. It worked great. Once you set it up online all you have to do is walk up to any bike and below the keypad is a slot for you to insert your key. It recognized my key immediately and began to unlock a bike. You never have to go to the touch screen kiosk. I took one bike from Franklin and Jackson over the the Chase Tower, then later took one from the Chase Tower to Huron and Wells. Bikes and empty docks were available each time and the annual pass key worked great.
Even more than the money you save with the annual pass, the convenience is fantastic compared to messing with the kiosk. So far very happy with it.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Got my annual pass!
My annual pass arrived in the mail yesterday. It took about 5 days and came regular mail. Its a nice size -- slightly bigger than the size of a key -- and fits nicely on my key chain. To register it, you simply log onto your profile on the Divvy website and then follow the prompts to activate your key. Its pretty impossible to get confused once you're logged in. The annual membership begins when you activate your key (not when you order it). I haven't used it yet but I'll be sure to write about it when I do.
The Apps
There are a few apps available that can be used to help you find Divvy stations, among other information. These are all third-party apps. On Divvy's facebook page, Divvy recommends using the CycleFinder app. I have used this app as well as another app called CHI Bikes. There are a couple other apps as well. Based on my limited experience and reading reviews of these apps, they don't work perfectly. Both CycleFinder and CHI Bikes will show you where stations are located (including relative to where you are) and how many bikes are available at any given station as well as how many empty docks there are at each station. However, the information isn't always available or accurate. About half the time I have tried to use the CHI Bikes app, it works for finding stations but simply shows a question mark for the other information. CycleFinder seems to always display the bikes and docks available but less accurately. Sometimes when I walk by a station I'll look at how many bikes and docks are available and pull up both of the apps. When CHI Bikes shows the information it has been accurate whereas CycleFinder has been off by at least a few bikes.
Personally, I also like the interface better at CHI Bikes. CycleFinder requires you to toggle back and forth to see bikes or docks available, whereas CHI Bikes shows both at all times.
One point of criticism on the Divvy system is that they do not make it easy to get this information at the stations. While you can see other stations on a little map at each station, it would be great if the kiosk would offer information on where the closest station is with available docks and/or bikes. After all, a lot of people are going to try Divvy once or a couple times -- those are the people who won't have bothered to get the app or even know it exists.
If you do get to a station and see that all the docks or full or all the bikes are gone, you can call the Divvy customer service number (855-55-DIVVY) and they are able to tell you where close by empty docks and bikes are located.
Personally, I also like the interface better at CHI Bikes. CycleFinder requires you to toggle back and forth to see bikes or docks available, whereas CHI Bikes shows both at all times.
One point of criticism on the Divvy system is that they do not make it easy to get this information at the stations. While you can see other stations on a little map at each station, it would be great if the kiosk would offer information on where the closest station is with available docks and/or bikes. After all, a lot of people are going to try Divvy once or a couple times -- those are the people who won't have bothered to get the app or even know it exists.
If you do get to a station and see that all the docks or full or all the bikes are gone, you can call the Divvy customer service number (855-55-DIVVY) and they are able to tell you where close by empty docks and bikes are located.
Friday, July 12, 2013
My Experience Using a One-Day Pass
Most people will probably first interact with Divvy through a one-day pass (why would you buy a $75 pass before trying it once for $7?). My experience was no exception. I first tried Divvy through a one-day pass on Wednesday and this post will describe what to expect and my personal experience.
If you walk up to a Divvy station with bikes available (if you see bikes they are available) you will be able to rent a bike in a matter of minutes with a credit card. Every Divvy station has a kiosk with a touch screen. It is self-explanatory. You must use the kiosk to rent a bike on a one-day pass. The bike stations look like maybe you can just stick a credit card in the slot by the bike but it doesn't work that way. At the kiosk you can choose to rent either one or two bikes at a time (for more you'll have to start a separate transaction). There are a lot of screens to go through so it does take a minute. When I got my bikes on Wednesday there was a line and I went through all the prompts before it told me it couldn't read my credit card so it was a bit annoying but it is a pretty simple system. When you are done you will be given a code (or two codes if you chose to rent two bikes). The code(s) will be displayed on the screen but you will automatically be given a printed receipt as well with the code(s) so don't worry about instantly memorizing what you see on the screen.
Code in hand, you can go up to any bike in the station and once you punch in the code you'll hear the dock unlock and see a green light displayed. You can then pull the bike back and out of the dock. This takes a somewhat forceful pull so be careful where you are standing relative to the pedals. (I have a small bruise on my shin since I failed to do that.)
Once you have the bike removed from the dock you really only need to do one thing: adjust the seat. It's a quick release and only takes a second. A quick rule of thumb is to set it about level with your hip but when you're riding you generally want your leg to be almost fully extended when the pedal is at its lowest point. I'll discuss the bikes in more detail in another post, but there's nothing else to adjust.
I rented a bike right in front of Millennium Park. There were about 10 bikes available at that time and I rented two (one for the wifey as well). There is an area to strap on a bag in a front basket-like contraption in front of the handlebars. The wifey and I each had a bag and they strapped on securely in that front contraption.
Our plan was to ride to the station around the corner from the Damen Blue Line stop but by the time we got our bags on, adjusted our seats and went through the congestion and poorly timed lights in the loop, we ate through about half our time. So to play it safe we stopped at a station off Milwaukee just NW of the highway. The station had a handful of empty docks and we each docked our bikes so we could reset our 30 minute timer. (If you don't already know, Divvy only lets you borrow a bike for 30 minutes at one time. With a 24-hour pass you can use as many 30-minute increments as you want in that 24-hour period but if you fail to dock a bike within 30 minutes of when you borrow it you are charged a penalty.)
Getting a new bike is easy. You first have to dock your old bike and this requires that you push the front tire into the dock with a fair amount of force. I found it easiest to line up the tire and then shove it in from the handlebars or stem. Once you get it in there you'll see a yellow light as the dock begins to lock the front wheel and then a green light when the lock is completed.
Now your old code is garbage as soon as you use it. To borrow another bike you have to go to the touch screen kiosk and select the option to borrow another bike. To do this you'll be required to insert the same credit card you used when you borrowed the bike. If you initially borrowed two bikes (like I did) then the kiosk will ask whether you want to take out one or two bikes again. (So if you and your companion plan to utilize the 24-hour pass at different times when you might not be there with the original credit card, best to first rent the bikes individually under your separate credit cards.) You'll then get a new code and you borrow another bike the same way as the first time. Nothing prevents you from using the code on the same bike you just returned. You now have another 30 minutes.
Unfortunately, when we got to Pierce and Damen (the station by the Damen Blue Line stop), the station was totally full. Someone was also already there with a bike looking for a spot. Here is where you can get another free 15 minutes added on. To do that you have to go to the kiosk and follow the prompts. One thing the kiosk sadly does NOT do is tell you where around you there are open docks. I have a third-party iPhone app so I could see where there were stations close by but the guy already at the station had to call Divvy to find out. Eventually there should be so many stations hopefully this won't be an issue but if you're in a hurry you could suddenly have to add another 10 minutes to time it takes to return the bike. (The app I've been using is called Chicago Bike. Divvy recommends using an app called Cycle Finder that I recently downloaded but haven't used yet. However, all reviews of these apps on the App Store and through Facebook comments on Divvy's page indicate that they are woefully inaccurate.)
The iPhone app which is called Chicago Bike and is free, shows you where all the stations are and when working properly tells you how many bikes and empty docks there are at a given station. (Sometimes that information isn't available and it just shows "?".) So right now, for instance, the app tells me that the Damen and Pierce station has 4 bikes available and 15 free docks.
With that station full, we had to ride to the station at Wood and Milwaukee, a few minutes down Milwaukee from Damen. The station had a number of empty docks and we returned the bikes.
We started our 24-hour pass at about 8:00 p.m. and the following day I needed to get from one corner of the loop to the other at around 5:00 p.m. I figured I would just use a Divvy bike since I looked at the station map and saw that there were stations right by my starting and ending points. I went to the corner of Franklin and Jackson to get a bike but the station was entirely empty. In the future there should be a number of other stations close by but right now they are all a number of clocks away so that was a disappointment. Of course, when the iPhone app actually has info on bikes and docks at each station, I can check in advance.
I have more thoughts on the bikes and other aspects of my experience, but that's for another time. So there you have it. My first experience with Divvy and using a 24-hour pass.
If you walk up to a Divvy station with bikes available (if you see bikes they are available) you will be able to rent a bike in a matter of minutes with a credit card. Every Divvy station has a kiosk with a touch screen. It is self-explanatory. You must use the kiosk to rent a bike on a one-day pass. The bike stations look like maybe you can just stick a credit card in the slot by the bike but it doesn't work that way. At the kiosk you can choose to rent either one or two bikes at a time (for more you'll have to start a separate transaction). There are a lot of screens to go through so it does take a minute. When I got my bikes on Wednesday there was a line and I went through all the prompts before it told me it couldn't read my credit card so it was a bit annoying but it is a pretty simple system. When you are done you will be given a code (or two codes if you chose to rent two bikes). The code(s) will be displayed on the screen but you will automatically be given a printed receipt as well with the code(s) so don't worry about instantly memorizing what you see on the screen.
Code in hand, you can go up to any bike in the station and once you punch in the code you'll hear the dock unlock and see a green light displayed. You can then pull the bike back and out of the dock. This takes a somewhat forceful pull so be careful where you are standing relative to the pedals. (I have a small bruise on my shin since I failed to do that.)
Once you have the bike removed from the dock you really only need to do one thing: adjust the seat. It's a quick release and only takes a second. A quick rule of thumb is to set it about level with your hip but when you're riding you generally want your leg to be almost fully extended when the pedal is at its lowest point. I'll discuss the bikes in more detail in another post, but there's nothing else to adjust.
I rented a bike right in front of Millennium Park. There were about 10 bikes available at that time and I rented two (one for the wifey as well). There is an area to strap on a bag in a front basket-like contraption in front of the handlebars. The wifey and I each had a bag and they strapped on securely in that front contraption.
Our plan was to ride to the station around the corner from the Damen Blue Line stop but by the time we got our bags on, adjusted our seats and went through the congestion and poorly timed lights in the loop, we ate through about half our time. So to play it safe we stopped at a station off Milwaukee just NW of the highway. The station had a handful of empty docks and we each docked our bikes so we could reset our 30 minute timer. (If you don't already know, Divvy only lets you borrow a bike for 30 minutes at one time. With a 24-hour pass you can use as many 30-minute increments as you want in that 24-hour period but if you fail to dock a bike within 30 minutes of when you borrow it you are charged a penalty.)
Getting a new bike is easy. You first have to dock your old bike and this requires that you push the front tire into the dock with a fair amount of force. I found it easiest to line up the tire and then shove it in from the handlebars or stem. Once you get it in there you'll see a yellow light as the dock begins to lock the front wheel and then a green light when the lock is completed.
Now your old code is garbage as soon as you use it. To borrow another bike you have to go to the touch screen kiosk and select the option to borrow another bike. To do this you'll be required to insert the same credit card you used when you borrowed the bike. If you initially borrowed two bikes (like I did) then the kiosk will ask whether you want to take out one or two bikes again. (So if you and your companion plan to utilize the 24-hour pass at different times when you might not be there with the original credit card, best to first rent the bikes individually under your separate credit cards.) You'll then get a new code and you borrow another bike the same way as the first time. Nothing prevents you from using the code on the same bike you just returned. You now have another 30 minutes.
Unfortunately, when we got to Pierce and Damen (the station by the Damen Blue Line stop), the station was totally full. Someone was also already there with a bike looking for a spot. Here is where you can get another free 15 minutes added on. To do that you have to go to the kiosk and follow the prompts. One thing the kiosk sadly does NOT do is tell you where around you there are open docks. I have a third-party iPhone app so I could see where there were stations close by but the guy already at the station had to call Divvy to find out. Eventually there should be so many stations hopefully this won't be an issue but if you're in a hurry you could suddenly have to add another 10 minutes to time it takes to return the bike. (The app I've been using is called Chicago Bike. Divvy recommends using an app called Cycle Finder that I recently downloaded but haven't used yet. However, all reviews of these apps on the App Store and through Facebook comments on Divvy's page indicate that they are woefully inaccurate.)
The iPhone app which is called Chicago Bike and is free, shows you where all the stations are and when working properly tells you how many bikes and empty docks there are at a given station. (Sometimes that information isn't available and it just shows "?".) So right now, for instance, the app tells me that the Damen and Pierce station has 4 bikes available and 15 free docks.
With that station full, we had to ride to the station at Wood and Milwaukee, a few minutes down Milwaukee from Damen. The station had a number of empty docks and we returned the bikes.
We started our 24-hour pass at about 8:00 p.m. and the following day I needed to get from one corner of the loop to the other at around 5:00 p.m. I figured I would just use a Divvy bike since I looked at the station map and saw that there were stations right by my starting and ending points. I went to the corner of Franklin and Jackson to get a bike but the station was entirely empty. In the future there should be a number of other stations close by but right now they are all a number of clocks away so that was a disappointment. Of course, when the iPhone app actually has info on bikes and docks at each station, I can check in advance.
I have more thoughts on the bikes and other aspects of my experience, but that's for another time. So there you have it. My first experience with Divvy and using a 24-hour pass.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
How Divvy Works
So before I get into my experience with Divvy, let's touch base on the basics. Divvy started in Chicago in June 2013. It is designed to offer an alternative method of transportation in the City of Chicago. The key to understanding Divvy is the word "transportation" -- and this is where I think most of the confusion I've heard stems from. Divvy is not about letting people borrow bikes to ride around the city. Divvy is simply about offering you an alternative method to get from point A to point B. Think of it as an alternative to taking a taxi or a bus.
So how does it work? Divvy offers a great explanation of the experience on its website (divvybikes.com/how-it-works) but I'll also go through the process here.
There are only two ways to rent a Divvy bike: (1) a one-day pass or (2) an annual pass. A one-day pass costs $7 and is valid for 24 hours. An annual pass costs $75 and offers discounts to the overage costs.
Overage costs? Yes -- so in the spirit of simply being a method of helping you get from point A to point B, Divvy is essentially a bike share program that lets you use a bike only in 30-minute increments. If you buy a one-day pass you can use a bike for as many 30-minute increments as you want in that 24-hour period and for the annual pass you have unlimited use of bikes for a year for 30-minute increments. With only one exception, if you keep the bike longer than 30 minutes, you are charged an overage fee. How much you are charged depends on how long you keep the bike and whether you have a one-day or annual pass. The annual pass charges you less for overages than the daily pass.
If you keep a bike for longer than 30 minutes, overage costs work like this:
So if you buy a daily pass and you keep a bike for 45 minutes, it will cost you a $2 penalty on top of the $7 you already paid. Keep a bike for 2 hours and it will cost you a $16 penalty on top of the $7 you already paid.
Now there is one exception to this rule. Divvy tries to make sure you always have an open dock when you want to return a bike. They do this two ways: (1) they maintain twice as many docks as they do bikes and (2) they monitor crowdedness of their docks and constantly reallocate bikes around the city to help ensure that bikes and empty docks are always available rather than a lot of full stations and a lot of empty stations. However, as you'll see soon from even my brief experience, this isn't always flawless. So if you show up to a dock and it's full, you can request an additional 15 minutes from the kiosk connected to that dock. You then have another free 15 minutes to find an empty dock before you incur overage charges.
So how do you actually rent a bike? I'll discuss my personal experience using a 24-hour pass in my next post.
- 30-60 minutes extra: $1.50 with annual pass and $2 with daily
- 60-90 minutes extra: $4.50 for annual pass and $6 with daily
- each additional 30 minutes after 90 minutes extra: $6 with annual pass and $8 with daily
So if you buy a daily pass and you keep a bike for 45 minutes, it will cost you a $2 penalty on top of the $7 you already paid. Keep a bike for 2 hours and it will cost you a $16 penalty on top of the $7 you already paid.
Now there is one exception to this rule. Divvy tries to make sure you always have an open dock when you want to return a bike. They do this two ways: (1) they maintain twice as many docks as they do bikes and (2) they monitor crowdedness of their docks and constantly reallocate bikes around the city to help ensure that bikes and empty docks are always available rather than a lot of full stations and a lot of empty stations. However, as you'll see soon from even my brief experience, this isn't always flawless. So if you show up to a dock and it's full, you can request an additional 15 minutes from the kiosk connected to that dock. You then have another free 15 minutes to find an empty dock before you incur overage charges.
So how do you actually rent a bike? I'll discuss my personal experience using a 24-hour pass in my next post.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
About This Blog
You'd have to be blind to live in Chicago over the past month and not notice the blue bicycles that have taken over the city. At first I saw tons of empty bike racks going in and thought this was some new system to allow people to park their own bikes. Then quite quickly they were filled with blue bicycles and before I knew it I saw someone riding one at least once a day. I'm talking about, of course, the Divvy bike sharing system (DivvyBikes.com) that has taken the city by storm this summer.
Yet even though the system is fully functioning and the blue bikes are everywhere, not many people really understand the program. And those who have tried it have opinions both positive and negative.
I decided to try this for the first time the other day using a 1 day pass. Today I purchased an annual pass and I plan to use it over the next year and blog about my experience. I really welcome all comments here as I think it is beneficial to hear what others think about Divvy. Soon enough, these bike stands will be every few blocks in Chicago and absent something catastrophic may be a permanent part of how we experience and live in this city (no less so than taxis, buses and the train).
Closely related to Divvy, however, is the way we experience biking in this city. I think it is important to talk about the new bike lanes that the city has set up in certain areas (such as parts of Elston and Milwaukee), bike laws and the way drivers and pedestrians interact with bikers. This has always been important but takes on a whole new level of importance as we bring 4,000 new bikes into the city. After all, Divvy bikes do not come with helmets and are designed to allow someone to take a bike who may not be all that familiar with biking in a large city. The set up practically begs for accidents with jaywalkers and car doors, at the very least. I plan to discuss these topics as well and encourage comments and thoughts on anything bike related in the City of Chicago.
Yet even though the system is fully functioning and the blue bikes are everywhere, not many people really understand the program. And those who have tried it have opinions both positive and negative.
I decided to try this for the first time the other day using a 1 day pass. Today I purchased an annual pass and I plan to use it over the next year and blog about my experience. I really welcome all comments here as I think it is beneficial to hear what others think about Divvy. Soon enough, these bike stands will be every few blocks in Chicago and absent something catastrophic may be a permanent part of how we experience and live in this city (no less so than taxis, buses and the train).
Closely related to Divvy, however, is the way we experience biking in this city. I think it is important to talk about the new bike lanes that the city has set up in certain areas (such as parts of Elston and Milwaukee), bike laws and the way drivers and pedestrians interact with bikers. This has always been important but takes on a whole new level of importance as we bring 4,000 new bikes into the city. After all, Divvy bikes do not come with helmets and are designed to allow someone to take a bike who may not be all that familiar with biking in a large city. The set up practically begs for accidents with jaywalkers and car doors, at the very least. I plan to discuss these topics as well and encourage comments and thoughts on anything bike related in the City of Chicago.
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